Travis Edmunds wrote:
Ah yes. You "believe". I for one, believe that views like that, hold back any sort of honest discourse.
I'm unclear on the antecedent of "views like that." Theirs, or mine?
Yours of course. After all you said you "believe".
Now it seems as though you object to my having beliefs, or having beliefs in general.
As a side note, I'll mention that when I was little, I called my father's briefcase his "beliefcase," which was far funnier given that my dad taught philosophy for a living.
There's plenty of room for that Nick. But when your "beliefs" interfere with the open discourse of this forum, you become just as bad as those you despise.
I don't believe that I said I despised anybody. I said that polarizing important issues is self-evidently harmful, in my opinion.
Furthermore, I hesitate to think that the cause of religiously fanatical hate mongering is being furthered by someone quoting so-called "evil" comments. Especially on this forum. For that matter, we probably shouldn't talk about anything other than good wholesome sci-fi, with no more than an action based plot which never deviates from space battles, and which certainly doesn't bring forth controversial ideas. It's safer that way right?
I don't believe that I suggested that there are topics that don't belong here, which is how I read the paragraph above. My objection was to the quoting of hate-mongers as though their venom contributed anything to the discussion at hand.
Look, I'm not being argumentative just to be argumentative. It's just that I vehemently disagree with what you said, and I really do think that views like yours really do hold back, thinking, on any sort of acceptable level here on this forum.
It seems humorous to me that you seem to be saying that I'm being close-minded, extremist, dogmatic, etc., by saying that I consider it harmful to repeat the words of close-minded, extremist, dogmatic, er, asshats.
How does one give credibility to such views in the way that you mention?
It implies those words have value in the context they were offered. If the context was "how to respond to hate-mongers," that might be true. But it wasn't. From here, it looked like the sort of propaganda technique used by demagogues.
Proof? I think it is self-evident that treating important issues as black and white is bad.
It's been my experience that nothing in this world is black & white. Combine that with the fact that you treated this issue as black & white, and you have an augument on your hands.
Phooey, to the idea that I treated this issue as black-and-white. It seems that we agree that nothing in this world is so. It seems to me that while I was saying "I think that's harmful," you heard "you stop that."
I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone; especially you Nick. But I honestly can't believe how closed-minded people can be at times. It's amazing.
I'm not the least bit offended. I aim to take nothing personally.
Nick
-- Nick Arnett Director, Business Intelligence Services LiveWorld Inc. Phone/fax: (408) 904-7198 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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