Go Shout at Someone Who Needs Convincing

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Go Shout at Someone Who Needs Convincing

Angry good scholarship is just as offensive as angry bad scholarship. I no more wish to hear "America's founding father's weren't Christian!" than "Evolution leads to atheism!"

You may be very right, but if you're shouting at me, or even holding an obviously more intransigent position than your words convey, I'll stop listening.

If I think you're incorrigibly wrong, there's no sense in me listening further. If I think you're incorrigibly right, go shout at someone else who needs convincing.[1]

[2010-10-27]

 

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Neither More nor Less

A careful writer neither includes nor excludes anything without reason. His goal is to present a product that in some way would be diminished if anything were added or removed.

That's why the subtitle of "The Thumb Lottery"  is "A Short Story in 4 Acts," but only has three.

Always assume something is there for a reason.

You may sometimes correctly assume something is missing for a reason, too, though the class of "what's not there" is infinite, so that is a risky business, but can be equally interesting.

[2012-10-27]

 

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Where old socks go when they die...

"For as long as there have been washers and dryers, women have been plagued by the Bermuda Sock Triangle. For every pair of socks put in the laundry, only one is returned. .. I told my kids the other sock went to live with Jesus."

--Erma Bombeck, in Crockpot Sock, March 20, 1990

I read Erma Bombeck every day in the Erie Daily Times when I was a kid, along with Dear Abby, the editorial page, and the comics.

[2012-10-24]

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[1]
Operative word here is "incorrigible." When a person has lost all willingness to listen to opposing views and refine their own, we've moved from dialog to diatribe (which at one time was a classical rhetorical structure but now means one-sided attack).

A lot of progressive talk is getting this way. So is a lot of conservative posturing. I don't think Ann Coulter is right about much of anything, but she is a good example if intransigent conservatism, which I'm sure is perceived as a compliment:

Ann Coulter talks about Sununu's race remark and her tweet calling President Obama a "retard" on October 26 Piers Morgan

 

 

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Unfortunately, there will always be those who listen, and in great numbers, which is why the world gets their undies in a bunch when Ann Coulter's thumbs lose their connection with civil discourse.

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