No
I don't really do any of that
I think you are talking about yo
and you got confused
possibly
Not confused. Just explaining what is customary, what "one" does, what the social contract depends on, what people agree to agree on even when they don't agree because the world works better that way. Trying to point out what happens when some iconoclasts insist that the sky is green. And loudly interrupt regular folk while they're trying to sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to point out to them that the lyrics are wrong and that the sky is really green. At least for them, it's green, in their reality. Cool, I can dig it if your sky is green, but do we have to talk about it in the middle of the song?
You can say that you don't care if Neo has a son or if my eyes are blue. I take your point. You're right, it doesn't matter. I don't care, either. And there's no reason that you need care. But getting along in the world is predicated on people according a default amount of respect for other people and that requires taking their word for it, at least making a pretense of taking their word for it.
If I tell you that my eyes are blue and you say that you don't care, well, OK. Doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy, but it's OK. If you tell me that you don't accept, even tentatively, that my eyes are blue, then you're implying that I'm a liar or that I don't know the color of my own eyes. And that's below the default level of respect necessary for the world to run reasonably well. Which might not be so bad but that the problems it causes are utterly unnecessarily because it doesn't matter a bit what color my eyes are.
You said earlier that you store what people say under "maybe." How far is that from my "tentatitively assumed so?" Not very. You and Neo discuss your sons, your real son and his maybe-son. You share stories and insights no differently than you would if you considered his maybe-son to be an assumed-son. I don't see how the difference is worth a federal case.
Let posters have their little fantasy that they know other posters and that things they post are probably so, more or less. You can get a chuckle out of indulging them in their silly little fantasy if you want. Wouldn't that be enough fun? Why is it necessary to poke them with a stick? |
