Reflection on 2/5

I have been pondering this post for a while now, and I am sad to admit I still have not come up with anything especially insightful to say. I think the format of Tuesday's class threw me off a little. For some reason I had a hard time getting my head around evaluating Stephanson's claims, at least not in the improvisational internet manner. It would be one thing to study speeches, opinion pieces, and articles in search of a trend supporting or disputing his claim, but the brief internet searching bothered me a little. Especially given the ease with which I could alter Wikipedia (My little chunk is now gone, so someone did fix the page). I do think Stephanson's piece has opened my eyes to just how disturbing our rhetoric must seem to other countries. It's hard to reason with people who believe themselves predestined to Global Congquest (or, at least Global Conquest light). Especially if we consider just how much the claims of Manifest Destiny mirror the claims of the Borg, again, the ideas we spread may be different, but our methods and rhetoric are exactly the same as the Borg.