h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It seems Jack that things have gone badly wrong between us. It started when you made that reference to my mental capacity as an ant..and then with your remark yesterday after my humorous post on that 10 Commandments thread. And I stupidly brought that into the Jedi thread.

But yes that was silly, and I'm very sorry.

So hopefully we can now move on, because I'm offering you an Olive Branch.

Thank you for the apology and olive branch.
Hoom.
Afore we move on perhaps I should note what has gone before from another perspective:

I made the remark about voting styles. It struck me as I hit 'post' that the relative complexity of the social structure of ants and seals would have been a better comparison to make. Connotations of hives and drones vs play and experimentation.
I wasn't trying to insult your own or Pinniped's mental abilities.

I'm sorry that remark was thought of, written and posted in too few seconds to have been anything but clumsy.


My remark about stealing apologetics were about the thread itself, the original post and its author.

It came after your posting because yours was last on the page.

It was a "I Taw a Putty Tat" kinda comment, I thought I saw the theft of an apologetic from Ann Widdecombe, despite it's obvious vacuousness.
She recently did a "documentary" for Channel4, in which she attempted to blame every perceived ill in modern Britain on the creeping evil of secularism and atheists.
Central to her argument was that scientists cannot prove that the Jews were not slaves in Egypt, even if they do say there is no evidence they were. That Alfred the Great was influenced by Roman Catholic thinking. And, that no greater moral guidance has been given to humanity than the Ten Commandments, so obviously society would be better off living by all ten.
Your comment in that thread had little to nothing to do with apologetics, let alone Ann Widdecombe, perhaps you can see why I was bemused as to why you might have taken some umbrage at it...


Hoom.
So, moving on now... I do like to have it out over ideas, but I'm rarely if ever up for a pointless exchange of sniping, baiting and personal insults. I may well in future insult your ideas or the arguments you deploy in favour of them. But, that is not the same as attacking you.


OK?


(I hope this post isn't as long and coming across so tiresome as it feels)

Yeah so it seems that 'misunderstanding' started things off, because I had never had any contact with you before, that I was aware of, and I was pretty stunned by that ant brain remark, because my previous post was of course only semi serious, and then equally confused by the Widdicome/cretinous remark coming straight after my 'irony' on the 10 Commandments thread; but you've now explained it was meant to refer to the OP.

> I may well in future insult your ideas or the arguments you deploy in favour of them.<

Well I'm not a huge fan of insulting people's ideas or arguments, unless I've formed a very low opinion of them, I prefer to see it as exploring ideas through discussion and argument, though we can all sometimes get caught up in the heat of debate sometimes. I'm also a big fan of humorous banter and irony as well, which can easily be misunderstood of course.

But Hopefully things will be better now.

Thomas Jefferson
"Ridicule is he only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them..."


It is that spirit that I will insult people's ideas or poor arguments in support of, sometimes, even a valid position. Otherwise the debate will not get very far in having an interesting exploration of ideas.

Hmm interesting, and whose spirit you mean it in. Don't know much about Jefferson myself, apart from the obvious. Didn't know he'd said that.

> Otherwise the debate will not get very far in having an interesting exploration of ideas.<

My experience is very much the opposite. Yes some may take it on the chin, but I find using derision and mockery, how my OED defines ridicule, mostly leads to people just getting defensive, leading to polarised debate, that goes anywhere but interesting, or people just walking away or ignoring one's point.