Why Elizabeth Warren doesn't need to take a DNA test

acbytesla

Penultimate Amazing
acbytesla
Joined
Dec 14, 2012
Messages
39,536
We have a president who lies non-stop, yet Republicans totally disinterested in calling the President out over the diahrea of lies he tells are interested in whether Elizabeth Warren lied about her Indian heritage.

They are demanding that she take a DNA test to prove that she was truthful. Perhaps, it is just me, but their focus on this trivia reeks of hypocrisy.

Never mind, that even a DNA test that doesn't confirm her ancestry wouldn't prove she was lying only that she was mistaken.

This is a question of false equivalences. The reason the other thread was created was to call out the character of Elizabeth Warren. The conservative wingnuts are saying that she is a phony because she won't take a DNA test. Yet they absolutely don't care that the leader of their party has more than a penchant for dishonesty.

Personally, I DON'T think comparing side by side the quality and quantity of falsehoods is out of line. But hey, that's me.

It seems to me that the real phonys are those demanding she prove her ancestry.

Since the moderators somehow don't believe hypocrisy was appropriate for the other thread, they invited me to create a new thread. So here it is
 
Okay I seriously have to ask.

What do people think Whataboutism accomplishes?

I'm 100% serious, no snark, no ulterior motive.

Person X did something bad. You respond that Person Y did something worse.

What did that just accomplish? Where is the discussion now that it wasn't 30 seconds ago? What does that say or teach us or advance the conversation about whether or not what Person X did was bad? How does it make what Person X did any better or worse?
 
Last edited:
If she took a DNA test and it showed Native American ancestry wouldn't the people calling for her to take a DNA test declare the results to be fake, just like they did with Obama's birth certificate?

Its a lose lose situation for her, that's why she shouldn't take one.
 
Strawberry said:
If she took a DNA test and it showed Native American ancestry wouldn't the people calling for her to take a DNA test declare the results to be fake, just like they did with Obama's birth certificate?

Its a lose lose situation for her, that's why she shouldn't take one.
Click to expand...

Of course it is. It also depends on a sizable database of people with Indian heritage. Even from a technical perspective it is ridiculous. But from a political perspective Warren would appear weak if she gives the request the time of day.

The only people talking about this don't really care about the results. They are only interested in demonizing Warren.
 
JoeMorgue said:
Okay I seriously have to ask.

What do people think Whataboutism accomplishes?

I'm 100% serious, no snark, no ulterior motive.

Person X did something bad. You respond that Person Y did something worse.

What did that just accomplish? Where is the discussion now that it wasn't 30 seconds ago? What does that say or teach us or advance the conversation about whether or not what Person X did was bad? How does it make what Person X did any better or worse?
Click to expand...

This is a diversion. Its also an attempt to say that all politicians are dishonest so people don't care.

I use to be heavily involved in politics. This is the kind of nothinburger that one would be an idiot to respond to as that just keeps the focus on the possible dishonesty. If you respond, it just keeps it going. Since most people don't pay that much attention they may just remember the picture her critics have created.
 
I think her refusal to do it reflects poorly on her character. I don't care what republicans think.
 
acbytesla said:
Never mind, that even a DNA test that doesn't confirm her ancestry wouldn't prove she was lying only that she was mistaken.
Click to expand...

And not even that, because the testing is invalid anyways so any negative result could just as easily be an artifact of the testing as a lack of genetics.
 
BobTheCoward said:
I think her refusal to do it reflects poorly on her character. I don't care what republicans think.
Click to expand...

Why is not taking a pointless test to prove something that totally irrelevant to her position a poor reflection on her?

There is far more negative in taking one that not because the results of the test are pretty much worthless for what it is supposedly testing for.

Her opponents aren't going to acknowledge any negative result as a failure of the test because it doesn't suit their narrative, yet the tests for the most part are currently little more that pseudoscience and should only be used for entertainment purposes.

You might as well expect someone that has said that they are sick to undergo treatment with Homeopathic dilutions, and then when their condition doesn't change, accusing them of lying about being sick because they didn't get better under treatment.
 
