Well, here we go with normative-theoretic basics: Who's the actual sponsor/owner of this chat/mail list. Who-so-ever-the-hell it is, don't THEY have the (moral, and de facto) RIGHT to censor, desubscribe, or whatever? Presumably, most of us are, ultimately, *guests* of the said sponsor/owner (again, regardless of who the hell said sponsor/owner happens to be [EXI, Max More personally, or a secret cabal consisting of FM2020, RAW, & Ignatz the Anarchist Mouse]). Can a sponsor/owner kick a guest out, more-or-less "arbitrarily?" Well, sure. S/He might not "ought" to do so, it may be SUBerogatory for hir to do so, but S/He rightfully CAN do so---it's permissible in the important sense that it is correlatively IMpermissible for anyone else to coercively interfere with hir doing so. Or am I TOTALLY screwed-up here?
Sure, we are--and damn well should be--a COMMUNITY, indeed, perhaps almost like a family, but let's not forget that someone or some organization is the proprietor, who ultimately has say-so.
I like dialog...dialectic. I think you, Joe, and Mike and Mark and Brian,
and Billy, et al were doin' FINE; we were, at least to SOME extent, honing
in on a (at least partial) reconciliation of the opposing sides (not
counting and notwithstanding the personal invective, [alleged] lies,
[alleged] personal defamations etc.--I'm talkin' about the evolution of the
debated concepts, ideas, protocols, etc.) I think we really do need such
systematic dialog/dialectic (WITHfrickinOUT personal invective b.s.)....
*BUT* I also feel(felt) that the g-word megathread(s) WERE spiralling into as much apolectic invective bullcrap as effective, productive dialectic, and many (apparently most) of the rest of the--ah-hem--COMMUNITY felt likewise. So they appealled to Greg to (temporarily) quash it. Was I disappointed? Well, yeah, a teeeeny bit, because I thought (still think) the main protagonists were--nonetheless!!--maikin some good philosophic (intersubjective, dialectical, reflective-equilibrating) PROfrickinGRESS.
But Greg chose to act in his capacity, and......
Anyway, Joe, Mike, et al whaddaya think?? Am right here, full o' crap here or what??
I always love your stuff, Joe. Be cool, bro.
Ciao
MCP