All of a sudden -- quelle surprise -- a thread I started is being overrun by right wing cockroaches, scuttling out from the woodwork -- not to participate in a substantial discussion, but to call me names. Wow. Just wow. Name-calling. That reveals one thing above everything else -- the intellectual poverty of those who think thats a valid contribution to a conversation. Instead of speaking to the issue, instead of bringing in facts and logic and evidence and thoughtful reasoning, its an immediate retreat to the last desperate argument: Youre not a nice person -- and variations thereof. Well, no -- Im not a nice man. I demand excellence. First, I demand it of myself. Thats why 95% of what I do is research. And because I demand excellence from myself, I demand it of the people who want to share my space as well. I have little patience for liars, posers, phonies, and people whove reduced their ability to think to being nothing more than a tape machine for other peoples ideas. My role models were Heinlein, Ellison, Sturgeon, Sagan, John Wayne, and Bugs Bunny. Deal with it. And yeah, I am arrogant. You dont spend half a century on education, on research, on exploration, on personal challenges, without getting to the top of the occasional mountain. Its a great view -- but my arrogance is honestly earned because what I demand of myself is a level of personal integrity that is unimpeachable. Thats what I demand. No, I have not achieved it, but its what I demand of myself -- to be the best person I can be -- educated, thoughtful, compassionate, generous, vulnerable, rational, thought-provoking, and useful to the people around me. A contribution. No, I am nowhere near being that kind of person, but thats what I aspire to. But at least I have a clear view of my personal philosophy and how I want to apply it. Ill repeat it again. My political philosophy is simple. We need to educate children, we need to make education affordable, we need to take care of the sick and elderly, we need to invest in schools, roads, dams, bridges, libraries, museums, parks, and all the things that elevate our lives worth living. We need to invest in research and development so that we can advance our science and technology. We need to live in harmony with the Earth so that what we leave to our children and grandchildren is a better world than the one we arrived in ourselves. So when someone arrives in the thread, impersonating a knucke-dragging, booger-chewing, flabbering badger of abuse, dropping pre-chewed turds into my punch bowl -- which when held up to the light are noghitn more than assinine (and ignorant) judgments, I cannot help but find it amusing. Its amusing because it reveals how little the author of the abuse actually knows about me -- and how pathetically feeble his/her online psychoanalysis is. Name calling reveals only that a person has reached the limits of his/her ability to discuss an issue -- because if the person had any facts or logic, the kind of compelling evidence that proves the case beyond a reasonable doubt, theyd drop it on me like a thermonuclear device. But if the only arrow in the quiver is mean old poopy-head it tells me the individual is not worth my time or atttention -- a point I made in the comment that started this thread. No, I do not have any patience anymore for dialog with the right wing -- because there isnt any dialog. And except for Brad Torgersen, this thread proves it. Perhaps someone is spreading the word that I need to be the guest of honor at a right-wing pile-on. But if the best you guys can do is call me names, then youre just proving my point that the right wing has nothing substantial to offer to the American public except bullying -- and what we know about bullies that fundamentally theyre cowards. Next?
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 08:14:31 +0000