>From: Doug Jones <random@qnet.com>
>
>Zero Powers wrote:
> >
> > Can there be enough hateful cartoons about an organization that fights
>to
> > keep more guns than people in circulation?
>
>Not at the expense of rational discourse about the real problems and
>solutions- if gun rights activists are painted as violent antisocial
>irrational paranoid maniacs (the general drift of that cartoon), that
>makes it difficult to calmly analyze the situation.
Political satire is long recognized as a valuable tool in the social tool
kit. However I don't think there is any danger of cartoons preventing
rational discourse among those who prefer to seek it out.
>Your phrase, "an organization that fights to keep more guns than people
>in circulation" is obviously pejorative and not conducive to polite
>disagreement. Please reconsider using such language.
I politely disagree. A statement of fact, no matter how blunt, is neither
pejorative nor inconducive to polite disagreement. If I had called the NRA
and its sympathizers "violent antisocial irrational paranoid maniacs,"
*that* would be pejorative. If my quoted phrase offends your sensibilities,
I would suggest that you are ill prepared to engage in any passionate
debate.
-Zero
"I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past"
--Thomas Jefferson
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