[LMB] Pizza Calls

[Azalais Aranxta]

On Wed, 13 Dec 2006, sekhmet wrote:

> --- "Peter H. Granzeau" <pgranzeau at cox.net> wrote:
>
> > (my criterion:  I have to scroll down more than twice to read
> > a post), needs a barrel of ice water thrown on it, at the
> > very least.
>
> The length of a post doesn't bother me,

I'm glad. Because I can't think of a time when I posted ANYTHING
short.

> My criterion tends to be when the posts shift from "I...
> like/dislike/am offended/amused by" to
> "You...did/are/will/should". Unfortunately tone and intention
> are so subject to individual perception that the shift from
> intense discussion to personal attack is a gray area.

The problem with "I dislike/am offended by" is that it
frequently is followed by a list of reasons why the poster
dislikes or is offended by something.  As long as it's a matter
of taste, then of course it's not a problem.  But if you're going
to start making statements about the motivations/ethics of the
people who produce the thing you dislike or find offensive, or to
start speculating as to their reasoning, you may say something
which you can legitimately be asked to defend.

Should that list of reasons imply in any way that a person who
doesn't agree with the dislike or offence is morally or
intellectually lacking, then even though it isn't a direct
personal attack, it's still an attack on people who disagree.

If you say "people who write X don't respect Y" and you know that
Jenny writes X, you have in fact implied that Jenny does not
respect Y, and she is not out of line in being annoyed if she
does in fact respect Y.  The fact that it's just your opinion
doesn't change that, though she would of course have even more
right to be annoyed if you stated it as a fact.

Stating that something is your personal opinion doesn't let you
off the hook for being offensive if your personal opinion happens
to be genuinely offensive, incorrect, censorious, &c.  You're
free to think that I, or a group to which I may belong such as
'slash writers', is worthy of criticism--but if you say that on
list, people who belong to the group you are criticising may
respond, and they may even be irate.

"This is just my opinion" does not make something okay.  I mean,
my brother says that he should be allowed to express his racist,
homophobic and misogynistic views to me because they are just his
opinions, and in fact they ARE his opinions, but that doesn't
mean I'm going to let them go on that account.  That's an extreme
example, of course, but I think it makes my point.

~malfoy :)


****************************************************************
Azalais Aranxta (~malfoy)
ataniell93 on LiveJournal and Vox
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/malfoymadness

"I know the true world, and you know I do. But we needn't let it
think we all bow down." --Christopher Morley