![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Irresponsible Responsibility
[This was originally a comment on an entry in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lubedpumpkin's journal, but I put in enough work on it to make it worth posting here. I've expanded it a little.]
Bush takes "responsibility"?
No, no, no, no, no.
If you read what he said carefully, you'll see that he doesn't actually take responsibility for misleading the American public. He's saying "it's my responsibility to lead America into war." The word "responsibility" has two different meanings; one is negative and one is positive. Example:
Negative: "I take responsibility for burning the pizza" means "It's my fault."
Positive: "It's my responsibility to make sure that no one ever burns a pizza again" means "I am the leader who bears the noble burden of making sure that the people who've let me down never do it again" - in other words, in this case it means "duty", and NOT "fault".
He carefully used the positive meaning of "responsibility" when he referred to himself.
Here, look:
Does that sound as if he's admitting fault? If anything, he's proudly proclaiming his job duties. In fact, he's laying the blame on the intelligence community and saying that he has to clean up the mess that THEY made!
(Perfect sociopathic behavior - blaming others for what he, himself, did.)
I took that from the transcript of Bush's Wednesday, December 14, 2005 speech. And it's the ONLY point at which Bush talked about responsibility applying to him.
But he uses the words not in the "I take responsibility" (i.e. "It was my fault" or "The buck stops here") sense, but rather in the "It's my JOB to..." sense. There's no other interpretation. And the media is covering for him by focusing on the WORD "responsibility" without noting that his careful parsing makes it clear that he in no way accepts responsibility for the consequences of his actions.
How did he and Rove know that the media would play along, pretending that he'd accepted the blame when he'd actually refused it once again? That's what disturbs me - once again, the media bought the bullshit. You've got to wonder why. And how Bush and company apparently knew that they would.
Bush did use the word "responsibility" in the "mistake" sense later on in the speech, by the way:
Pure Rove. He refuses to admit responsibility, smears anyone who points out that he's a liar as irresponsible, and the media pretends that he's actually sucking it up and taking responsibility. Amazing.
The majority of the human species is insane. I have no other explanation.
lubedpumpkin's journal, but I put in enough work on it to make it worth posting here. I've expanded it a little.]Bush takes "responsibility"?
No, no, no, no, no.
If you read what he said carefully, you'll see that he doesn't actually take responsibility for misleading the American public. He's saying "it's my responsibility to lead America into war." The word "responsibility" has two different meanings; one is negative and one is positive. Example:
Negative: "I take responsibility for burning the pizza" means "It's my fault."
Positive: "It's my responsibility to make sure that no one ever burns a pizza again" means "I am the leader who bears the noble burden of making sure that the people who've let me down never do it again" - in other words, in this case it means "duty", and NOT "fault".
He carefully used the positive meaning of "responsibility" when he referred to himself.
Here, look:
"As president, I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq. And I'm also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities."
Does that sound as if he's admitting fault? If anything, he's proudly proclaiming his job duties. In fact, he's laying the blame on the intelligence community and saying that he has to clean up the mess that THEY made!
(Perfect sociopathic behavior - blaming others for what he, himself, did.)
I took that from the transcript of Bush's Wednesday, December 14, 2005 speech. And it's the ONLY point at which Bush talked about responsibility applying to him.
But he uses the words not in the "I take responsibility" (i.e. "It was my fault" or "The buck stops here") sense, but rather in the "It's my JOB to..." sense. There's no other interpretation. And the media is covering for him by focusing on the WORD "responsibility" without noting that his careful parsing makes it clear that he in no way accepts responsibility for the consequences of his actions.
How did he and Rove know that the media would play along, pretending that he'd accepted the blame when he'd actually refused it once again? That's what disturbs me - once again, the media bought the bullshit. You've got to wonder why. And how Bush and company apparently knew that they would.
Bush did use the word "responsibility" in the "mistake" sense later on in the speech, by the way:
"Some have launched irresponsible charges. ... These charges are pure politics. They hurt the morale of our troops."
Pure Rove. He refuses to admit responsibility, smears anyone who points out that he's a liar as irresponsible, and the media pretends that he's actually sucking it up and taking responsibility. Amazing.
The majority of the human species is insane. I have no other explanation.