2020 Presidential Debates aka night 1 "The Cleveland Steamer"

Spiritual_Chaos said:

What person at 75 is as sharp as they used to be.

dankind said:

mrussel1 said:

dankind said:

mrussel1 said:

dankind said:

mrussel1 said:

dankind said:

Lerxst1992 said:

Poncier said:

Well next week we should see a real debate with respect and decorum when Pence and Harris go at it.
Each is better served to be at the top of their party's respective ticket than the senile old dude each party has nominated.
We're so screwed as a country.

Congratulate yourself for getting right down to trumps level. Only a greedy fool would put bidens performance on an equal footing as trumps. May your children and/or family speak about you in that manner when you are in your 70s

It's amazing how if you point out any similarities between the two candidates, even if it's a glaringly obvious one -- namely, both are senile old dudes (and I'm fairly certain Poncer isn't being clinical here; if he's a medical doctor, I'll eat my coffee mug) -- you're immediately insulted by the usual suspects here. A similarity here and there does not equate to duplication. (Alert: I'm a white man and have trouble with tie length. Gasp! I must be just like Donald Trump!!!)

Anyway, your eyes are deceiving you, Poncier. Biden is a middle-aged woman, 180 on the Stanford-Binet, and she just cured Covid-19 and climate change. You should really stop being a greedy fool and just vote for her.

And I would hope that my entire family is honest about my mental faculties deteriorating in my old age. They certainly wouldn't be doing me any favors by ignoring it.

Edit: I did not nor will I ever watch these two candidates debate.

Neither was even close to being senile.  That's just a pejorative.  There's no way you could have watched this debate and came to that conclusion.  Trump was a lunatic as usual.  That's not senile, that's intentional.  Biden was square on his game.  I doubt if many people leveling senility accusations could have possibly stayed as focused as Biden while the POTUS is yelling insults at you while trying to make a point.  

Yes, I addressed that Poncier was likely not being clinical. People misuse behavioral/mental health phrases such as senile, manic, addict(ed), antisocial, schizo, depressed, etc. every second.  Pretty sure I've been called all of those. 

I'm fairly certain that I don't need to explain this to anyone, but here we are.

So anyone over a certain age is senile?  I don't understand throwing around insults and then saying "that's not what I really mean".  When I say Trump is a lunatic, I mean it. 

Jesus! I've been called senile for forgetting my password. The person who called me that meant it, too, just not in a clinical sense.

When all you've got is semantics, you really don't have much. I spend every day defending the English language, and even I recognize this.

Perhaps you will, too.

Yes, but that's normal because there's no element of truth or application that you could possibly be senile, right?  You understand the language and semantics, so you know damn well there's a huge difference between calling a septuagenarian 'senile' and calling a 30, 40 year old senile.  One is likely to be an intended insult, and the other a joke.  

Regardless of age, calling a public figure "senile" seems more jokey to me than calling a fellow board member a "greedy fool," which is fairly insulting. I understand that the GOP is using the term more negatively, but I really don't think our fellow posters are.

This is nothing new. People have been calling both candidates (and plenty others) some version of senile for a while now. Thing is that the clinical term is less used than the more broad definition -- the first definition M-W will give you is "... of, relating to, exhibiting, or characteristic of old age," adding an especially subentry regarding cognitive ability beneath the main entry -- so even if you want to argue semantics, you've got weak sauce, since you and I have no control over the broader lexicography.

For more from M-W, here are the two example sentences it gives for the senile entry:

1. Every time I got a government job, I always felt obligated to tell the authorities that I had this mother who had probably been a Communist. It was an annoying piece of baggage. Then eventually she became senile and forgot about politics and actually became very benign.

2. There appears to be little common ground between those who see the paintings [Willem de Kooning's late works] in question as a sublime achievement, a late style comparable to the cut-paper masterpieces of the aging Matisse, and those who describe them as the senile doodlings of a once great artist whose reputation is being damaged for the sake of commercial exploitation.

And two M-W examples from the Web (no shit!):

1. Republicans largely ignored the pandemic while attacking Joe Biden as a senile lifetime politician controlled by his party's far-left wing and incapable of protecting suburban voters from mobs of protesters.

2. Pirro may have yada yada-ed the conspiracy, but the point is clear: The Democratic Party and their enablers are conspiring to replace the senile Biden with the sinister Harris.

Lerxst1992 said:

dankind said:

Lerxst1992 said:

Poncier said:

Well next week we should see a real debate with respect and decorum when Pence and Harris go at it.
Each is better served to be at the top of their party's respective ticket than the senile old dude each party has nominated.
We're so screwed as a country.

Congratulate yourself for getting right down to trumps level. Only a greedy fool would put bidens performance on an equal footing as trumps. May your children and/or family speak about you in that manner when you are in your 70s

It's amazing how if you point out any similarities between the two candidates, even if it's a glaringly obvious one -- namely, both are senile old dudes (and I'm fairly certain Poncer isn't being clinical here; if he's a medical doctor, I'll eat my coffee mug) -- you're immediately insulted by the usual suspects here. A similarity here and there does not equate to duplication. (Alert: I'm a white man and have trouble with tie length. Gasp! I must be just like Donald Trump!!!)

Anyway, your eyes are deceiving you, Poncier. Biden is a middle-aged woman, 180 on the Stanford-Binet, and she just cured Covid-19 and climate change. You should really stop being a greedy fool and just vote for her.

And I would hope that my entire family is honest about my mental faculties deteriorating in my old age. They certainly wouldn't be doing me any favors by ignoring it.

Edit: I did not nor will I ever watch these two candidates debate.

What Biden had to encounter in that debate is more difficult than anything you had to encounter in your life. The fact you and ponc put both candidates on the same level says more about you than them.

your mental facilities are deceiving you, right now. Let’s hope your family believes in euthanasia.

Lerxst1992 said:

What Biden had to encounter in that debate is more difficult than anything you had to encounter in your life. The fact you and ponc put both candidates on the same level says more about you than them.

your mental facilities are deceiving you, right now. Let’s hope your family believes in euthanasia.

mrussel1 said:

My point is that neither came off as the least bit senile last night.  I don't see where it's appropriate to call a sept senile, unless it's clinical.  Otherwise it's an insult. 

dankind said:

Lerxst1992 said:

What Biden had to encounter in that debate is more difficult than anything you had to encounter in your life. The fact you and ponc put both candidates on the same level says more about you than them.

your mental facilities are deceiving you, right now. Let’s hope your family believes in euthanasia.

Again, I did not watch the debate, and I don't plan on it. But those assumptions about what I have and have not had to encounter in my life are just so awesome. 

I have noticed some traits in both men, however, that would lead most people to apply the senile label as defined by M-W ("of, relating to, exhibiting, or characteristic of old age").

1. Trump having trouble with walking down a ramp/drinking water from a glass
2. Biden, even with his stutter, blanking out midsentence

Those are certainly examples of old people being old people.

mrussel1 said:

My point is that neither came off as the least bit senile last night.  I don't see where it's appropriate to call a sept senile, unless it's clinical.  Otherwise it's an insult. 

So even if you don't find it appropriate, it does appear to be apropos and not at all an insult.

I watched most of the debate, and didn't think either candidate came across as senile.