Hi Kevin, On Mon, Jul 3, 2017 at 7:29 AM, Kevin O'Malley <kevmol...@gmail.com> wrote:
You claim that by giving Mary the boot you'd be editorializing the content > but you're already editorializing the content by coming down hard on only > one side of the insults. > Crass language and attacks are not content; they're just ways of undermining a civil discussion. Sometimes Mary insults people, but this is more because she has no filter rather than because she's seeking to escalate a discussion into a fight. There is no charge to her insults. She almost always focuses on substantive points. To exclude Mary, whose views are controversial and disagreeable to many, would be to subtly shape the debate and exclude someone who has occasionally been a source of interesting information. Debate consists of arguments; once a discussion devolves into attacks and the trading of insults, it is no longer a debate. Discussion with Mary never devolves into the simple trading of insults as she almost always addresses some substantive point. Eric
