Magical Realist:
Putting people down has everything to do with feeling better about yourself. It makes you feel superior and more intelligent and a judge over other people. And noone would do it so much like you do unless it was something they need for some reason. Only it doesn't make you more superior and intelligent like you think. It only reduces you to a hateful bully demeaning and belittling people who disagree with you.
Sounds like a personal problem to me. It doesn't justify him condescendingly insulting other posters.
How about we bring this back to the facts for a minute?
Is it true or false that river mostly posts semi-coherent one-line posts to this forum? This, you will recall, was my observation.
Is it true or false that river displays in his posts to this forum a low level of understanding of and ability to engage with scientific thinking (to single out just one field that he has touched on in various discussions)?
You might potentially disagree with me, and assert that, on the contrary, your perception of river is that he is an intelligent and erudite individual with deep insights to offer on a number of different topics. I'd say you'd be hard pressed to find any examples to support that thesis on this forum, but I'd be very happy to be proven wrong if you have any.
The next step is to consider what I should and shouldn't be allowed to post as my personal opinion based on my own observations about river and the general quality of his posts.
It sounds a lot like you're arguing that I should never say anything negative about anybody here, Magical Realist. It sounds like you think that all members are delicate snowflakes whose feelings might be hurt if I give my personal opinion about the value or lack thereof in their posts. It sounds like you think I'm bullying poor little river, who should be coddled and protected from me on the grounds that... well, on what grounds, exactly? On the grounds that he's not able to stand up for himself, so that he needs you to step in and do it for him? On the grounds, perhaps, that
you doubt his ability to construct a reply in refutation to what I posted about him and his posts?
Then we come to the
real reason you're stepping up to defend river, as I see it. You don't like it when I express my opinions about the value or lack thereof in
your posts to this forum. The complaints I level against river - the lack of supporting argument or evidence in his posts, to take one example - apply to you, to a slightly lesser degree. You figure that the best way for
you to avoid criticism or review is to stridently oppose the posting of considered criticism of
anybody's posts to this forum. That's it, isn't it?
The fact is, Magical Realist, river
chooses to come here and post, as do you. If you're a fragile flower who gets all riled up at any criticism of the content of your posts to this forum, I'd say that, probably, this is not the best place for you to hang around. Your posts here
will be subjected to critical analysis. You
will be expected to support your claims with arguments and evidence. These are not just
my principles, as applied to this forum. This has been part of the general ethos of this online community from the start.
I understand that it is in your interests to promote a conceptual buffer between yourself and people like me on this forum, in the hope that I might focus more on the inanities of people like Spencer666 or river and less on your abject failure to make a good case for any of your woo beliefs on this forum. I also understand that it is very much in your interests to try to dumb down the forum and to promote a culture in which intellectual criticism is considered bullying.
