From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Mon Jun 16 2003 - 18:07:58 MDT
Wow! One certainly envies Eliezer's turnaround time. Did you
see that? Ten minutes between (his) sending and (the Extropian)
reception! Oh... I see that I just got lucky too! Strange.
> > Regardless of how bad it looks, try whenever possible to stop
> > short of accusations. One trick that works for me is to
> > abruptly change my (now written) accusation into a question.
> >
> > Here is how: Append the words "Why shouldn't someone think
> > that" before the accusation, and then add the words "given your
> > remark here?", or "since you say [quote]".
> >
> > Presto. You've made your point, you've said what you're
> > thinking, and yet, as the other party studies what you have
> > written, he or she can find nothing unfair or excessively
> > confrontational.
>
> Why shouldn't someone think that this is a transparently obvious ploy?
Imagine yourself---perhaps quite angry---beginning to formulate
your reply. You want to proclaim to the world your indignation.
But where exactly to start? The more you read it, the more it
begins to look like a question and the less it resembles an
accusation.
Quoting the text hardly helps!
(To be sure---you know damn well what he *may* have meant.
What he probably meant. What he almost certainly meant.
But you can't prove it, not to others, and finally, not even
to yourself. The reason you can't prove it is that it never
textually happened.)
Innuendo can be pretty insulting and annoying, but it beats
by far quotable aggression.
Lee
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