Hi Mike, On Sat, Jun 29, 2019 at 06:23:22PM -0400, Michael StJohns wrote: > Hi - > > I'm going to top post because replying to this line by line isn't really > the best way to dispose of this part of the thread. And as someone Agreed. I will just make a few key points (and reorder slightly for my convenience). FWIW, my stance on the goal of "dispos[ing] of this part of the thread" is not to come to agreement on the definition of "stupidity", since that's off-topic for this list; I will try to limit myself to trying to explain why, with my Sergeant-at-Arms hat, I continue to believe it is not appropriate. > noted, if I remained silent it might be taken as implicit approval of > what I consider a unsupportable take on "stupidity" as described below. [...] > To finish up - I appreciate that the Sargent at Arms has to walk a fine > line here, but I don't think this is even close. Again, I'd appreciate > it if in the future we follow the general contract and first have > private conversations. You'll have plenty of time afterward to make > your explicit disapproval clear if necessary. In this case, we felt a public statement was necessary, precisely because you decided to use the word after a (presumed) careful deliberation and thought it was still appropriate, and used it in the same sentence as "the question of malign intent". Situations and objects do not have "intent"; individuals (and perhaps groups) do. To speak of "stupidity" as the result of something with intent seems really hard to separate from the perceived "stupidity" of the intended action leading to that result, i.e., the action taken by the individual or group. I do not think that's appropriate professional conduct for this forum, and am compelled to publicly dispute the stance that such conduct is a valid result of a careful consideration of how to say something. > Also I'd really appreciate it if you don't attribute a particular > emotion to my persistence with this set of discussions - it's yet > another form of demeaning behavior. You attributed "frustration", and > another I* attributed "upset" to me. What I actually am is "sad" at the > state of affairs and "disappointed" in the various folk that caused this > stupidity to occur somewhat including myself. Feel free to use either > of those words in future correspondence. My apologies. (Perhaps I was projecting my own frustration onto you, since our responses to the situation seemed otherwise similar.) I'll try to keep that in mind. -Ben
