Replies to post #128 on Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[augieboo]

AK, the post you just referred to was made in complete jest. You'll notice that it is not in response to anything at all. In other words, there is no "THEM." (At the time, it seemed like nobody was ever going to use this board, so I thought saying something really silly might liven it up a bit.)

I hope you won't delete that post, or this one of mine, merely because I am questioning your policy of deleting posts you don't care for.

Please, feel free to question anything I say, or anything I do, for that matter. I am at least as imperfect as the next person, so the chances that I am right on any given issue are 50-50 at best.

But also, please keep in mind that I am an imperfect person, and as such, there are limits to what I can and/or will tolerate.

So far, the only type of posts which I find myself unable to tolerate are those along the lines of:

You hold position "a," therefore you are an ignorant and/or stupid person.

... or ...

You disagree with my view on "a," therefore you are an ignorant and/or stupid person.

... or ...

Your mother holds position "a," therefore she is an an ignorant and/or stupid person.

Please note that, because I am a "good Italian(-American) boy," the latter of these three, if stated to my face, might well provoke a rather extreme, impulsive, response. {G/NG}

We Americans are so enamored of our rights that we seem to have forgotten that every right carries with it a responsibility to use that right in a constructive manner. Nowhere is this more evident than on the internet, where the right to "free speech" has somehow morphed into a supposed right to commit what almost amounts to verbal battery, upon complete strangers, at will.

Perhaps such a "right" really does exist "here" in cyber-space. As a practical matter, it clearly does. Also as a practical matter, if someone wants to start a thread entitled, "Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics and Hurl Personal Insults at One Another," that is their right, (so long as Matt & Bob don't mind hosting such a thread). If someone starts such a thread, I will be more than happy to insert a link to it into the header of this thread, so that those of like mind may more easily find one another. But I will not participate in such a thread.

As for this thread, however, I will continue to ask that posters treat one another with common decency. I also ask that someone point it out to me if/when I fail to meet this minimal standard.