cthia wrote:Yes, the first several pages of that thread and on up to half the thread was me arguing the simple fact that Beowulf's actions would be targeted as treasonous.
tlb wrote:Rather than a repetition of the entire discussion, the way I read the first half of that thread was as variations on the following paraphrased statements and responses:
Cthia writes "The Solarian League will consider Beowulf to have committed treason".
Someone else writes "What Beowulf did was legal and not treason at all".
Cthia writes "But Beowulf will have to consider the reaction of the Solarian League to its treason".
Someone else writes "Beowulf did what it needed to do and that was not treason".
About midway through the thread, we finally got you to expound and discovered that there was unspoken clause to your main statement. So it really went like this in your mind:
Cthia writes "The Solarian League will consider Beowulf to have committed treason (,because Beowuf had an obligation to the League that it was breaking)".
You just restated that hidden clause in the post above:
cthia wrote:Um, if you agree that the League would view Beowulf's actions as treasonous, then #1 is implied.
Where #1 is the following contention that we finally got you to state:
1. Beowulf was guilty of actual treason by breaking unwritten, implied obligations to the League that they had accrued by being a founding member.
In my opinion, A does not imply B; but if B were true, then it would justify A.
cthia wrote:Your post is really confusing. Your closing argument uses numbers (#1 and #2) then switches to letters (A and B) that either aren't related or the logic is orphaned. Additionally, you cannot argue "paraphrased statements," instead of the actual statements. Paraphrased statements are your interpretation of what was actually stated and meant.
--snip--
Please argue actual posts, not paraphrases. Paraphrases sre simply gossip. I have a difficult enough time hoping everyone will properly digest what's actually written.
Let's take this discussion to the ring where it belongs. LOL
cthia wrote:Finally got me to expound? Because you didn't get it and you still don't. It was not a hidden clause of mine. It was common sense. Common sense that textev has supported. And it isn't so much what cthia (third person again because you are still not getting it) thinks, but obviously many citizens in the entire League, not just the Mandarins and officers. As supported by textev in the form of a snippet.
Your #1 is an outright untruth! A downright lie! . . .
-- snip --
What I understand your obvious disconnect to be is that you agree the Mandarins would feel Beowulf's actions were treasonous. But you disagree on the reasons? You think that the League trumped up ill-founded charges of treason against Beowulf simply to get a declaration of war.
That's where you sadly go off the rails. First, of course they wanted a declaration of war. Of course they were using the charge of treason to get it! But if you don't think that they actually feel impugned in the manner of treason then you are delusional. They know it won't stand up in court. They know they don't have a record of spitting in palms and shaking hands.
tlb wrote:Now you have me very confused: Is statement #1 implied by the statement "The Solarian League will consider Beowulf to have committed treason" as you said in the other thread or is statement #1 a lie (meaning not representative of your thought) as you say now?
I used paraphrasing, because otherwise I would have to copy the first half of this thread. People are free to judge how close I came to catching the spirit of the discussion.
Let's discuss the logic where you say I am drowning.
You say (as I understand it) that "The Solarian League will consider Beowulf to have committed treason" (the antecedent A) implies "Beowulf had an obligation to the League that it was breaking" (the consequent B).
I said that if "Beowulf had an obligation to the League that it was breaking" (B) were true, then "The Solarian League will consider Beowulf to have committed treason" (A) would be valid; but there are various others statements whose truth could also lead to that result being valid. Among them is the statement that "The Mandarins want a declarations of war that Beowulf can block, unless it is treated as criminal". You agreed, but said it would not stand up in court; of course they can get it to stand up in court, they also control the court.
The point is that "The Solarian League will consider Beowulf to have committed treason" can have multiple reasons to be true, so it does not imply any single one of them to be correct. This is not just logic, but also cause and effect: "The Solarian League considers Beowulf to have committed treason" is an observed effect; but the exact cause cannot be selected without additional information, if there are multiple causes that could be true. Perhaps multiple causes did result in the effect, but that would also need additional information to sort out.
As I see it, the Mandarins are solely concerned with their power which they have accrued slowly over the years through fees and corrupt deals with the interstellar corporations. Beowulf's independent line poses a threat to that power and that is powering the Mandarin's reaction. It is not that Beowulf is committing "treason" against the League, but that their actions threaten the power base of the bureaucracy.
You are confused because you have yet to grasp my posts. And now you are trying to translate something you fail to understand in the first place, further confusing you.
It is an outright lie that I said Beowulf is guilty of actual treason as you erroneously said I stated here . . .
tlb wrote:Where #1 is the following contention that we finally got you to state:
1. Beowulf was guilty of actual treason by breaking unwritten, implied obligations to the League that they had accrued by being a founding member
It is bad form to argue paraphrased statements of someone. Paraphrases are dangerous, prone to error of translation and subject to your understanding in the first place. Don't do it. Use actual quotes so that you won't misconstrue what the poster said. I shouldn't have to say "WTF, I didn't say that!"
As witnessed by the above case in point. If I can't trust you to properly digest and translate John Harington's quote, I shouldn't have to trust you to properly digest and translate mine. Use actual quotes please. No less of a consideration than I would require of myself.
You are sadly still struggling with the fact that the SLN truly feels impugned by Beowulf's actions and feel those actions were treasonous, regardless of whether they broke any statutes on the book. If the SLN was the USN and Beowulf was an American ally (say England) who did the same shit that Beowulf did under the exact same circumstances, YOU YOURSELF would be screaming bloody murder of treason against an implied relationship during a state of war, de facto or otherwise.
Crimes of passion come down to the
spirit of relationships and agreements, not the
letter of. Especially when there's an 800# bully with a copy of the agreement.
Perhaps England could have abstained from the fight as a conscientious objector if they were in bed with the enemy, but to assist the enemy - especially in all the ways that Beowulf assisted the Manties - is bullshit! And if you don't think every single officer and US citizen (
even you) wouldn't think so regardless of the law, is
stinkier bullshit! Especially since the USN and the US would likewise be in a fight for its life!