Thoughts on pitchforks, and such
Bells said:
How in the hell can anyone "run" another individual off an internet forum?
For the record, it can be done. Not with a pitchfork, obviously. To the other, they don't always stay gone, and it's a lot harder than one might think. Seriously, it takes some dedicated loathing and the willingness to exploit another person's stupidity. It involves getting so pissed off at them that you're willing to spend the time absolutely smothering them, keeping them backing up until they finally lash out and find their only reaction boxed in by moderators and the administration. I can think of
at least two members whose absence (one extended, one continuing) can be at least partially attributed to things I said and did.
A counterpoint to be considered here, though, is that compared to those disputes—and others of a bygone era—the people John99 might be referring to, "run off the board" in his time here since August, 2006, have withdrawn according to their own thin skin.
Many of the people "run off" the board in our history have disappeared in the face of a tit-for-tat response. In other words, people treated them as they would treat others, and they just wilted in the heat.
I would suggest a couple of argumentative juxtapositions. First, a political consideration:
• Bush and his cohorts lied about the reasons for war—e.g., WMD, Iraq/Al Qaeda/9/11—and on that level at least the war is wrong.
• You don't like Bush, you think he lied, and you think torture is wrong. Why are you supporting the terrorists?
And then a religious:
• You cannot prove that something that cannot be measured, perceived, or tested is actually there. As the hypothesis involves an assertion that cannot be measured, perceived, or tested, it is not scientific.
• You cannot prove that something that cannot be measured, perceived, or tested, isn't there. Why are you oppressing me?
There is a philosophical spectrum among the membership that feels oppressed. And the reason they feel oppressed is that they cannot tell the difference between the content of an idea and the fact that the idea exists. Failing to recognize this difference, all they see is that
idea = idea. Thus, if we give respect to
idea1, we must give equal respect to
idea2 regardless of the content of either idea.
As a result, we have among our membership
many who feel oppressed because, for instance, a non-scientific theory—one that cannot be tested according to the scientific method—is considered non-scientific. You'd think these people would feel their opponents were cheating at poker by not tipping their hands before the wager. Politically, the fact that one argument is demonstrable and the other
purely rhetorical doesn't matter to some people. For instance, if George W. Bush is a liar because he got caught in a lie, this might irritate some of our members. So some of those would seek to irritate in response. After all, irritation should be equal opportunity. Thus, I apparently want the terrorists to win because (member) says so. The difference between the content of the arguments is beside the point to these members, so when they find no sympathy among moderators struggling to establish and enforce standards of rationality in order to keep this board from disintegrating into mudslinging juvenilia, they feel oppressed and marginalized.
And in some cases, there's not much we can do about it. I encountered the bizarre claim a couple weeks ago that having and communicating opinions was the functional equal to having a penis inserted into your body. That the people making or affirming the comparison will not admit to ever having a penis inserted into their bodies only casts the notion even further into dubious light. But, yes, there are people out there who feel
oppressed because of this bizarre comparison. But seriously, the idea that a man giving his female sexual partner the same kind of ideological, moral, and sympathetic respect he would give his best male friend obliges a woman to satisfy his sexual needs whenever he wants is
not going to get a whole lot of respect from me. And if my opinion hurts anyone's feelings, there's not much I can do about it. And if those hurt feelings "run them off" the board, there's not much I can do about
that, either. Like I said, those who have lately been "run off" have withdrawn according to their own thin skins. After all, the sick misogyny I've encountered of late in EM&J is the kind of thing I
am inclined to "run off" the board.
But, you know, we need to be "politically correct" so that some of our more irrational elements can "feel validated".
So we do our best to find
any reason to respect the spiteful, irrational, and even the openly hateful. And on some days we're left pretending. Others, we don't have the patience for pretense, so we tell people what we think of their moronic inability to distinguish between what is observable and what they have no clue about. And, sometimes, their feelings are hurt, so they crawl back to wherever they came from, and others who are just looking for something to complain about make a note and say, "Gosh, s/he was
run off by a bunch of elitists who won't admit that
obligation equals obligation, or
idea equals idea, regardless of the content of those obligations or ideas."
I'm left repeating a question over and over: "
Can people really not
tell the difference?"
And if the people who can't feel so alienated that they don't want to be here, fine. If they need to tell themselves or others that they were "run off", fine. It's like something I wrote in a moderator discussion about a particular religious issue that came up. There are certain conversations that won't ever happen. Self-righteous students will never go to their professors; religious crusaders will never run to their preachers. There is a possibility that the informed elder would look at the situation and say, "Well,
of course they're receiving you poorly! What the hell do you think you're doing?"
So let them hide away in their shadowy lairs, licking their wounds and plotting their revenge. If they ever wish to venture up from their valley of shadows, we'll welcome them with open arms. And some of us will even throw a rope to help them with the steeper parts.
