"I don't take any difference between that and actually addending the alias of someone you don't know and who is directly receiving your post. "
When you say you hate ice cream, or Elvis, or school prayer, you aren't attacking everyone who loves it. That people may love what I despise is a given for me (since I'm a relativist, I can even understand why they do.) That others may infer there is an attack upon the person, or even the alias of a person, when there isn't one IN the statement is sad, but little can be done about it, and, imo, to all rational people phrasing will make a difference, since it does actually mean something different, and actual attacks will be distinguished from non-attacks. Irrational people will be irrational no matter what, so I don't see much that can be done with them. If people confuse strong opinions about ice cream, or politics, for personal attacks on themselves, then that's really their problem, not mine- and they (of course) can vent about it, but it's so illogical, I wouldn't want them doing it around me.
We will obviously continue to completely disagree on this.
And re venting- since there are people who make a career out of venting on SI, I'm never going to agree with you that it's not a good thing to be able to ban them. They can vent all over the place, as there are plenty of outlets, but they don't have to be able to vent everywhere. And I have to say that the permanent vent communities on SI, are a bit like the vent communities on the ocean floor...known as the black smokers... (which are, if I remember correctly, full of hot gasses, sulphur and noxious compounds, although some organisms learn to survive there, and actually adapt to such surroundings, to the point that they could not function anywhere else...such is the diversity of life, metaphorically and philosophically) |
