Category Archives: inter se pugnantia

Inter se pugnantia (in’-ter-say-pug-nan’-ti-a): Using direct address to reprove someone before an audience, pointing out the contradictions in that person’s character, often between what a person does and says.

You tell me and everybody else you’re going to make America great again, but you’re actually making it worse again. You’re the greatest con artist in American history—better than Jim Jones and Bernie Madoff combined. You’re taking everything away from America that made it great: freedom of speech, civil rights, women’s rights, environmental caretaking, international food aid, and the so-called social safety net, which actually could’ve used more help, but food stamps, SNAP, and Medicaid helped.

Citing corruption and waste for cuts and the elimination of programs and entire agencies, is a mask for an ideology that respects only money. If saving money and increasing profits kills people—babies and the elderly alike, so be it. Money accumulates. Money is the answer. Money is God.

But money spent to save lives and improve lives—to feed minds and stomachs—is a wiser investment than whatever cutting down the safety net accomplishes, killing many people who have no other place to fall as they plummet toward the cold hard ground of poverty. If people chcan live people can eventually flourish. America will be a better place. America will be great again when the hell you’re inflicting on it goes away.

As the next three years unfold, what will the Great America look like? Will there be riots and flames as people realize you ripped them off—that what you promised and what you delivered were vastly different—that what you said and what you did were two different things?

You’re making America into a shit hole.

You are a scumbag.

Definitions courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

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Inter se pugnantia (in’-ter-say-pug-nan’-ti-a): Using direct address to reprove someone before an audience, pointing out the contradictions in that person’s character, often between what a person does and says.

I was going crazy trying to figure out what to say at the debate tonight. I was novice at politics but I believed with all my heart and soul that the Mayor of Jollyville, New York should be a dictator with unlimited power to act any way he chose to act without requiring the consent of a city council or the people of Jollyville. The city council would do what I told it to do, and the citizens would suck it up. I had read “Atlas Shrugged” ten times and knew that Commies were lurking everywhere and we needed a strong leader to drive them back where they can came from. One of my first priorities would be to clear the town library, burn the books, and replace them with 10 copies of “Atlas Shrugged” and make the rest of the library into a B&B. Next on the list is to invade Shady Glen and annex it. Our goal will be to to make Jollyville into a jumbo town taking up all of Central New York, making it a major player in Albany, New York’s capitol.

I shouldn’t be saying this, but North Korea has offered to provide us with arms to accomplish our goals. The Jollyville Fish and Game Club is looking forward to sending members to North Korea to learn how to fire missiles. North Korea also offered to provide Korean cookbooks so we can develop a better understanding of their culture. Everybody’s renewing their hunting licenses so they can walk around in the woods with loaded weapons, getting used to the future when they’ll be walking around Jollyville on my behalf. All this may seem absurd and/or frightening. It isn’t. It is all about change and returning to the America we all knew when we were a British Colony. The “Uber Mayor Party” will develop Jollyville into a model of order where the trains run on time, there are no homeless people or foreigners, and we are known for the absolute obedience of our citizens.

I think I’m ready for the debate.

Me: “To my unworthy opponent sitting there on his fat ass while Jollyville becomes a weak and listless town: contrary to your assertions regarding your toughness, I have personally seen you help an old woman stand up after her walker malfunctioned. You showed your weakness and failure to heed the dictum of survival of the fittest and leave her begging for help, lying on the ground. You have the soul of a wet noodle, unlike mine which is solid steel. What do you have to say for yourself King Wimp?”

Opponent: “You are one sick bastard. Kindness is a virtue that can elevate us all, to make our community brightly lit by charity’s heartfelt flame. Your ethic will turn our beloved Jollyville into a dog eat dog battlefield—littered with the bodies of the sick, and elderly and those in need—men, women, and children. You, sir, are mentally ill—a psychopath with no redeeming attributes. Having you as Mayor will open the door to tyranny and viscous injustice. I reject you and all you stand for.”

POSTSCRIPT

I won the election by a landslide—it wasn’t even close. My opponent has been arrested and I’m looking forward to my trip to Belarus to meet with the North Korean ambassador.

Definitions courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

The Daily Trope is available on Amazon in paperback under the title of The Book of Tropes for $9.95. It is also available in Kindle format for $5.99.

Inter se pugnantia (in’-ter-say-pug-nan’-ti-a): Using direct address to reprove someone before an audience, pointing out the contradictions in that person’s character, often between what a person does and says.

I am taking part in this commission to get to the truth, knowing full well that the truth does not speak for itself and that it must be effectively expressed in order for it to induce belief. You have been as effective as Satan himself at making lies appear true and entrenching them in America’s narrative and circulating them as if they are rock-solid bulwarks of honesty and compassion, but they are not!

Unlike Fox News where you can knowingly spout your lies and walk out the door to a standing ovation, here you are under oath and your assertions and statements will be fact-checked. Lying may earn you the praise of your co-conspirators, but it will also earn you time in jail.

You say you want freedom to ring—that you stand for and protect American democracy, when in fact, you stand for and protect autocracy—a dictatorship that would undermine and supplant 244 years of our democracy’s ever-expanding franchise.

That said, we need your help constructing the back-story of what happened on January 6. In sum, we want to bring the perpetrators to justice for planning and inciting a coordinated attack on America’s electoral process.

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

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