As much as I'd like to blame postmodernism, this sort of radical talking past each other is not at all new. I think you can probably look as far back as Jefferson and Adams (just in this country) and find the same thing.
I think "he hit me first" is often a perfectly legitimate excuse. It's why we're in Afghanistan right now, and it's what allows self-defense to be a defense against assault and murder. If the other guy hit you first, you aren't the aggressor, and you can't be blamed for using that same level of force to defend yourself.
It also makes sense in a political context--if one side always plays dirty, and the other doesn't, the side that plays dirty seems to win out most of the time (extreme Nixon-level cases are an exception). Saying "the other side does the same thing" is an admission that what you're doing isn't best practices but it is also an assertion that when one side refuses to play by the rules, the other side can't continue playing by the rules and expect to win.
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I think "he hit me first" is often a perfectly legitimate excuse. It's why we're in Afghanistan right now, and it's what allows self-defense to be a defense against assault and murder. If the other guy hit you first, you aren't the aggressor, and you can't be blamed for using that same level of force to defend yourself.
It also makes sense in a political context--if one side always plays dirty, and the other doesn't, the side that plays dirty seems to win out most of the time (extreme Nixon-level cases are an exception). Saying "the other side does the same thing" is an admission that what you're doing isn't best practices but it is also an assertion that when one side refuses to play by the rules, the other side can't continue playing by the rules and expect to win.
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I agree with everything you just said.
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