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- Xref: sparky sci.skeptic:15511 alt.culture.usenet:749
- Newsgroups: sci.skeptic,alt.culture.usenet
- Path: sparky!uunet!usc!sdd.hp.com!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!news.iastate.edu!pv7413.vincent.iastate.edu!btd
- From: btd@iastate.edu (Benjamin T Dehner)
- Subject: Re: Derek Tops Dan!
- Message-ID: <btd.715231217@pv7413.vincent.iastate.edu>
- Sender: news@news.iastate.edu (USENET News System)
- Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
- References: <1992Aug23.101121@IASTATE.EDU> <1992Aug25.065402.19240@augean.eleceng.adelaide.edu.AU> <1992Aug25.101956@IASTATE.EDU> <1992Aug27.023116.6935@augean.eleceng.adelaide.edu.AU> <1992Aug28.112005@IASTATE.EDU> <1992Aug30.052044.20689@hfsi.uucp>
- Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 03:20:17 GMT
- Lines: 41
-
- In <1992Aug30.052044.20689@hfsi.uucp> ata@hfsi.uucp (John Ata FSO) writes:
-
- >In article <1992Aug28.112005@IASTATE.EDU> btd@IASTATE.EDU (Benjamin T Dehner) writes:
- >> Personally, I respect someone who will say what they feel. Dan always
- >>begins correspondence politely, and gives the other person the benefit of the
- >>doubt. It is only when the use of reason has obviously failed does he support
- >>to use of strong language. Admittedly, this will seldom succeed in convincing
- >>someone else where reason has failed. On the other hand, on the net where
- >>silence is often misinterpreted as agreement or submission, ('by your refusal
- >>to answer these claims ...', or 'the silent majority ... ') voluable disagree-
- >>ment is often necessary.
-
- >Where did you ever get the idea that silence is interpreted as agreement
- >or submission?
-
- This is a literal quote I have seen many times on usenet. I am not
- claiming it is a VALID statement, but it is often used.
-
- > Let me ask you this question, if a famous scientist was
- >attending a conference and you attacked his position but he didn't reply
- >to you, would you really think he was agreeing or submitting to you?
- >Or would you perhaps think that he didn't think your attack was worth
- >responding to...
-
- I would think he (or she!) was an idiot for not answering my question.
- If for some reason he cannot answer my question offhand (because he think I
- misenterpreted his point, didn't think of it that way, whatever) then he should
- admit it. Otherwise, I interpret silence as not having an answer, as well as
- not having the courage to admit it.
- If he thinks I am not worth responding to, then I am equally free to
- think of him as an arrogant ass.
-
- >--
- >John G. Ata - Technical Consultant | Internet: hfsi!ata@UUNET.UU.NET
-
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Benjamin T. Dehner Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
- btd@iastate.edu Iowa State University
- Ames, IA 50011
-
-