I see we both repulse each other... you by your puritanical moralism... me by my contrarianism.
Interesting points by both, lets not try and negate either by crass appeals to my keeping "playing the harp". No one else has tried to deploy this judgement within this entire thread for obvious reasons. I haven't "insulted" anyone, I've simply criticised... to think that I've actually "insulted" anyone is exactly the "victim-moralism" I'm talking about...
Appeal to my points, and not my apparent "insults".
...............
Philip, it's really not possible to appeal to your points since your points are based on the idea that someone, somewhere (and apparently in crypto form, since you can't find any examples) has been indulging in what you call "victim-moralism".
But since no one's done that, it's difficult to know precisely what you're objecting to.
Listen, I get it. You have this argument neatly packed and you're dying to use it here. In other contexts and with a different audience it's really been a bombshell.
Trouble is, it doesn't actually apply to the people you're currently trying to lecture. In fact, they're all aware of the phenomena you describe and agree with you that it happens in the big old wide world.
It just didn't happen here, on this list, in this thread, at this time.
The original discussion was about the mechanics of how the Prop 8 vote in California turned out. Some blamed the Bible and the South, others looked to subtler explanations. And still others -- well, just you really -- pulled out some notes long kept in a back pocket and recited them, regardless of whether or not they applied.
And the greatest irony is that you claim your parsings, unlike others, are delving into the particulars of individual cultures. For example, when you replied to Jordan that I'm a "puritanical moralist" because I supposedly:
apply[...] the moral framework which you've learned from a certain segment of society to others which are completely different... which is a variation of the following: every culture should be similar and familiar to my own...
[...]
But of course, by championing explanations from history and citing actually relevant works I, along with shag and D. Claxton, have been talking all along about the way African American life has been individually shaped by general American trends.
Charles Grimes did the hard work and wrote about his findings here:
"Social conservatism, revisited"
<http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20081201/020472.html>
I suggest you do the same. I suspect however, that you'll just keep on pretending this is some graduate philosophy seminar and keep announcing ideas most of us are deeply familiar with as if they're shockingly "contrarian" and startlingly new.
I suppose you'll next show up at a medical school and breathlessly declare the germ theory of disease.
.d.