>On Dec 8, 2006, at 10:17 AM, Dwayne Monroe wrote:
>
>>To-date, I can think of three opinions I've tossed on
>>the rubbish pile because of persuasive
>>counter-arguments:
>
>Then you're a rarity! Three's a lot, not a little.
>
>But I suspect there are a lot of nonparticipants in these exchanges,
>lurkers and archive-readers, who don't have firm opinions on the
>points of dispute and so profit from the back & forth.
>
>Doug
Aside from which, Dwayne just probably likes the virtual hummers. ;p
No time at the moment, but I could probably think of many times my mind has been changed through discussions here and elsewhere. E.g., I used to think Chomsky was glorious, though boring. I'm less inclined to think he is so great, now. not because anyone here has jumped his case, but because they've forced me to attend to what he says more carefully and I've seen the errors in some of his thinking. E.g.,Tayssir's most recent C quote revealed C to be relying on several logical fallacies. That's not very complimentary, but Carrol, as I noted the other day, has been enormously influential not necessarily bringing me completely to his POV, but helping me see where mine was weak, where I needed to alter some aspects of my position, and probably most of al showing me how to defend my argument.
Jenny is another person who has persuaded me on many issues, even though I haven't necessarily sparred with her about the topic. Yoshie has gotten me to see that her arguments are sometimes more reasonable than I'd initially thought. Which is to say, I've been persuaded to aspire to my ideal of 'engaged fallibilistic pluralism' <http://blog.pulpculture.org/?p=1652> in order to understand her position, to possibly even defend it to someone else, even while maintaining my disagreement.
Justin has likewise been someone from whom I've learned a great deal, though he's mostly encouraged me to take a stronger position than I'd taken. In other words, true, it wasn't a deeply held position.
Charles got me to see how calling him Chaz was unintentionally racist. HE also got me to see the importance of not using the N word spelled completely. I always found it odd that anyone would use asterisks, as if you somehow hadn't said or typed it. But Charles got me to see that I ought to consider how others feel about it.
Catherine, Annalee Newitz, you, Dennis (from LA), Eric Beck, and Angela have all shown me how my long ago critique of postmodernmism was wrong. Christ Catherine got me to see how my preference for 'womanism' was pretty weak tea. Angela, btw, also helped strengthen my understanding of my own experience re: difficult to read texts. I always found her texts difficult to read, but her arguments helped me to see that part of my problem was UScentrism.
Marta has challenged me on many levels, and although I was already interested in disability issues ever since the birth of sonshine, she's gotten me to see how certain turns of phrase were things I should avoid. She's also helped me to be a little more inclined toward engaged fallibilistic pluralism re: certain issues over which she and I have sparred. Interestingly enough, it's when I've attempted to explain the argument to R that I've found myself defending Marta's position -- as is my habit (I blame my mom). Once I had to defend it to someone else, I realized where I was wrong in my objections. Even though I may never have verbalized them to her, bitching at R yet trying to be fair to Marta helped me see the error of my ways.
Chuck0, as much as you drive me nuts, you manarchist you, has also improved my thinking about anarchism. While sympathetic, I never saw myself as politically aligned due to bad experiences on the ground with local As. Chuck also prevented me from falling into the trap of simply writing off As as kids attracted to a fad, which I might have done has I only been exposed to local As.
Don't mean to leave anyone out since everyone here has been an important teacher in some way, but I do have to say "belated thanksgiving to all" for this incredible braintrust.
"You know how it is, come for the animal porn, stay for the cultural analysis." -- Michael Berube
Bitch | Lab http://blog.pulpculture.org