A polite request

[Nihil]

I have a lot of time & respect for the people on this forum and have
found an abundance of interesting & enlightening information over the
years. I would really appreciate it if it stays that way.

Please people, can we PLEASE keep
it a polite, informative forum?

There will always be the odd bit of sniping on an internet forum (and
it can often be amusing) but recently the level has shot up - as has
the temperature & language of each exchange.

Both of the two main protagonists at the moment (NNadir & jpak) have
a lot of really helpful input but there is a major risk of missing
out on this through the constant bitching and insult-trading on just
about every thread they can manage.

It's not even a case of "put them on ignore" as not only do I usually
*want* to read what everyone says, the appearance of a snark-fight
kills the topic. Nor do I want to alert each bitch-fest and throw it
over the wall at the mods - this is Environment & Energy not I/P.

Please guys, let's keep it out the gutter? We are adult enough to
hold opposing opinions without having to resort to name-calling ...

Thanks,

Nihil

[Viking12]

1. Seconded.

I was going to post a similar plea in another thread (two other combatants) but decided otherwise.

[MercutioATC]

2. What, and break with DU tradition?

:evilgrin:

[meow mix]

3. you are a Twit.

and a ninny.

this should be the "insults from 1910" forum

[NNadir]

5. I am an old guy.

Not quite from 1910, but closer to it than most people.

:shrug: ;)

[NNadir]

4. Since this thread is 50% directed at me personally, I will comment.

I don't play nice.

Somewhere about 2000 I decided that lies and distortions are reified if they are met with polite and gracious stuttering or even feigned respect. I vowed to change my style and to be agressive and confrontational. As I've said elsewhere consistently I am passionate, and I further assert that my passion is informed by a concern about a real emergency that involves my children and everyone else's children.

My icon is of Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass once was publicly passionate on a notion that was highly controversial and highly unpopular in the times in which he began speaking out: That African-Americans were not farm animals. Mr. Douglass wasn't particularly polite about it. He called the people who held opposing views thieves, and murders and rapists. He expressed searing contempt for them. Mr. Douglass's rhetorical style had no bearing whatsoever on the truth of his contentions. Ultimately the vast majority of Americans came in fact to hold views that were identical to the views that Mr. Douglass so ungraciously expressed. This of course is a result that Mr. Douglass's view was true - despite all of the elaborate constructions against it - some pseudoscientific and others religious - despite all of clever and less-than-clever objections to it. Today we regard people who hold views differing from those expressed by Mr. Douglass in the 1840's and 1850's as insane.

Some people are amused by my approach; others less so. Some people write me publicly and privately to tell me that they have gotten something out of what I've had to say. There is, however, no requirement whatsoever that one read any of my posts at all. If the package looks ugly one may not wish to open it irrespective of what riches or detritus the package contains. In general, I am not really interested in popularity or in being liked. I am interested in confronting reality, and this is the style in which I choose to do it.

DU allows for other options of course, and each may use his or her own judgement if he or she wishes to employ them.

One can appeal to the moderators to have my posts deleted, one can simply click on the "ignore" button, or one can go even higher to attempt to have me banned. One can also even privately pmail and ask me to explain myself or comment on my rhetorical style, a style that, by the way, is hardly unique on the internet or in public discourse at large either at these times or at many other times in history.

I have never done one of these things myself with respect to another poster, although I have, on occassion done what this thread does, which is to make a negative comment on another poster or other posters explicitly. (I have also done so less explicitly as well, which is somewhat more challenging.) Of course, I'm not sure that I opened a thread for the sole purpose of expressing my displeasure with someone else, but I may have. For the record, I really don't expect my antagonists to change, nor do I really want them to do so. I kind of like having what my antagonists say on the table where it's open, where we can see and smell it and taste it for what it is.

I do appreciate the gentle spirit in which the comments opening this thread are offered, but I decline to embrace that for which those comments ask. I'm really too old to start pulling punches. In fact I regret many of the punches I pulled in my youth. Like Popeye, I yam what I yam.