Glen, You are correct, especially when I used all caps to shout my assertion. My only excuse is that I was writing to a specific audience who I do not expect to take me all that seriously.
Also, a bit of habit. When I stood in front of the classroom for the first time and introduced myself to the class I would tell them, "Everything I say is absolute gospel truth asserted by god!" Then I would smile and tell them that most of them knew a lot more than me, but it was up to them to either challenge me and have some great discussions where I would learn something, or be a mute sheep. Being intentionally provocative worked very well, but I was teaching in a software program where requirements for admission included 3+ years of professional software development experience. Had some lively class discussions, and I learned far more than I taught. davew On Tue, Apr 14, 2020, at 11:48 AM, uǝlƃ ☣ wrote: > Excellent! Thanks for that qualifier. A remaining question is: When you > state your CONCLUSION without a subjective qualifier, the audience is > supposed to implicitly *hear* a qualifier. But when someone on MSNBC > states their conclusions without the qualifer, you hear *authoritarian* > assertions. > > Why should your audience have to insert the qualifier themselves, but > *you* don't have to insert the qualifier when listening to others? That > may be unclear. Why do you hear scientists' assertions as > authoritarian, but expect the scientists to hear your assertions as > lil-ole-me opinions? > > I.e. why are their qualifier-less expressions any different from your > qualifier-less expressions? > > I suppose you could make the argument that your platform is much > smaller than theirs. So, nobody could mistake what you say for > authoritarian. But I'd argue that your email address and name "Prof > David West" make explicit leverage of the authority that comes along > with professorship, much like Dr. Oz explicitly leverages the authority > of the "Dr" prefix. To boot, implicitly, the jargonal language you use > (e.g. "ethnographic research mode") lends a hint of "I'm an expert > because I can use these words". With no qualifiers like "my attempts at > ethnographic research", which could be emphasized with further > qualifiers like "my layman's attempts at ..." or whatever, it would be > easy for me to *fear* you and those who talk like you. > > I don't fear you, because you seem like a nice person. But I do fear > those who might read your authoritative words and uncritically believe > them. > > On 4/14/20 9:11 AM, Prof David West wrote: > > It was not my intent to make any assertions, or claims. merely to offer > > completely subjective observations - "anecdotal data" as it were. Yes, > > there is a not-so-subliminal editorial slant behind the observations. But > > that slant is pretty obvious and quite familiar to those on the list: > > > > - I do not trust, and actually fear, government, especially the Federal > > Government > > - I believe the danger of a 'dictatorship-of-the left' to be far greater > > than from the right, and that the clown in office is a trivial to > > non-existent threat. > > - nothing posted, tweeted, published, aired — regardless of source — can be > > accepted at face value but must be deconstructed (including "scientific" > > material) > > I have no expertise,, certainly no authority, but do fancy an aptitude for > > careful observation that may or may not be of value to anyone. > > > -- > ☣ uǝlƃ > > .-. .- -. -.. --- -- -..-. -.. --- - ... -..-. .- -. -.. -..-. -.. .- > ... .... . ... > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > .-. .- -. -.. --- -- -..-. -.. --- - ... -..-. .- -. -.. -..-. -.. .- ... .... . ... FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
