From: Horse (horse@darkstar.uk.net)
Date: Fri Jan 21 2005 - 00:30:32 GMT
Hi Arlo
On 20 Jan 2005 at 13:45, Arlo Bensinger wrote:
> I don't archive O'Reily's broadcasts, but here is something you can do. Go
> to Google, type in "liberal" and "asshole" (or your choice of "ad hominem"
> attack). Search either "web" or "groups". If you can't find any evidence
> doing this that "conservatives" engage in "ad hominem" attacks just as
> vociferously as "liberals", then let me know.
Your suggestion appealed to my warped sense of humour so I though I'd give it a try
and see what turned up. I thought I'd try a few different (mainly low-key) expletives to
see what happened and offer my apologies in advance to those of you with a delicate
disposition and/or who are easily offended by bad language.
The results are below:
Keyword Conservative Liberal
Asshole 671 1710
Arsehole 48 59
Twat 40 125
Moron 506 2730
Tosser 2 23
Wanker 104 162
I googled using the terms in quotation marks (i.e. "conservative asshole" (result 671)
and "liberal asshole" (result 1710) etc.) rather than the two words appearing seperately
in the same text so that it was fairly obviously ad hominem.
Overall there appears to be greater usage against liberals (presumably by
conservatives) so, judging by the above, it would appear that conservatives are more
likely to use ad hominem attacks against liberals than the reverse.
I tried one or two other stronger expletives (which I haven't included for obvious
reasons) which were even more biased (by a huge margin) against liberals than those
shown above.
I wouldn't say that it necessarily proves anything but it does appear that you are more
likely to be 'ad hominemed' if you show liberal tendencies.
Horse
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