can anybody take bitbrain seriously?
Well, I don't, not really. But, after all, I was drawing up a list of ALL the Direct Personal Insults that I found, so I had to be fair to both sides. <gg>
Personally, I think that "rants" like the one you cite are generally more offensive, and more wounding, than most of the Direct Personal Insults. (Incidentally, I had even planned to use the phrase "Have you no shame?" as an example of an extended Direct Personal Insult, but I forgot about it.)
There are many kinds of rants, of course.
There are those that employ the Guilt by Association approach: e.g., "Clinton is a scuzzbag, and if you don't want to impeach him, it must because you are a scuzzbag too"; or (let's be even-handed here) "the religious right fanatics hate Clinton, so if you hate Clinton, you must be a religious right fanatic too."
There is also the rant based on the Let's Set Up a Straw Man approach. For example: I perceive you as a "Clinton supporter." I then make certain broad asssumptions about your general political and social beliefs, which I believe as a Clinton supporter you must hold. I then attack those beliefs, as if you indeed held them (which you in fact probably do not).
And so forth and so on. Maybe if the rants continue to pour in, and I have time, I will do a "comparative rant analysis." Ho, ho...
In the meantime, I can't help but wonder, along with tyro: Why won't the Perfessors in Merican skoles enseigne lawgic?
jbe
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