On Wed, 27 Mar 2013 20:49:20 -0700, rusi wrote: > On Mar 28, 8:18 am, Ethan Furman <et...@stoneleaf.us> wrote: >> >> So long as Mark doesn't start cussing and swearing I'm not going to get >> worked up about it. I find jmf's posts for more aggravating. > > I support Ned's original gentle reminder -- Please be civil irrespective > of surrounding nonsensical behavior. > > In particular "You are a liar" is as bad as "You are an idiot" The same > statement can be made non-abusively thus: "... is not true because ..."
I accept that criticism, even if I disagree with it. Does that make sense? I mean it in the sense that I accept that your opinion differs from mine. Politeness does not always trump honesty, and stating that somebody's statement "is not true because..." is not the same as stating that they are deliberately telling lies (rather than merely being mistaken or confused). The world is full of people who deliberately and in complete awareness of what they are doing lie in order to further their agenda, or for profit, or to feel good about themselves, or to harm others. There comes a time where politely ignoring the elephant in the room (the dirty, rotten, lying scoundrel of an elephant) and giving them the benefit of the doubt simply makes life worse for everyone except the liars. We all know this. Unless you've been living in a cave on the top of some mountain, we all know people whose relationship to the truth is, shall we say, rather bendy. And yet we collectively muddy the water and inject uncertainty into debate by politely going along with their lies, or at least treating them with dignity that they don't deserve, by treating them as at worst a matter of honest misunderstanding or even mere difference of opinion. As an Australian, I am constitutionally required to call a spade a bloody shovel at least twice a week, so I have no regrets. -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
