Re: Niggling away at the edges (related to Homemade bullet proof vest)

On May 26, 11:15 pm, Erol K. Bayburt <Ero...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mon, 26 May 2008 19:26:42 +0100, Helen Hall

<use...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

2. I don't know if you have thought about how you would feel if the
situation that led to the teflon bullet exchange were reversed. Suppose
some poster casually makes a statement that you regard as not only wrong
but dangerous, and not only dangerous but the result of deliberately
dishonest propaganda. An obvious example would be something about racial
inferiority or the inability of women to do science.

Would your response be not to respond because we shouldn't be arguing
politics here?

I would indeed respond and my response would be to say, "You're wildly
off-topic. Please either post about the subject of writing or shut up."

But a little over a year ago, you posted:

=======
In article <c6fD+pIP9y1FF...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
 Helen Hall <use...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


In message <o7es0s6kevqv$.2032r57hmbsg....@xxxxxxxxxx>, Ric Locke
<warlo...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
On Sat, 17 Feb 2007 10:31:45 +0000, Helen Hall wrote:
I don't know whether your world *would* have physicians. Just as
ordinary doctors were beyond the pocket of most people in our world
until the advent of nationalised health care systems or insurance
schemes, the rich will be able to afford your magical healers and the
poor will just have to heal naturally or die.
Helen, you're a good person, but this is the sort of thing that diverts
threads into politics, or runs people off who get tired of gritting
their teeth. You are also easily intelligent enough to reflect for a
moment and get an inkling of why.
Your comment has been noted. I will add "social history" to the long
list of things that can no longer be mentioned on this group for fear of
starting a flame war.
How we're supposed to do world building here any more, I don't know.

=======

It seems to me that Ric was more tactful than to say "You're wildly
off-topic. Please either post about the subject of writing or shut
up." And that the situtation is more complicated than politically
fraught statements being "wildly off topic." A casual statement can be
on-point - and still be regarded as "not only wrong but dangerous, and
not only dangerous but the result of deliberately dishonest
propaganda."

Personally I don't see any way of shutting down political arguments
that isn't worse than letting them run. It seems to me that the best
(least bad) possible course is to develop customs to keep the
arguments polite.
Erol K. Bayburt

I left rasfc for a couple of months after that incident and only
returned in April because the UK contingent were talking about
Eastercon.

But it proves my point not yours. I posted in good faith. I posted (as
I thought) a relevant comment about a situation in a story. I still
don't quite know what I said that touched such a raw nerve, but I was
*NOT* thinking of the US form of insurance scheme (about which I know
next to nothing), neither was I making any comment about the world as
it is now. I was thinking of the Victorian Friendly Societies that
existed in the UK in the nineteenth century. I was thinking of the
slate miners in Llanberis clubbing together and paying (out of their
wages) for a doctor to staff the little hospital at the quarry. Or a
variant of the Roman Soldiers stationed in South Wales paying into an
insurance scheme to ensure they got a proper burial.

But for some reason (possibly because there are certain posters here
who forget that we're not all Americans), it was taken in a way
totally other than I meant.

And for some reason, it's rankled so much that you've dragged it up
again, which was completely uncalled for.

Helen

--
http://www.baradel.demon.co.uk/
.

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