Re: Sunken Cuban City reply

"t.anderson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "Thomas McDonald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> >
> >     I get a little heated, no doubt.  However, do you recall any of the
> > discussion from the believers in the 'sunken Cuban city' when the topic
> was
> > hot?  If not, perhaps you'd have the civility to review it and see
whether
> I
> > was showing less civility than they.
> >
> >     You are probably right in that I would not generally say what I
wrote
> > here to someone's face.  When I can see and talk directly to someone, I
> tend
> > to be more willing to dig to see how come they hold ideas such as this.
> > Mostly, it's ignorance and I treat them gently.  However, when they are
> not
> > only ignorant but also unwilling to consider another pov, and when they
> also
> > cast aspersions on those with whom they disagree (especially when those
> > other persons actually know whereof they speak), then I've been known to
> say
> > the unvarnished truth to their faces.
> >
> > Tom McDonald
> >
> >
>
> Thanks for considering my point of view! I hear what you are saying, and I
> think we all can improve the way we speak--on the net and off. I think
> perhaps previous generations had a bit more restraint, perhaps because
they
> believe the injunction that they would be judged by every idle word
spoken.

    Well, that, and one might get things bruised or broken with incautious
words; and a reputation for such might not be in one's best interest in a
face-to-face society.

    At least in the US, what is now often prosecuted as assault and battery
was once (in my lifetime) almost always considered a reasonable way of
dealing with conflict.  Some of it was even part of male bonding.

    In these days of modern times, though, we've gotten less tolerant of
that.  Mostly a good thing, except when one needs to treat, say, Minnesota
Vikings fans as though they were real human beings. :-)

Tom McDonald