Comments Elsewhere

Constant: That’s absurd. I’ve already explained why and you did not address my explanation, merely denied it.

A bald claim that so-and-so’s statements “imply” some comparative claim, different from the claim that he or she actually stated, is not the same thing as an “explanation” of how they imply it. You provided only the former, not the latter. Until you actually present a case for this position, I’m under no obligation to refute one.

One way that you could test whether such a comparison is indeed implied is by bringing up the comparative case and asking about it. As, for example, you did, when you mentioned the role that liberals have played in the history of public schooling. Since Randall then promptly agreed with your statement about liberals, it seems to me that it is uncharitable, if not simply dense, of you to go on imputing a comparative claim to him when he did not explicitly make that claim in the first place, and since he agreed with you when you presented a contrary comparative claim.

Constant: That’s also absurd. There is an obvious distinction between an argument that has some merit as a prima facie case which deserves a response, and a statement that is merely provocative.

Yes, and you have manifested in your actions that you consider Randall’s remarks to be the former, not the latter, since you responded to them. Turning around now to huff and puff about how the remarks that you responded to don’t really merit a response is just rhetorical bluster.