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- From: solan@smauguio.no (Svein Olav G. Nyberg)
- Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech
- Subject: Re: Stephen Grossman
- Message-ID: <1993Jan21.202625.27001@ulrik.uio.no>
- Date: 21 Jan 93 20:26:25 GMT
- References: <spurrett.99.727386124@superbowl.und.ac.za>,<6owNXB1w165w@quake.sylmar.ca.us> <TORKEL.93Jan21205323@bast.sics.se>
- Sender: news@ulrik.uio.no (Mr News)
- Reply-To: solan@smauguio.no (Svein Olav G. Nyberg)
- Organization: University of Oslo, Norway
- Lines: 39
- Nntp-Posting-Host: smaug.uio.no
-
- In article <TORKEL.93Jan21205323@bast.sics.se>, torkel@sics.se (Torkel
- Franzen) writes:
- |> In article <1993Jan21.183010.22929@ulrik.uio.no> solan@smaug.uio.no
- |> (Svein Olav G. Nyberg) writes:
- |>
- |> >and will like Voltaire defend even his right to be met by proper
- |> >argument, and not simply abusive language.
- |>
- |> I haven't noticed Voltaire saying anything about Grossman. But you are
- |> a bit hasty, surely, in speaking of his "right to be met by proper
- |> argument". Why do suppose that we have a right to be met by "proper
- |> argument" (whatever this term may mean to you), whatever abusive twaddle
- |> we spout on the net ourselves?
-
- I think it is important first to show that the guy is spreading
- "abusive twaddle" on the net, however obvious it may seem to one-
- self, regardless of person, for two reasons:
-
- 1. We're showing the guy exactly what he is doing, which is
- a stronger corrective than mere shouting and swearing. He
- thereby gets a chance to improve himself, instead of perhaps
- being just ignorant about what he's doing.
-
- 2. It _might_ have been misunderstood, and gives the guy a chance
- to defend himself. If he cannot defend his actions without
- further abusive twaddle, we have positively shown him what he
- has done.
-
- In any case, the outcome is better than immediate fight.
-
- I do agree, however, that if the person in question ignore the
- good attempts and/or go on like before, then he might be told
- what your gut feelings towards him are. But first telling a
- person what he is actually doing wrong might save the newsgroup
- from a lot of flaming, and will therefore be in our own best
- interests.
-
-
- Solan
-