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Comment by cook1929 | Hacker News Reader

cook1929·

Let me get this right. Your logic is that intentionally bombing and killing mothers and children at civilian shopping malls are perfectly okay as long as apartheid exists.

Did I get that right?

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You have (at the time of my writing this) 3 comments, all in this thread, all anti-Mandela to the point of being almost pro-apartheid. Nice throwaway account!

Nice ad hominem that completely ignores the argument!

Calling your comments 'pro-apartheid' is certainly not ad hominem.

Of course it is, it's the very definition. Obviously he's just trying to justify his stance, but you're still disregarding his argument which could be just as easily made by someone pro-apartheid or anti-apartheid since it's orthogonal.

Blowing up civilians is probably required at times, I don't know, but the exact border line where it moves from acceptable to unacceptable is a difficult one. Some people (justly) hold that it is always unacceptable and there is definitely nothing wrong with that stand. Others are more pragmatic and can accept that killing 10 civilians is preferable to having 10,000 slaves.

It's not an easy answer, don't dismiss it as an ad hominem.

You can be anti-apartheid, whilst also disagreeing that a good solution is to start bombing shopping malls and railway stations.

Weren't all those bombings carried out when Mandela was in jail? He was certainly responsible for a lot of industrial sabotage and preparations for armed revolt, but I'd put that in an entirely different category.

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