Dennis Claxton wrote:
>
>
> And people who muddy waters in the particular ways Dwayne is talking
> about revel in doing it for years and years.
(Preface: More out of nostalgia than out of current interest I subbed to the T.S. Eliot e-list. Very few posters. One the worst troll I have ever encountered; a second just loves t.x.e. and endlessly gushes nonsense about eliot's personal virtues, his this, his that, in all of which the troll supports him. I ignore all this. But the Troll also endlessly harasses a woman who is a pretty good scholar, and write sinteresting posts -- and she can't refrain from respondign the troll's idiocy and real meannes. So every so often I exercise my own (not inconsiderable ;-> ) talens for abuse, not because they have any effect on the troll but as a gesture of solidarity with thoe he abuses.
The list isn't moderated. Nevertheless, if the woman he harasses would filter his posts to trash and never read them, it would be best for all concerned. There is no way to discipline or drive off such nuisances. And in any case -- can't you tell the difference between an ad hominem argument and a personal attack? Probably there are too many of the latter on e-mail lists (and too many from me), but they do not necessarily poison the waters. But every ad hominem argument is a deliberate attack on intelligence and rationality. I simply cannot have any respect for the person who uses them.
Carrol