Steersman wrote:Dilurk wrote:
Wed Aug 15, 2012 9:36 pm
Steersman wrote:
Dilurk wrote:BTW. You are right about your assessment of the last YT video Cris did, up to a point.
Well, I’m glad you concede that much – you might point that out to
Scented Nectar.
I have been known to be wrong on occasion. I still believe the video would have been better had it been done when emotions about the DMCA nonsense were not so high. SN can make up her own mind.
Likewise about being wrong – sometimes I marvel that I haven’t wound up – yet – as a “Darwin Awards†statistic. But sometimes you have to roll the dice, call them as you see them, let the chips fall where they may, etc. Trick is not to double down on a bad hand afterwards – not always easy to do, of course, as we tend to wind up investing too much of ourselves in an idea or position and fail to see when it is no longer tenable – debacle at Stalingrad sort of thing.
As for the SN reference that was more a to-whom-it-may-concern message [much like your “embroider†reference, I might add ... ;-) ], rather than a request that you actually do anything about it yourself. A way of pointing out that if a regular here, someone with some “street-credsâ€, can see some justification in the argument then maybe it is worth a second look.
I try to look at all sides, if credible. I once made the mistake of picking up "I don't believe in atheists" by Chris Hedges in a bookstore once. I thought perhaps I should read the enemy so to speak. I could not manage more than a few pages and as I did not want to have to pay for the book because I had thrown it across the room, I put it back down. Gently.
I think reading an article by Jean Kazez would help you see where I come from. She is a much better writer than I will ever be.
Interesting article and good points, although it seems her credibility here is suffering somewhat – ah, the vicissitudes of fashion .... But I know what you mean about the “better writer†thing; frustrating at times that fashioning a post can be so tedious and time consuming. Practice and perfection and all that ....
Learn to sit on ones hands. A lot. That's my problem with twitter. It is way too easy to dash off a note when angry.
I will give you the benefit of the doubt, despite how angry your words appear to me.
Sorry if they came across that way, particularly as Sacha seemed to see some of them the same way, so maybe I was letting my anger,
Note I goofed by not making it clear I was talking about the general case. I
always ignore and elide angry sounding phrases. They speak to my pineal gland not my mind.
exasperation at least, get the better of me. But I think that is a good point, one I’ve tried to emphasize in other posts even if MKG is less than impressed by my formulation, about the problematic nature of anger – as someone said a while back, rage seems to be all the rage these days.
I would suggest that when you get really incensed write it up give your article full bore both barrels then save it as a draft. Come back to it in 24 hours and edit it. You'll be surprised. After a while, you can do it without the 24 hour wait.
Although one might argue that many of the people here express some serious anger, with not a little justification, at the antics of some of the FTB crowd. Anger has its uses, but it tends to be a bit of the proverbial two-edged sword. You might be interested in this recent post over at
Skeptic Blogs referring to a Scientific American article on “Why Is Everyone on the Internet So Angry?â€
I posted that article on here myself as I had already read it. I know the slimepit is being read by the skeptic blogs folk, but I think in this case I had read it from DC first. Not that it matters. I have been following ERVs blog for a long time, I followed the anger and disgust from the early days. I can understand the anger and the frustration. Myself? I despise bullies but I was a coward. Though I have written privately to support people bullied.
However, considering that Laden has threatened people's livelihood and I have been personally harassed and real life stalked by people from the Internet, I'd rather not here in public. I'd rather not have Laden or one of the crazier denizens of the FTB harass me.
Really a rather deplorable state of affairs that so many seem to be so ready to go off the deep end in defence of their dogma, so ready to use the end to justify the means. Maybe some justification at some point – whistle-blowing for a possible example – but when the means are frequently the antithesis of the ends the prognosis tends not to be particularly favourable. Reminds me of some “political action†against
E.O. Wilson and something similar that may have been discussed here ....
I took the time to watch Cris' YT video. I would argue that any other time it would have been a reasonable video to have been made. I am seeing anger from both sides instead of logic.
I have not deprecated either Scented Nectar or CommanderTuvok's arguments at all. We are not joined at the hip.
Again, the problematic nature of anger in general. But “deprecated†was probably a poor choice of words – maybe even a “blond momentâ€; mea culpa and all that. What I meant was that, as indicated previously, your support for the argument tended, in effect, to discount or discredit to some extent the counter-arguments.[/quote]
Well Steersman it helps to understand the culture here and why people here are so upset. When errors are made here, they are acknowledged as people are adults here, it's really refreshing to see.
There is also one thing you have to learn about Internet Trolls and it is really simple, this is Internet 101. They are out for the Lulz as I said but they are also out for the attention. If you refuse to give them the attention for the lulz, they go away to troll somewhere else. It takes a
lot of discipline to ignore them completely. Notice what happened here when we got spammed? This is something I thought Criss knew.
Demonstrate you think by coming up with cogent arguments and stop throwing simian feces about then you will earn respect.
