From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Thu Jun 12 2003 - 14:23:55 MDT
Hal Finney wrote,
> We are all harmed by misrepresentation. It hurts the quality of the
> dialog here on this list.
> I should make clear that this thread is far from the only one where these
> kinds of tactics are being used. In fact, I see the quality of almost all
> of our political discussions as being atrocious, full of name-calling and
> rhetorical trickery. Complaining about all of them would be a full time
> job, which I am not willing to take on.
I have started pointing out a few of these as examples. My point is just to
prove that it really is occurring. I likewise don't have enough time to
take on all of these or act as our moderator. However, I am not sure what
to do about it. Something needs to change. There is no reason why we can't
accuse each other of crimes against humanity, treason and make other
horrible claims in a calm, civilized manner without resorting to rhetorical
trickery.
I see this problem as a direct cause of my previous complaint that we aren't
attracting more scientists and mainstream support. I don't think real
science and the mainstream public have a stomach to put up with this sort of
nonsense. If we want to deliver a message, we need to do it honestly and
fairly without resorting to irrational tactics. I believe that only this
will make our list acceptable to real scientists, rational thinkers and
logical debaters.
> On this list we claim to be willing to explore novel technologies. Yet we
> engage in exactly the same styles of pointless rhetorical battling that
> you can find in any other forum on the net. What is Extropian about how
> we handle political disagreements? Nothing. We just yell at each other.
Yes. We all need to grow up, transcend, and really act in an extropian
manner....
But how?
-- Harvey Newstrom, CISM, CISSP, IAM, IBMCP, GSEC Certified InfoSec Manager, Certified IS Security Pro, NSA-certified InfoSec Assessor, IBM-certified Security Consultant, SANS-cert GSEC <HarveyNewstrom.com> <Newstaff.com>
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