From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Tue Dec 11 2001 - 13:53:22 MST
"Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" wrote:
>
> Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
> >
> > Um, because some of us don't confuse words with violence.
> > Terms like "verbal abuse" beg the question of whether there
> > is such a thing, and I happen to think there is not. If you
> > are harmed by words, that's your problem.
>
> Children can be verbally abused, and even some adults.
I'd correct that to say "40 year old children".
> It takes
> psychological strength not to be harmed by words, and some adults in
> unfortunate situations aren't given the opportunity to accumulate that
> strength.
Rather that they are encouraged by certain parties/groups/agendas to
wallow in victimhood.
>
> I reaffirm my own declaration that (a) I cannot be harmed by words, *any*
> words, no matter how constituted and (b) if I can be harmed by words, it's
> my own problem. But that's a declaration that I have to make for myself,
> not a default state of affairs.
Its the default responsibility of anyone claiming status as an adult
citizen.
>
> It is fair to assume that anyone posting to the Extropians list is
> responsible for having some threshold level of psychological strength, at
> least that of a normal adult - after all, someone posting to this list who
> merely happens to be 14 years old is probably not in any sense an ordinary
> teenager. So to that extent, if someone on the Extropians list is harmed
> by the sort of words we've seen being tossed around, it can probably be
> said to be the fault of the person harmed. Generalizing this to all
> possible words is much more questionable - I think that should take a
> deliberate declaration of self-responsibility.
I may be the exception, but I think that its highly entropic to pander
to those who wish to destroy the 'caveat emptor' nature of the internet,
to make it just one more medium of promulgating the PC propaganda of
simpering serfdom.
As for myself, I really don't care what people call me. When they vent
their worst invective (as several left reactionaries have) at me, they
generally harm their own argument and individual reputation far more
than they prick at my ego. I find such responses highly useful in
identifying the demonization tactics (and exposing them to others for
what they are) as well as the hypocrits they are acting as, since they
will generally excuse themselves from the same rules they whine and cry
so much about.
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