andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>
>
>
> --- billbartlett at dodo.com.au wrote:
> >
>
> > OK I will. However Carrol is being quite vague about
> > his actual complaint, so his comments are no help.
> > As he admits, he's never been willing to actually
> > engage me in debate either. So I suspect that it is
> > not how I express myself, but what I say that
> > alienates Carrol.
>
Bill I don't remember the particular posts, but perhaps this will help. I have a graduated system for filtering posts -- about four subfolders in my inbox. Then, far enough down not to show on the screen, a folder (with several sub-folders) labelled low priority. When you first started posting I put you near the top because I responded positively to the raw content of your posts. Then I began to feel that it was difficult to discuss ideas with you -- and I can only be vague because this was some time ago -- because you simply seemed to take _any_ correction, even of nuances, as opposition. So I put you in one of the "Low Priority" sub-folders. Then this impression grew on me, and I got tired of even looking at your posts, & they now go straight to trash. (Perhaps it was your habit of personalizing. I like strong expression of ideas and strong condemnation of ideas, but to condemn an idea, even to condemn harshly, must not become a condemnation of the person holding the idea.)
I try (not too successfully) to limit the amount of time I spend reading maillists, because being retired the activity could grow to really pathological proportions. One of the ways I do that is to shuffle aside or direct to trash many posters. I keep a number that I disagree with sharply (anarchists or radical democrats for the most part), but I don't keep cranks I agree with, chronic red-baiters, or those who merely duplicate the editorials in the Tribune & the local paper. You're a crank I tend to agree with but at present don't have time for. I keep some cranks that I disagree with, but I hate to see good ideas ruined. And one of my core ideas is that cops are structurally the enemy, but you sure as hell mess up that idea by refusing to see that applying it is a complicated matter.
Carrol