Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for September 28, 2023

Who drew this?

Just ask Andrew Jackson

In America at least, people didn’t duel to defend their honor. They dueled because they wanted to be the talk of the town.

If you wanted to be a politician, you needed to have at least one dual, so that people would recognize your name at the ballot box.

Wait, you mean there were consequences for one’s actions and behavior? I seem to remember something like that, but it’s kind of fuzzy.

People have always been people. What changes is the (social) matrix.

More polite, which is good, but yet still not a great idea.

Au contraire. We have dueling today. We just call it ‘beefs’ and use semi automatic and automatic weapons much to the chagrin of bystanders

not getting this one.. i am a huge opponent of gossip.. since the beginning of time it has ruined innocent people. anecdotes are different but viscious gossip that ruins someone’s reputation is just wrong.

Yeah – duelling – much more civil. See : ‘The Duellists’ to find out just HOW civil it was.

He doesn’t like the current crop of candidates. Nobody seems to.

A Duel – a “polite” way to end a discussion or solve a disagreement.

The only thing that has changed is the power of the technology (internet, social media, automatic weapons…). The only thing missing from civilisation is the civil part.

It is not our ability to reason that distinguishes us from other animals (other animals have been shown to be able to reason, by the way). It is our capacity for inhumanity that distinguishes us from other animals.

Consequents

And more decisive.

ka-interdweeb

They had rude and vicious jibes like “Bless her heart.”

Or Henry Clay.

“Ah, sorry, it seems I have pierced you at last.” “Indeed, ’tis not as wide as a church door, nor deep as a well, but ’twill serve.”

Interdweeb is the proper name for it, Internerd doesn’t have the same ring to it

On a grave stone: He shot first and missed.

People have always been nosey and intrusive, it’s just that now they are also immediately available on a truly Global scale.

People thrived on gossip back then and they still do today…only today they’re destroying lives.

Except when you turned and fired on 4 rather than 5.

Very Heinlein-esque

A wise man learns by experience – and a wiser man knows what experiences he should avoid.

The bias, omissions, and fabrications of back then makes FOX look like a children’s school website.

Mayhaps many voters fantasize they would benefit from today’s zealot partisan pols returning to dueling — specifically returning to the ‘to the death’ variety of the event.

I don’t know if this is true or not, but it’s a good story, so I’ll pass it along. Jim Bowie was once challenged to a duel and, as the challenged party, had choice of weapons. He specified that the two duelists have their left arms tied behind them, then be tied back to back and given a Bowie knife for their right hand, then told to wait for the countdown. Bowie actually showed up at the appointed time and place, but the other guy didn’t.

FAVORITE STORY,Civil War era

US Senator Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania was the most ferocious anti-slavery man in Congress and the Southern Senators hated him with a passion.

Rumor has it Stevens encountered a Southern Senator on a narrow footpath where only one person at a time could cross.

The Southern Senator says—“I never step to one side for a polecat!”

And Stevens stepped aside,saying—“Ah,but I ALWAYS do!”

Sorry to not be discussing “the point” here, but have we met Uncle Reggie before?

You just went to a different bar. You didn’t get trolled all over the Net.

it was much more conclusive at least

hmm … howz about we let those political types who vilify each other settle it at dawn with paintball guns. Much for fun for the bystanders.

Old Jesse used to enjoy a good pinot noir.

You mean “The true voice of the People?”…

The Brooks–Sumner Affair.

No, no! Uncle Reggie had it right: InterDWEEB it is!!

And effective. Problem is the right person didn’t always win. Hmm. Seems familiar.

Booze and pistols. Or trolls and Twi(X)tter?

Have things REALLY gotten better?

Uncle Reggie? I missed that comic

“interdweeb”

I love it.