JewelSong wrote:Because I'm bored...
The problem is when you characterize that opinion in some negative way, as silly or stupid, rather than just responding that you disagree.
What if the opinion itself is negative, silly or stupid?
"I think the earth is flat."
"I think black people are inherently less intelligent than white people."
"I think gay people should be publicly stoned to death, like it says to do in the Bible."
I can tell you that if anyone posited opinions like these, my reaction would be decidedly negative.
This is kind of what I was thinking about, yesterday, while I spent 4 hours digging up an ancient raised flowerbed that had 15 garbage bags' worth of weeds, plastic bags, kids' toys, nails, random bits of rusted wires, and lots of relatively unhappy cockroaches. It's moments like that which make me reflect on philosophy and life in general.
I got the feeling, from his reactions in this thread, and from what Alatar has said before, that he is just downright allergic to political correctness and censorship because of it. He feels like that kind of knee jerk reaction to anything that anyone anywhere might possible perceive as incorrect, in any possible way, does more harm to us as a people than anything good the people censoring might be able to accomplish.
(Yes, that's a run-on sentence, and yes, I am too lazy to fix it. Sorry)
Is that close, Alatar?
I actually agree with the spirit of that. Sometimes it's easy to imagine angry hordes of people coming at you from every side analyzing every syllable that falls from your mouth with such a vengeful heart that they are sure to find fault. Everyone everywhere drawing lines in the sand and then defending those lines with red eyes aflame. As if they would only be happy if you agreed with them about every nuance. Unfortuately, the guy next to THAT guy has a different agenda, and his hair is standing equally on end.
It's enough to make one yell out "Get a grip!! It's only a JOKE!!" to the masses in general. And I have certainly felt like doing that.
But I brought up a question some pages ago, which if I find myself less lazy at some point, I will copy and paste. These examples Jewel illustrates, as well as my Mexican red light running example, would probably hit most of us as simply unacceptable. I think Alatar might have said, or implied, that he felt the Mexican one was unacceptable.
So those examples cross the line from political correctness nonsense to... well, we as a community will not harbour such spoken thoughts, here. Thinking such things is one thing. Saying them aloud (or writing them on a messageboard) is another. It is still another for the people of your community to choose not to challenge such sentences.
Because if thoughts like that are expressed and left unchallenged, there is tacit approval.
.
.
.
And it is up to me, I think, to not allow that to go unchallenged.
(Again, this is not directed at Lord M's original comment, which is not even in a league with these). It is up to YOU, whoever you are, dear reader, to express your values by not allowing such things to be said in your presence.
Aren't we
(and this hit me when I hit a pocket of like 4,000 cockroaches, a life-changing moment for sure) SHARING our values, here on this board? Aren't we, in this sort of 7 page discussion
(which may be 8 pages now 'cause this post is so long) shaping what we, as a community, really represent? Who we are, in effect?
In another quote of mine that I am too lazy to paste here, I said something like "Where disagreement starts, learning starts too". I really have learned a lot from this board, mostly from threads like this, although I assume I am one of the thin-skinned ones mentioned above who should stick to puppies and kittens and fluff elsewhere.
I
am terribly thin-skinned (mostly because I really care about you all, FWIW, and it distresses me if I distress anyone here), but I have a great huge need to learn what you folks are continually teaching me.
NO, I do not agree with everything I read here. But you do, all of you, continually make me think and grow and flex my own borders as a person. That's worth the flinching of my thin skin at times, and even though I apparently don't own any big-girl britches so that I can tug them on and take a verbal blow like more sturdy posters here, I will continue to engage in these discussions.
For purely selfish reasons, of course. You guys are good for me.
"What do you fear, lady?" Aragorn asked.
"A cage," Éowyn said. "To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
but it would not be a productive contribution to any discussion, and "You are silly for being upset" isn't either. Both are a variation on "your dumb" statement that make website comment such a delightful read. 
