• NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Yeah but a lot were also bad which is why it’s stupid when people act like the opinions of the founding fathers should matter more than the opinions of contemporary Americans when the same founding fathers were smart enough to realize the constitution should be a living document and not a holy totem to use as a club to stifle any progress.

    • Gigan@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I think there were only a couple bad ideas, which have been mostly fixed by amendments. It is a living document, it has changed over time. You could argue that it should be easier to change, but there would be consequences for that too.

    • AnonTwo@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I think we can find a middleground between “fuck em” and “their word is law”

      In fact most of the time the people trying to make their word out to be law are using the most loose and self-pandering interpretation they can.

      Like you said, the same founding fathers did not want it to be this way. I wish we’d argue harder how unamerican it is that people are treating the founding fathers with zealotry.

      • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They literally designed the Constitution to be the foundation of all law in the country.

        Their words (at least the specific ones in the Constitution) literally are law.

        • AnonTwo@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Yes, the ones specific to the constitution

          Because those words can be changed. They were made to be changed. They were intended to be changed.

          They’re not meant to be worshipped, they’re meant to do their job, and change as needed to keep up with the times.

          The founding fathers had their fears, and the constitution was made to repel those fears. And little by little we use their name to draw those fears side by side what they created.

          • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            They’re not meant to be worshipped

            I think the central problem here is a lot of kids conflating “this is literally the ultimate law of the land” with “I have a religious reverence for this document”.

    • HeartyBeast@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Fine. If you can get agreement across the states as to which of those ideas are bad - you can amend them away.

      • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I know, but my point is that the founding fathers acknowledged they weren’t infallible which makes appeals to tradition and authority that many use to prevent progress in the US are extra dumb.

        • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          …which has nothing to do with the Constitution.

          Unless the appeal to authority is a literal appeal to literal legal authority.

          • AnonTwo@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            …But it does have to do with what NOT_RICK was discussing prior to that post, which had to do with the constitution.

            • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Not really. Apparently, some people are acting like idiots because they think the founding fathers would have thought a certain way. Sure, okay, sounds like a problem.

              The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Not a problem.

              Two separate things only conflated by the uneducated.

              • AnonTwo@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                Okay well, you sound uneducated to me. And since you can’t finish a single…single post in this entire thread without insulting people, I don’t see any point to arguing here.

                Just…be mad I guess. Just try not to think you sound as smart or as mature as you think you do.