Re: OFF-TOPIC: Non linguistics books by Chomsky

Jeff Jones wrote:

>This is really the last straw! You and Tom and Ray etc. don't get it, do
>you? Could all the idiots who keep trying to politicize this board,
>academic politics or any other kind, FUCK OFF !!!
>
>No Cross, No Crown, No Puke Green Star!
>
>
>
I think, by any reasonable standards, this is more objectionable than
the well-behaved discussion of Chomsky. I can see no real reason why
politics per se should be off-limits, but rather that inflammatory
remarks are forbidden. Of course, political discussion can cause
flame-wars, but until your post, the reasons for which are unclear to
me, this particular discussion was perfectly civilised.

Also, some earlier remarks by others suggested that political discussion
was forbidden. Surely this isn't the policy of the list? What saith the
Lord of Instrumentality? I would have thought that any discussion that
doesn't explode into flames can be ignored easily by those who'd prefer
not to partake in it, and so needn't be banned. Experience has shown
that the particular topic of Auxlanging causes bouts of extreme temper
among ordinary conlangers, and severe rashes in the under-fives, so that
topic is off-limits. But why ban anything that doesn't have this effect,
on a list like this? I don't think we should need to place further
restrictions on the list for the purposes of placating the
easily-infuriated.

To be honest, I don't understand this kind of intolerance. If you don't
like it, don't read it. Simple as that. And flaming people because you
want to stop their polite discussion exploding into a flame war doesn't
make too much sense.

s.
---
What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he       Stephen Mulraney
were like a man, but if he is an immense spinning    http://ataltane.net
sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?      ataltane@ataltane.net
  -- Richard P. Feynman                 http://livejournal.com/~ataltane

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