First of all, I didn't, do anything that I'm aware of to cause my name to be capitalized on the list. I have no idea why it's capitalized, or why that should bother anyone.
James--
You said:
Mike, you seem to have missed the point of Rob's recent post. I will copy it here:
I don't know who started this flamewar, and quite frankly, I don't care.
Please stop the personal attacks and profanity. Attacking ideas is fine. Attacking people is not.
I reply:
I didn't miss that point, and I agree that it's a good point. Let me reply to it:
I don't know who started this flamewar
I reply:
It results from Russ's anger and hurt when, in spite of his pleading, I insisted that he no longer had permission to have materials written by me at his website.
Rob continued:
, and quite frankly, I don't care.
Please stop the personal attacks and profanity. Attacking ideas is fine. Attacking people is not.
I reply:
I really like those utopian ideals. As someone pointed out, all it takes is one person who doesn't share those ideals and has no honesty or principles, and then those ideals are out the window. Such a person joined this list fairly recently.
You continue:
According to the list moderator, we shouldn't engage in personal attacks.
I reply:
There isn't a list moderator. There have been postings to EM that make that abundantly obvious.
I agree with the list-owner that we shouldn't engage in personal attacks. In fact, it's probably stated in the guidelines. It would be good if the guidelines also prohibited postings that whose entire topic is another list-member.
You continue:
This is not supposed to be a forum for you to establish that your "worth" is greater than that of Russ or anyone else.
I reply:
Whoa. When did I initiate a discussion of my own worth? There have been long postings with that as their only topic, but not by me. What I said was that I resented the impliation that I share Russ's negative worth. I said that in reply to someone else's statement on that subject, and I wouldn't have brought it up myself.
You continue:
It is supposed to be a forum for us to discuss election theory in a productive, cooperative, and mutually beneficial manner.
I reply:
Yes that would be nice.
I've been objecting for a long time that EM's guidelines aren't enforced, even in the most extreme violations of those guidelines (which haven't been by me).
You continue:
You cannot "enforce" the EM list guidelines via personal attacks, because personal attacks are in themselves contrary to EM list guidelines.
I reply:
They indeed are. But if the guidelines aren't otherwise enforced, and violations of those guidelines are already going on, then why not try to deter them, even if that itself involves a violation of the already-ignored and unenforced guidelines?
At least my criticisms have been about specific statements in postings, as opposed to general postings devoted entirely to criticism of another list member.
I'll clarify that this time that I don't have a job that involves cleaning toilets, contrary to what Russ was saying or speculating on the list. Nor have I posted messages whose only topic was another list-member, or posted messages full of false statements to criticize someone. In fact, I haven't criticized anyone except in regards to a particular statement by them in a posting of theirs. That fact alone completely sets me apart from someone like Russ or Craig.
You, James, are barking up the wrong tree again.
To Rob:
You once likened EM to a bar-room, complete with bar-room brawls, that doesn't need moderation. Do you still think that the policy of an unmoderated bar-room brawl room with no enforced rules is a good one?
Mike Ossipoff
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