Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Went over your head too, didn't it?

Went over your head, didn't it?
Robert — (archived)

Perhaps it was my mistake for being flippant on Current Events. So let me explain: My comments were directed entirely at the rhetorical device of fabricating a quote to "illustrate" what someone with whom you disagree is thinking. In other words--and I've objected to this before, you might remember--you're claiming telepathy.

The problem with the claim of telepathy is that it's used to create a type of straw man argument. There's always that slight, or not-so-slight, spin, because you control the expression of your opponent's "thoughts". Further, the device often has a slanderous cast to it, which you achieved with a "quote" dripping with craven whining. The twin implications add up to so simplistic a characterization as to be misleading--politics in Pakistan are horribly chaotic these days, and the government's posture is more accurately characterized as log-rolling than supplication. How does it promote understanding of the situation to caricature it? [oh wait, could it be that you're not interested in understanding it, only slamming the current Administration for the state of Pakistan?])

And the other day I criticized SDAI-Tech1 for "poisoning the well". Everybody complains about the quality of discussion, well, I guess what's on my mind is discussion "hygeine". Raising the standards.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (41 posts)