Posting Guidelines and Insulting Behavior


Philip Coates

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To answer your original question -- "What does it amount to except a threat?" -- no, my comment wasn't a threat, but a statement of fact. Likewise, if JR were to assert that 2 + 2 = 5 in order to get a rise out of people, that would be one thing, but if it turned out that he really believed it, I'd have to reevaluate my view of his intelligence. Wouldn't you?

More of the same.

You didn't answer the question.

Right. And I'm not going to. The question unfairly stacks options. It smuggles in premises which either I'd be required to accept if I answered the question as stated or I'd have to explain why I don't accept.

Here's your original statement:

On this thread, I'm still at the point of believing that JR is not foolish enough to believe the silly crap that he's saying. I'd say that I have more respect for him than that. I've been operating under the assumption that we're having some fun jousting, and that he's yanking chains and hoping to get a rise out of people. If it turns out that I've seriously misread him, I'll eventually drop it and lower my estimate of his intelligence and personality accordingly.

J

Only someone foolish could possibly believe what JR said, so unless you're provided with evidence that you've "seriously misread him," you'll lower your estimate of his "intelligence and personality." Is that not, in fewer words, what the statement says?

No. My position is that if -- not "unless" -- I become convinced that I've seriously misread JR, then I'll lower my estimate of his intelligence and personality. My view is that he's talking trash and trying to get a rise out of people. If he is not, and if he truly does not grasp how complex adult basketball and football can be, then he is foolish.

J

Oops. Left out negative. I meant "that you haven't 'seriously misread him.'" Trying to make the point more simply. You're giving him the option of either admitting that he was just trying to pull chains or having your opinion of him lowered.

You said yourself:

Just to be clear, I believe that he detests sports. What I don't believe is that he's actually stupid enough to not recognize that the versions of sports that adults play are significantly more complex than those that children play.

I.e., he has the choice of confessing to insincerity or having you consider him stupid.

Ellen

Edited by Ellen Stuttle
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I can't help but note, however, that JR has a great big cigar in his mouth in his picture. My assumption is that was not a random cigar, but more likely evidence of a cultivated habit and enjoyment of smoking cigars. The cigar even appears to be lit. Smoking kills people, does it not?

How, then, is smoking a cigar less moronic than watching a baseball game? :lol:

Point of information: It's a pipe. You might be able to make out the bowl of the pipe at the side of his face if you look closely. He doesn't smoke tobacco. And no one else was permitted to smoke tobacco within the precincts of the San Francisco "Bear's Lair" apartment where the photo was taken. Guests at Beer Busts were permitted to smoke tobacco outside the apartment door.

Ellen

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Point of information: It's a pipe. You might be able to make out the bowl of the pipe at the side of his face if you look closely. He doesn't smoke tobacco. And no one else was permitted to smoke tobacco within the precincts of the San Francisco "Bear's Lair" apartment where the photo was taken. Guests at Beer Busts were permitted to smoke tobacco outside the apartment door.

I'm a bit confused now because isn't tobacco used for pipe-smoking too?

Or do you mean to say the pipe in the mouth was only used 'decoratively' for the picture by a non-smoker?

Edited by Xray
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I'm a bit confused now because isn't tobacco used for pipe-smoking too?

Or do you mean to say the pipe in the mouth was only used 'decoratively' for the picture by a non-smoker?

key_art_reefer_madness.jpg

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I.e., he has the choice of confessing to insincerity or having you consider him stupid.

You're apparently still reading a threat into my comment. I'm not making any threats or demands of JR or giving him a choice or ultimatum. I'm not saying that he had better do X or I'm going to punish him by believing Y. All that I'm doing is stating that if he believes certain things, then he is a simpleton. If he believes that 2 + 2 = 5, then he is an idiot. If he believes that modern U.S. military strategy is something that kindergarteners can understand (because he's seen them playing army) then he is a drooling imbecile. If he thinks that architecture is stupid, and that it's really nothing more than the infantile stacking of blocks (because he had the misfortune of having no talent for architecture while being raised in an area where it was the standard by which one's manliness was judged, and he was traumatized by architects and their groupies), then he is a moron.

J

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Jonathan,

I find your if-then thinking pattern very similar to Jeff's.

For example, to paraphrase him, if you enjoy playing football, then you are most likely a "thrashing, boneheaded jockstrap" with the mentality of a 5 year old.

No threat. Just simple deduction.

:)

Michael

(btw - I happen to like football. My father quarterbacked his high-school team to state championship two years running when he was young, so you can imagine what it was like growing up around him.)

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I can't help but note, however, that JR has a great big cigar in his mouth in his picture. My assumption is that was not a random cigar, but more likely evidence of a cultivated habit and enjoyment of smoking cigars. The cigar even appears to be lit. Smoking kills people, does it not?

How, then, is smoking a cigar less moronic than watching a baseball game? :lol:

Point of information: It's a pipe. You might be able to make out the bowl of the pipe at the side of his face if you look closely. He doesn't smoke tobacco. And no one else was permitted to smoke tobacco within the precincts of the San Francisco "Bear's Lair" apartment where the photo was taken. Guests at Beer Busts were permitted to smoke tobacco outside the apartment door.

Ellen

Ellen: what is it they say about people who always see a cigar when a pipe is actually present? You are correct: upon further review, JR is indeed smoking a pipe, or at least has one in his mouth. Nevertheless, I shall continue to enjoy my beloved sport of baseball. ;)

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This is about as close to sea level as I have seen here over the years. And mind you, I only live a few feet above it.

"Cigarettes, ice cream/Figurines of The Virgin Mary . . ." --King Crimson, "Great Deceiver."

rde

Baseball, Particulars, General Weenie-ness.

Edited by Rich Engle
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I can't help but note, however, that JR has a great big cigar in his mouth in his picture. My assumption is that was not a random cigar, but more likely evidence of a cultivated habit and enjoyment of smoking cigars. The cigar even appears to be lit. Smoking kills people, does it not?

How, then, is smoking a cigar less moronic than watching a baseball game? :lol:

Point of information: It's a pipe. You might be able to make out the bowl of the pipe at the side of his face if you look closely. He doesn't smoke tobacco. And no one else was permitted to smoke tobacco within the precincts of the San Francisco "Bear's Lair" apartment where the photo was taken. Guests at Beer Busts were permitted to smoke tobacco outside the apartment door.

Ellen

Ellen: what is it they say about people who always see a cigar when a pipe is actually present?

Your guess was "Close, but no cigar". ;)

Edited by Xray
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