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XJC's avatar

What happens if disgruntled or political postal workers find mail-in ballots and hide them--like Newman did in the Seinfeld episode?

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Christopher Foxx's avatar

“this is part of DeJoy’s equation, and we have no reason to believe it’s not given the Trump administration’s track record”

This is unfortunate phrasing. It’s weak justification for the conclusion. It leaves impression you don’t really have support for your conclusion.

The “And we have no reason to believe it’s not“ is used by folks like Fox News types as justification for believing all sorts of ridiculous things. It’s basically forcing any counter argument into proving a negative. “Obama is coming to take your guns! Can you prove he’s not?“ “I have a list of names. The state department is filled with pinko communists. You can’t prove it’s not, so we have to naturally conclude that it is.”

Far better (and more accurate) would be “And we have every reason to believe it IS, given their track record.“

(Why appear nitpicky or pedantic and bring this up? Because it actually is important. Using phrases like “and we have no reason not to believe it“ suggests we don’t really have a strong argument and we undercut ourselves. That we don’t really fully believe what we’re saying, or, as I commented in another article here yesterday about using “without evidence“ that we’re afraid of speaking directly and offending somebody.)

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