IntolerancRe: Grammar, the Good & the Ugly, prejudice, WAS Harry that Heathen...

[lucky_kari]

No: HPFGUIDX 33915

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "ladjables" <ladjables at y...> wrote:
> Since you do 
> not know me, do not presume you know anything about my tolerance for 
> others or lack thereof.

Since I do not know you, I do not presume to judge your tolerance. 
However, the way your words came across through the dead medium of the 
internet was not pleasant. Think of how you would have received that 
from some-one like Kimball. It seems that Kimball wasn't interested in 
a discussion, but such a remark is guaranteed to turn off anyone who 
receives it, whether they are looking for answers or not. FWIW, I 
completely agreed with most things you said, and disagreed with 
Kimball. 

His essay had some interesting points, a lot of really dumb points, a 
skewed world view, a faulty memory of Lewis, Tolkien, and Rowling, but 
there was nothing in it that called for that rejoinder. 

There are a lot of things which have been used to justify slavery and 
genocide in the past. Black and white reasoning is not the only way 
there. In fact, the people who have most been able to see the grey 
areas in my own personal experience are defenders of Confederate 
slavery. Against my simplistic black-and-white reasoning (pun 
definitely not attended, but that's the phrase we were using) that to 
hold another being as a chattel is wrong, they see so much ambiguity, 
grey areas everywhere. Extremely black and white logic is closely 
associated with prejudice, but it is also associated with our greatest 
heroes, who stick to a truth, no, a truism, when the rest of the world 
is caught up in endless ambiguity. 

I did not think you thought Kevin Kimball was a neo-Nazi. However, I 
am disturbed that we can't join in debate against someone without 
using emotionally loaded terms. 

FWIW, though, I think I can see your point about black-and-white 
reasoning. I actually have always referred to it as "closed 
reasoning", where everything fits perfectly,  but leaves important 
parts of life out of the picture. And I think it runs the entire gamut 
from people with their closed theories about order, to people with 
closed theories,full of grey areas and ambiguity, which keep in 
everything except the fact that people are not chattels to be owned. 

Eileen