Coronavirus spreads. But don't panic! (topical thread)

[Dom]

I wouldn't be surprised at all if the orange Mafia did coerce some of these politicians into spouting the shit they do.

It would fit trump's modus operandi. 

The people who are being lied to are not coerced, but they are purposefully misled.

Well, politicians being coerced into mouthing things they may not believe is one thing, but I think it's pretty clear we were each talking about people in general and not politicians beholden to a power-structure, so there's a little slip-slide here being done. Politicians may be stripped of support if they say the wrong thing -- and that is indeed coercion. But --

No one one the street level has been coerced into avoiding a vaccination. They may have been news-talked out of it. They may have bought the bullshit, full stop. They may even think Bill Gates is trying to put a chip in them. But that still is not coercion, because no one is threatening them with anything if they decide to vaccinate anyway.  Coercion means if you don't do what I want, I will take measures to hurt you. It doesn't mean "I will lie to you about negative consequences if you don't do as I say".

Antivaxxers are no more "coerced" to die than are folks who ignore speed limits on the highway. You were warned; you ignored the warning; you died. Sucks to be you, card's in the mail, hope your 401k was fat. You weren't forced to drive too fast; you weren't forced to avoid vaxxing.

Slipshod language bugs the hell out of me. I shouldn't have to get this goddamned granular at a site where people are supposedly smart. And if you want to pick a linguistic nit, I'm your huckleberry. This is not a political point. This is a linguistic point. This shoddy language weakens our thinking, and irritates me, as I think is obvious by now.

Are you replying to me?

I wrote: 

The people who are being lied to are not coerced, but they are purposefully misled.