Our First Cyborg President

Jason Kuznicki

Jason Kuznicki is a research fellow at the Cato Institute and contributor of Cato Unbound. He's on twitter as JasonKuznicki. His interests include political theory and history.

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31 Responses

  1. Gregory says:

    First of all, thank you for mentioning my website in a post. Now, if you don’t mind, I would like to respond to you. First of all, my post wasn’t supposed to be a bash on you specifically. Second of all, a Newsweek article which was my original resource described you as Conservative, and I went by that. Third, this was intended to call Conservapedia out for being Republican Propaganda, not at all that it was a serious resource. Fourth, my point was not that people don’t care if Obama is a Muslim, but rather that it shouldn’t. The reason I stated that you claimed Obama’s alleged Muslim faith impeded his presidency was because the afforementioned Newsweek article misquoted you. Your final paragraph in the blog post I mentioned makes it clear that you are talking about how this controversy is enabling him to do what he wants by distracting the public’s attention. Newsweek misquoted you and made it seem like you were referring to the poll results as the problem, rather than that all of the attention that it is being given is the problem. Now that I read your blog post in its entirety, I see that. I will soon release an update to my blog addressing this. And yes, if 18% of Americans thought Obama was a Presbyterian, that would be newsworthy, but nobody would bother putting out such a poll. And I wasn’t saying that denying that Obama is a Muslim is racist or anti-Muslim. Rather, I’m saying that implying that Obama’s religion is relevant to his presidency is racist. And the fact is, if people weren’t making it out to be relevant, we wouldn’t be having this discussion, and the poll would never have been made. I’m not saying you’re wrong in your opinions, and the beauty of this country is that you’re just as entitled to yours as I am to mine, but I’m just trying to clarify what my intentions were in the blog post. So once again, thank you for mentioning me and I hope this helped clarify my views. I was not attacking you in the post, but rather the fact that everyone’s making a big deal of this. And the Newsweek misquote didn’t help either.Report

    • Jason Kuznicki in reply to Gregory says:

      @Gregory,

      my post wasn’t supposed to be a bash on you specifically…

      Specific or not, the bash was misplaced.

      this was intended to call Conservapedia out for being Republican Propaganda, not at all that it was a serious resource.

      You’re aware that Conservapedia is riddled with satire and can’t be taken as just straight propaganda?

      The reason I stated that you claimed Obama’s alleged Muslim faith impeded his presidency was because the afforementioned [sic] Newsweek article misquoted you.

      No, Newsweek didn’t misquote me. It didn’t even call me a conservative. (The site is conservative, which they got right. But not everyone at it is.) You’d have done better if you’d mentioned The Atlantic, which tagged me personally that way. They were wrong though; I can’t call myself a conservative.

      Newsweek also did not attribute the word “impede” to me. That was you. I think on the contrary that talking about this sort of nonsense helps Obama.

      And yes, if 18% of Americans thought Obama was a Presbyterian, that would be newsworthy, but nobody would bother putting out such a poll.

      Funny, elsewhere you said just the opposite. I quote:

      Because the fact is, it doesn’t really matter if we have a Muslim President, a Christian one, a Jewish one, a Hindi one, a Scientologist one, an atheist one, or anything else.

      Report

      • @Jason Kuznicki,
        “You’re aware that Conservapedia is riddled with satire and can’t be taken as just straight propaganda?”

        This is a very good point, and one that should be remembered in our up-tight political environment. It appears that unless Jon Stewart or Colbert are performing the satire, it escapes most modern liberals – even then I think they believe Stewart is seriously giving the straight news.Report

      • Mike Schilling in reply to Jason Kuznicki says:

        @Jason Kuznicki,

        You’re aware that Conservapedia is riddled with satire and can’t be taken as just straight propaganda?

        Do you mean satire approved by Schlafly pere, or satire added behind his back?Report

  2. sidereal says:

    When will the cyborg-baiting end? This country will continue to spiral out of control as long as the cyborg-hustlers are out there playing the cyborg card.Report

  3. Mike Farmer says:

    Yes, why are you hating on Cyborgs?

    A recent poll shows that 22% of all Trekkies think that 10% of the population are cyborgs, while 17.5% of all Cyborgs think being Cyborg is better than being German. 4.2% of all polled think Obama was born in Tupelo, Miss.Report

    • Robert Cheeks in reply to Mike Farmer says:

      @Mike Farmer, I think there’s an episode of X-Files that covers these contretemps.
      I didn’t know Obama was a cyborb?
      I know he’s a cultural Muslim.
      I know he’s a commie-Marxist-Maoist-gentleman of the Left.
      And, yes because of his policies he’s attempting to destroy America!
      I really enjoy it when you guys on the Left engage in incestuous infighting.Report

  4. Bo says:

    I think a person’s religion should be considered a strictly private matter. After all, what someone believes about God only really concerns himself, his designated spiritual representative and the insane space lizard that actually rules all of creation.Report

  5. mw says:

    I’d just like to remind everyone that if we had a government divided between cyborgs and non-cyborgs, where neither controls both the legislative and executive branches, the worst instincts of both would be moderated. That is why I am supporting 7of9 for the Senate and encourage everyone else to do the same.Report

    • JosephFM in reply to mw says:

      @mw,

      Wasn’t it actually a scandal related to her divorce that handed the Senate race to Obama in ’04?Report

      • mw in reply to JosephFM says:

        @JosephFM,

        Now that you mention it – Yeah – sealed Jerri Ryan / Jack Ryan divorce/custody records were released by a judge against the expressed wishes of both parents. Jack Ryan subsequently withdrew his Senate candidacy, due to Jerri’s charges in the papers. I don’t know if it “handed the Senate” to Obama, but it sure made it easier.Report

      • Jaybird in reply to JosephFM says:

        @JosephFM, Ironically, Peter Fitzgerald was the guy who held the seat before Obama.

        The Republican Party refused to run him a second time.

        Part of why is because he was the 1 in the 99-1 vote that bailed out airlines following 9/11. He also did all sorts of “authentically conservative” stuff.

        Republicans wanted to run Jack Ryan instead. He was more likely to do as he was told, I reckon.Report

  6. Kolohe says:

    Mr. Kuznicki, It’s your birthday. Someone gives you a calfskin wallet. How do you react?Report