its a message vs the messenger thing. My message was uncomfortable for some, and so I, the messenger, became a metaphorical urinating dog ... never mind the message.
Some with more formality recognize well the difference between disputing, even flaming, a message versus dodging the message and going for the messenger.
Its not really a big deal to me, type of thing used to piss me off, but in the end while folks can agree or disagree, love or hate, the conceptual space and the notion of what is or is not good vibrant discourse is lost to some.
I think I could say: 24601, that idea is hideously full of crap and misconceptions ... and he would look forward to me backing that up. There is a formality to the battle of ideas, and not all subscribe to it.
I used to piss on people over this, but I think it is just misdirected. They are wrong, but wrong things are. Part of what is. They probably do a lot of good things in the world as well.
Its not like are talking about anything I haven't done, tar the messenger, personalize their message and conjure it as some sort of wicked affront.
Things could be better, and things could be worse.
Certainly pink slipping 24601 is really reaching, we are not talking about some bandwidth spamathon freak or anything.
So it goes.
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