RE: META: Dishonest debate (was "cluster bombs")

From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sun Jun 15 2003 - 22:36:57 MDT

  • Next message: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky: "Re: META: Dishonest debate (was "cluster bombs")"

    Ron writes

    > mail@HarveyNewstrom.com writes:
    > > Nice jab. But can you buy that the above description is a
    > > far cry from being a communist, a terrorist, a Saddam supporter,
    > > a bin Laden supporter, a traitor, or a person giving comfort
    > to the enemy during wartime?
    >
    > Harvey, if you do enough damage to the country then all of that is a
    > distinction without a difference. If you, alone or in concert, can weaken the ability
    > to govern enough to cause unnecessary death and injury, what difference would
    > it make which of those and many other alternatives you were? So that is not
    > the question.

    Hmm. I thought it was a good question (not that I want
    an answer, just that it conveyed fairly what you probably
    want to know).

    > The question is how much do you hate and how much harm
    > are you willing to do whether that harm is intentional
    > or through indifference?

    It takes careful reading to see that there is no
    accusation here. People are still going to infer
    that you are saying that they *do* hate, and that
    they do a lot of harm. Since it's not been
    established (to my knowledge) that Harvey hates
    anyone, this is incendiary! Isn't there a milder
    way to ask that?

    > You seemed to accept my designating you a Bush hating
    > Democrat so I accepted the term as accurate.

    Hmm. I was about to write "Can't you see that this will
    get a vigorous denial??", but hell, what do I know?

    Lee



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