On another journal

[arichi]

To those of my friends who were following an argument on another journal and were offended, I can say merely that I apologize and that I'm sorry.

Some points of view, I have learned, are beyond satire - or go beyond recognition when used as such.

In addition to apologizing to people on my friends list, I would like to apologize to maniakes, whose

Comments

[loonyemi]

reel_on_love is one of those people I keep around because his good qualities outweigh the parts I can't stand about him. Don't feel you have to apologize for getting satirical in an argument with him; anyone who's known him for twenty minutes realizes that he's the type to latch on to any possible argument, insert a few highly opinionated jabs, and proceed to call anyone who argues with him "unreasonable", hanging on to his arguments with the dire grasp of a pit bull and denouncing anyone else who won't compromise their beliefs as incapable of rational thought.

Add to this the fact that his views are liberal to the point of excess, and I don't think there's a soul reading this journal that would fault you for any part of the discussion that occurred.

maniakes, on the other hand, is a thoroughly reasonable person who reminds me a lot of my dad. Since you're my mom, I thought it natural that you would be arguing.

[muninx]

I have no idea what this is about, but I second this notion about Max/reel_on_love. While he's a great guy and a good friend to have, he's utterly infuriating in arguments. No matter what you're talking about, he'll play Devil's Advocate just for the joy of arguing. But he also isn't the type to take arguments personally, either.

[loonyemi]

Teh Sam needs to read my journal more!

Or call me. I'd like that, too.

[arichi]

Actually, reel_on_love played on exactly what I was satiring: the intolerance of the "tolerance" brigade and the warping of the word tolerance.

One of the things that any good philosophy education will get you is the ability to apply a notion to itself: for example, a popular notion these days is that there are no moral absolutes and that morals are relative [this is usually followed by "and unnecessary"]. Of course, this itself is an absolute moral judgement, and thus isn't even internally consistent.

[maniakes]

I wasn't particularly offended. I was just exasperated that otherwise-reasonable members of the Theist crowd seemed to be just as intolerant as otherwise-reasonable members of the Atheist crowd.

I'm barely offended when my personal position is being directly insulted (hasn't happened that I recall of religion, but happens fairly often on politics).

I now feel pretty silly for taking an obvious-in-hindsight piece of satire literally. :)

[arichi]

I'm glad to hear that you aren't offended. I can understand your exasperation - having someone on your side presenting bad arguments can be one of the worst things to go through.