BobTheCoward said:
I think her refusal to do it reflects poorly on her character. I don't care what republicans think.
Click to expand...

Why? If they asked her to take a dump do you think she should do that to prove her feces stink? It's a pointless test.

It's IRRELEVANT whether she has Native American blood running through her veins or not. It wouldn't prove anything of value, not even her level of honesty as a lie means she knew it was false and there is no way to know what she thought.
 
Last edited:
JoeMorgue said:
Okay I seriously have to ask.

What do people think Whataboutism accomplishes?
Click to expand...


In my view, those calling for her to "prove" her heritage are the ultimate whatabouters. It simply makes no difference to the question of whether her political positions are correct. It just distracts from anyone questioning their political positions.
 
As I've said before, the fact that they're calling her "Pocahantas" is the tell - this has nothing to do with accuracy, and is far more about pure racial mud-throwing - not a shock from the white supremacist president. No different than the plainly racist "birther" crap - which also made no attempt to even glance at the evidence.

In fact, I'll go right ahead and make this prediction - if Warren took a DNA test, and it flat-out said that she were a descendent of both the Cherokee and Pocahantas herself, Trump and his racist followers would go right ahead and continue to slur her. In fact, it only really works if you assume that she is partly Native American - same as "Curiel can't judge me right, he's Mexican!"

(I'll note that, while Scott Brown did allege that she falsely used Native ancestry claims to advance her career, this appears to be false, and Dolt 45 never made any such claim when he started using the racial slur. And once Brown's campaign aids started doing "Tomahawk chops" and "war whoops", he ended up on the defensive.)

ETA: A little background on the matter - all evidence suggests that she never used her claimed ancestry to advance her career in any substantial way - and the Boston Globe found a family document, not from her, that also alleges such ancestry.
 
Last edited:
Mumbles said:
As I've said before, the fact that they're calling her "Pocahantas" is the tell - this has nothing to do with accuracy, and is far more about pure racial mud-throwing - not a shock from the white supremacist president. No different than the plainly racist "birther" crap - which also made no attempt to even glance at the evidence.

In fact, I'll go right ahead and make this prediction - if Warren took a DNA test, and it flat-out said that she were a descendent of both the Cherokee and Pocahantas herself, Trump and his racist followers would go right ahead and continue to slur her. In fact, it only really works if you assume that she is partly Native American - same as "Curiel can't judge me right, he's Mexican!"

(I'll note that, while Scott Brown did allege that she falsely used Native ancestry claims to advance her career, this appears to be false, and Dolt 45 never made any such claim when he started using the racial slur. And once Brown's campaign aids started doing "Tomahawk chops" and "war whoops", he ended up on the defensive.)
Click to expand...

Completely agree. Its just birtherism dressed up in new clothes, and it doesn't even have the smidgen of rationality behind birtherism - after all, its not too much of an imposition to ask to see a President's birth cert, but asking a Senator to take a DNA test and release the results is an egregious invasion of privacy.
 
acbytesla said:
Why? If they asked her to take a dump do you think she should do that to prove her feces stink? It's a pointless test.

It's IRRELEVANT whether she has Native American blood running through her veins or not. It wouldn't prove anything of value, not even her level of honesty as a lie means she knew it was false and there is no way to know what she thought.
Click to expand...

I put a lot of stock in pointless tests and the distances poeple will go to make their point and confront detractors. I think it reflects the right attitude.
 
BobTheCoward said:
I put a lot of stock in pointless tests and the distances poeple will go to make their point and confront detractors. I think it reflects the right attitude.
Click to expand...

I don't. Pointless is Pointless. A tautology to be sure, but on the mark.
 
BobTheCoward said:
I put a lot of stock in pointless tests and the distances poeple will go to make their point and confront detractors. I think it reflects the right attitude.
Click to expand...

To take this to reductio ad absurdum, you would be willing to jump through 15 flaming hoops and then swim a mile in manure if your political detractors claimed that you had to to prove you really believed in your stated position?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom