(urth) TWK: The Aelf dilemma

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes danldo at gmail.com
Mon Dec 5 15:41:10 PST 2005


1. If the remark was intended as levity, I apologize; there was nothing
in the context that caused me to think so. In context - as a response
to this statement:

> > > > >>Worship isn't primarily a matter of seeking
> > > > >> supernatural reward.

which was clearly meant seriously, this statement:

> > > > >It's a matter of seeking to avoid supernatural
> > > > >punishment.

certainly _looked_ like it was intended at face value. With no
tone of voice, no emoticons as a poor substitute for tone of
voice, no markers at all -- well, humor in email is pretty hard
to carry off. As I'm sure you're aware.

Nonetheless, if it was meant as a humorous remark, I
_do_ apologize.

2. Nonetheless: I did not "diagnose your soul." I interpreted
a specific remark.

I'll be honest: the remark got under my personal skin. I'm not
(I hope) a religious bigot; I run with a crowd that includes
atheists, agnostics, Muslims, a Buddhist, several pantheist/
neopagan/Wiccan types... But I _am_ sensitized to anti-religious
bigotry, because there's a lot of it in intellectual circles, and
_especially_ in SF fandom; people who think that if you believe
in any kind of religion, and especially Christianity, you must be
 mentally defective.

So I maybe took a remark as meaning more than it did. Again:
my bad.

3. But perhaps you can see how, thinking the remark to be
meant seriously, I would indeed see "disrespect for anybody's
position or beliefs," in it.

4. Whoa. Waitaminnit.

> And then, on top of it, you arrogate to yourself the right to
> judge me and attempt to smear me as a racist -- once
> again failing to realize that you are only holding the mirror
> up to yourself.

I most assuredly did not call you a racist. I drew an analogy
from one kind of bigotry (okay, _perceived_ bigotry) to
another. Read it again:

> > It really isn't all that different from seeing a
> > black guy walk into a restaurant and assuming he's
> > going to order chicken and watermelon.

One more time I'll apologize: if you can somehow interpret
that as smearing you as a racist -- well, then I apologize
for that. I did _not_ intend such a smear. I was pointing at
the "all-ism" (to use a general-semantics term) of bigotry,
the way it assumes that "all" blacks like chicken, "all"
Trek fans are get-a-lifers, "all" religionists are mentally
defective, etc.

There. Several apologies in one note. In return, I hope
you can look at what you wrote and see how it might
have been interpreted differently from how you intended
it.

--Dan'l

--
I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him.
                        -- St Teresa of Avila
http://www.livejournal.com/users/sturgeonslawyer



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