Re: "To visit an apartment"

In article <ztOdnSWrJJfkfLzbnZ2dnUVZ_sapnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Purl Gurl <purlgurl@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
blmblm wrote:


[ snip ]

Yes, I read your story. I have no idea whether it is fact or
fiction. I can't imagine how anyone who wasn't present for the
events of the story could begin to guess whether it's true.

I just posted a follow-up saying that the story might have seemed
more likely to be fiction if it resembled something well-known.

It occurs to me now also that, since you did give a first and
last name for the villain of the story, a person could try to find
support for the story in newspapers or public records. I didn't
do that earlier. When I tried a Google search on "Flora Homma"
just now, I found two links to something you had written, plus a
link to something from a court proceedings that neither confirms
nor refutes the story:

http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=36524

"First rule of holes", as heard in a Molly Ivins column not
too long ago: "When you're in one, stop digging." I think
I'll try that here.

Another wise decision. My story of Flora Homma is true and this
story I relate is a gentle story of hers; she is worse than I
portray. Flora is truly a murderous woman with at least two to
three kills during her life. She never faced any charges for
complex cultural reasons, of the time.

Yours is a wise decision because I was prepared to provide
stories of others about Flora, stories provided independent
of me, all quite verifiable by any.

Of course, you're not doing so, so the truth of the story still
relies on your word. We're still in "I don't know" territory
here.

The general rule I'm applying here is to neither believe nor
disbelieve something unless there's credible evidence one
way or another. With all due respect, some random person
whose posts I read on Usenet is not an automatically credible
source. A person with a history of posting information that
can be confirmed gains credibility; a person with a history of
posting information that can be refuted loses credibility.
This is basic critical thinking, no? Admittedly it's very
tempting to not bother with that, and just believe things
that accord with one's own prejudices and experiences and
disbelieve things that don't, but .... More about that later.

[ snip ]

Here is the deal. There are those in life who have led and lead
a lifestyle so radically different than the average, typical
people have great difficulties believing life events of those
who enjoy a very different lifestyle.

These stories I relate in this group, are true. Problem you have
is my life history and my lifestyle, both are so very different
than your own, you simply cannot believe.

I don't want to engage in a general discussion of my life
history or lifestyle in such a public forum, so I didn't ask
before -- and won't ask now -- how you can possibly know enough
about my life history or lifestyle to make this assumption.
As it happens, it's fairly accurate, but it seems to me to
be more a good guess than anything else.

Even a person who has led a sheltered life, however, might
read newspapers and books, and thereby come to realize that
it's not the case that all the world resembles their own
backyards ("TWIAVBP").

I'm not surprised that I apparently come across as a stuffed
shirt with little experience of the world; it's true enough,
and not something I'm particularly proud of. But I resent
being told [*] that this makes me too narrow-minded to accept
that there might be a world outside the boundaries of my own
experience; I don't think that follows logically, and I'm
not sure how you could infer it from anything I've written.

[*] Well, that's how I'm interpreting "you simply cannot
believe", but I guess I could be wrong about your intended
meaning.

One more thing: Even if the events of your story had not
been fairly, hm, lurid(?), I believe I would still have said
"I don't know whether it's true or false" -- this is basic
critical thinking, and I'd resent an implication that I either
can't or don't engage in that.

[ snip ]

--
Decline To State
(But the e-mail address in the header is real.)
.

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