>Ah... Well, my bad. Just joined the list recently--I guess I
>underestimated the level of snarkiness in force here. Even coming
>from the list administrator.
Hey, remember I greeted you with some snarky questions when you first subscribed. Didn't that prepare you?
>I suppose I read the original post as more frustrated than hostile
>(though certainly a little hostile). Certainly I thought it was
>seriously asking for a response, for a debate. The fact that no one
>even considered engaging the man on his points is probably a
>function of the fact that this has become something of a private
>space, one that doesn't take well to strangers, differing views,
>etc. I can understand that. And I can understand not wanting to
>engage in redundant debates. But let's make sure you admit that such
>an attitude doesn't help the cause of the left's "marginalization"
>(something, even having followed the list for only a few days, I've
>seen arise several times). But I'm sure everyone behaves better in
>the real world than they do here.
>
>As for the slurs on TNR: Whatever.
Those take care of themselves - e.g. Peter Beinart blaming S11 on Toni Negri. A parodist couldn't do any better.
As for the substance of the points - the new arrival claimed to have read through the archives. To say that people here care more about pansexual orgies than workers just has no basis in anything that was ever written here. Almost everything in his greeting post was not true of the list's inhabitants, and drew on a tired series of false oppositions - either you care about queers or Mexican grocery baggers. You can never care about both, and of course the Mexican grocery bagger is never a queer herself. One of the reasons I started this list was to get beyond that idiocy, and then Lance came in to embody it - attacking us with no textual evidence at all. Just a litany of hostile cliches.
Strangers are welcome - I welcomed you, didn't I? Differing views are welcome too. And much of the discourse on this list over the last few weeks has been about how an antiwar movement can engage people outside the church. Since Lance's maiden speech was nothing but smears, badly rendered, I didn't think he deserved any kind of serious engagement. If you want to engage any of us on substantial matters, please do; many of us would happily respond.
Doug