Re: [Leica] Keep politics off the LUG

["Barney Quinn" <Barney.Quinn@noaa.gov>]

Martin,

I agree, particularly becasue Brian has set up the LUG Forum for us. A bit of an
amplification. I suppose that this is a fact of life on the net, but it bothers me.
On some mail lists there are are a group of what for lack of a better term I will
call alpoha typists who take it as their devine obligation to challenge and jump
all over anything with which they disagree. Sometimes I remain silent and don't
reply because I simply don't to deal with the onslaught of rhetoric and sophistry
which will be sent my way.

Somehow I don't think that the point of the LUG is to corresively and forceably
correct each other's political opinions. What to do about it, however, is an all
together question.

Barney

Martin Howard wrote:

> Recent political postings by LUGGERS make we wonder how much more of
> this should be tolerated.  The pattern at work is the following:
>
>         1)  Strong views are expressed in no uncertain terms in often
>         offensive language posted to the LUG, either directly, or via a link.
>
>         2)  Proponents of a different view react to this posting.
>
>         3)  There are calls from all quarters to stop the thread (which by now
> mostly
>         consists of messages to stop the thread), while the original poster
> smugly sits
>         back and watches the mayhem -- delighted that the Truth has gotten out.
>
> Alternatively, the pattern is this:
>
>         1)  Strong views are expressed in no uncertain terms in often
>         offensive language posted to the LUG, either directly, or via a link.
>
>         2)  Proponents of a different view stay silent, because they do not
> wish
>         to clutter up the LUG with off-topic posts -- but are at the same time
>         annoyed and dismayed at the fact that -- in their view -- only one side
>         of the story gets told.
>
>         3)  There are calls from all quarters to stop the thread (which by now
> mostly
>         consists of messages to stop the thread), while the original poster
> smugly sits
>         back and watches the mayhem -- delighted that the Truth has gotten out.
>
> The views may be conservative or they may be liberal -- the point is
> that they are unnuanced, often historically ignorant, only display a
> small, scewed view of an extremely complex set of issues, and are
> typically presented as though they represent the entire, unbiased,
> objective Truth.  They are about as unconstructive as anything can
> become.
>
> I'm not the list owner, but if I were, I would ban *anyone* who posts
> such political messages to the LUG -- especially in these times.  This
> is not the forum for such discussion and I for one am getting utterly
> sick and tired of having to sift through this inflammatory shit on the
> LUG.
>
> And before you start waving the first amendment, please consider that
> the LUG is not the US Congress and you are perfectly free to post these
> messages into the fora which explicitly exist for those purposes.
> Posting them to the LUG serves no purpose other than to illustrate your
> own ignorance and in social sophistication is on par with pulling
> girls' hair in kindergarten as a means of showing affection.
>
> M.
>
> NO ARCHIVE
>
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