On 09/04/2021 20:36, John Darrington wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 09, 2021 at 07:01:07PM +0200, David Brown wrote:
>
> Different opinions are fine. Bringing national or international
> politics into the discussion (presumably meant to be as an insult) is
> not fine. This is not a political discussion - please stop trying to
> make it one.
>
> For the record it was David who first brought up the political allegory so
> this comment should be directed in his direction.
Fair enough.
>
> As for your second point, I find it disappointing but not suprising that
> you "presumed" this comment to be an insult. This is precisely the
> thing which has caused so much poisonous discourse in recent years. Some
> people take any opinion they disagree with and look for ways to interpret
> it as an insult. This gives them a lever to claim that anyone who holds
> that opinion is a chauvanist, a bigot or worse. This must stop.
>
I did not take the comment as an insult - I merely presumed that when
Christopher says someone is acting like the Russian or Chinese
government, he does not mean it in a good way. (His later posts make
that entirely clear.) I simply don't want to see this turn into a
political discussion.
I agree with you entirely that it is not helpful to perceive insults,
prejudice or bigotry - in general, it is important to keep the
discussion polite and try to remain focused. That is what I wanted to
do by asking Christopher to avoid politics.
