On Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 1:09 PM, Justin Scott <jscott-li...@gravityfree.com> wrote: > >> You could choose to skip the thread if you don't like it. > > Far from it, I find the discussion interesting but I do wish people would > stick to arguing the merits of their position rather than resorting to > personal attacks. I was just having some fun with Godwin's Law in this > case.
As an interesting aside, at what point (if any) do a preponderance of a persons positions (I love alliteration) go over the tipping point where those positions are essentially the person? As an example (h/t to Godwin), Adolph Hitler was a person. In general, I'd say that most people you would talk to would say that Hitler was an evil person. They wouldn't make distinctions about his policies and beliefs. I'm sure that there are several things you might agree with Hitler on. I bet he liked puppies, for instance. The value of a good strudel and a pint of lager. Probably wasn't fond of getting kicked in the balls when he wasn't expecting it. I'm sure that there are all sorts of commonalities we could find where, objectively speaking, you'd agree with Hitler. So, given the commonalities that you can probably find with any human alive, is it ever justified to make a judgement about "the person" versus making a judgement about each and every position/belief/behavior? I'd say, yeah, I feel like there is a point. I think that being fair has its useful limits (as does relativism) and at some point it is reasonable to say "this person is a fucked up idiot" as opposed to saying, "well, I'm sure they are a person with their own beliefs and I just happen to disagree with A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H...". I'm not sure that there is a reliable and defensible way of finding that point though or at least I haven't been able to come up with a justifiable criteria yet. I'm curious what other people think. Juda ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:327376 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
