----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Beck" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, April 04, 2004 2:45 PM Subject: Re: Welcome to life in George W. Bush's America
> > However, by "slamming the entire right wing" you are slamming the > > individuals on the list who happen to identify more with the right > > wing position than the left wing one on many issues (whether they call > > themselves "right wing" or not). It can come across as a slam that is > > just as offensive as if the person were identified by name, perhaps > > more so, because it seems like a "passive-aggressive" attack or like > > talking about a person in front of him/her in the third person as > > though s/he cannot hear (read) what is being said about him/her. > > Please forgive me for getting personal to make a point, but if someone > > posted "All liberals are . . . " or "All Jews are . . . ," I expect > > that you would be personally offended, even though you were not > > specifically mentioned by name in the post. > > The right wing runs this country. They control the White House, both > houses of Congress, the Supreme Court, and a majority of the governors' > offices. Although they pretend otherwise, they control most of the > media. They can take a few hits on this list. > > (There's a difference between making a blanket condemnation of all > liberals (or all conservatives) vs. all Jews. One is political debate, > even if maybe intemperate or even wrongheaded. The other is racism. > Liberals and conservatives are not an ethnic group or an identifiable > group that can be targeted for discrimination or bias or prejudice or > attack in the same way as African-Americans or Hispanics or Asians or > Jews.) > > There's also a difference between my making a statement criticizing > conservatives as a group and someone criticizing so-and-so on this list > directly with a personal attack including unpleasant language. Even if > the conservatives feel offended, it's still different than if I > criticized them by name as opposed to something they said. The former > is barely acceptable; the latter, which happens on this list far more > frequently, is, in my mind, completely unacceptable. With all due respect Tom, noting that I am more on the left than on the right by almost any measure of political leaning in the US, I've seen you do more than your fair share of lowering the tone of the list. I see broad swipes at all conservatives as less than useless. Personally, I'd rather have someone disagree with me than simply saying the group I'm a member of is a bunch of #$#&. Even on the points where I agree with you more than Gautam, I appreciate his style more than I do yours. I agree that nasty generalizations about all Jews or blacks are different than all conservatives or liberals. But, that raises a question. Are nasty generalizations of all Catholics acceptable, while nasty generalizations of all Jews unacceptable? Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
