JDG wrote: > >No...... maybe I don't hold "bashing" to be as negative a term as some >people are taking it, but "bashing" *is* what occurs on most dicussion >lists. "Constructive Criticism" is critcism designed to construct >changes. Since that is impossible on a List of this nature (Dubya hasn't >subscribed yet (though he probably should! :)), the comments are clearly >criticism with the intent of taking the moral stature of the United States >down a notch among the Brin-L readers. Thus, the comments are "bashing." > Don't you think some posters make criticism of the USA just to enlighten the USA listmembers that their country is _not_ the Always-Promoter-of-Good Superpower that they believe it is?
Alberto Monteiro I do. I think that anyone taking that position is suffering from a remarkable degree of arrogance and self-righteousness if they think that's what we really believe, but that's their business. I would put my grasp of international perspectives of the US against anyone's grasp of American perspectives on the rest of the world any time. But I don't think it is true of _all_ listmembers, which is the distinction that some people seem to have trouble with. There is no doubt in my mind that most people on the list are well intentioned in general, and even towards the US and Israel in particular. But there is similarly little or no doubt in my mind that some are not. Given statements that have been made on the list, it doesn't any longer seem unreasonable to point out when it seems (from my perspective, or John's, or someone else's) that some listmember is no longer (if they ever were) engaged in honest criticism. Gautam
