@nimh,
nimh wrote:. That said, to go on a bit of a tangent, it doesn't make it less amusing to imagine the harrumphing post you'd be casting in Blatham's direction if he were to have used these same sentences to lecture a wayward A2K user about his crude posting ways. Who does Blatham think he is, trying to police discourse, the condescending elitist, etc.
Blatham and you are really frightfully similar in many ways, for better and for worse - the fact that he seems to annoy you more than anyone here is quite striking but probably not coincidental.
Interesting question Nimh. I don't dispute your point about "the harrumphing post" I might make. I have made a few, mostly short and sweet, comments about name-calling and vulgar epithets on these posts, but I don't think that is what you really have in mind. I do dislike the continuing stream of pasted opinion pieces, all suggesting the existence of some dark, evil movement conservative conspiracy, and characterizing their alternatives and those who advocate them, as sweet reasonable pragmatic models of goodness and truth. ( i.e. Koch brothers pure evil: Soros good). Blatham calls that "false equivalency" or something like that. I think he is nuts. Human nature is a common element in most such divides.
Blatham and I have extremely different backgrounds, experiences and outlooks -- very little there that is common. There may well be some personal characteristics that unite us, but, other than stubborn determination, I don't know what they might be. Blatham does not annoy me at all as a person: indeed sometimess I find him quite engaging. I do find the doctrinaire propaganda a bit tiresome, and particularly dislike his proclivity to conflate mere disagreement with evil intent and conspiracy. Blatham is a rather Medieval figure, who may be better suited for a role as a 13th century Dominican Inquisitor in Languedoc chasing down Gnostic heretics. I doubt he sees himself that way, but that is surely how his posts appear to me.
In my life I have repeatedly learned to mistrust those who are sure they alone know beyond doubt what is the right answer for any knotty problem. Indeed second order side effects, unsually unanticipated, comprise most of human history. The absence of doubt and skepticism strikes me as an element of insanity. I have led a number of organizations and groups of men doing new (to us) and challenging things. In each undertaking I have learned to value people with open and questioning minds, who keep alternatives always in mind and are quick to seize on and report new unanticipated facts. In this sense constructive disagreement is a necessary precursor to the right decision. Equally important, I have learned to quickly get rid of those who appear sure in advance that they know the solution. It has served me well.
