[MD] BeTteR-neSs (undefined or otherwise)

[david buchanan]

Manck said:
 Are idiots allowed to contribute? I'll stop asking the tough questions.

dmb says:
I'm sorry for losing my temper. I went too far.
But dude. C'mon. Tough questions are not a problem. Quite the opposite. The problem is that you can't hear the answers. Dan was being quite generous and gracious in his complaints. He complimented your intelligence and - how did he put it - he said you "weren't listening". I haven't complained until now, but I offered several substantial explanations and it seems you couldn't hear any of that either. That is no way to have a conversation about anything with anyone, Mack, and it's double trouble in a philosophical conversation.

And it's not just you, Marc. You're just the most recent example of a very strange mind-set that frustrates the hell out of me. Some people are so emotionally invested in their beliefs and attitudes that they are completely impervious to facts or reason. It's really depressing and pointless to debate anything with such a person because they're not going to budge an inch no matter what kind of case you present. They're just not going to hear it. 

There's a guy around here who has managed to remain oblivious to the evidence for over ten years. I kid you not. It's been presented dozens of times and he's never once acknowledged it. That's not just a difference of opinion. That's a cognitive failure, a form of arrested development. It's some kind of sickness. (I'd be suicidal if I had to live in the same house with such a person.)


When you add this kind of imperviousness to the fact that I love, love, love a good conversation, the total amount of frustration is huge. So I was already quite sick of it before you arrived, Merk. Calling you names doesn't help but I stand by the basic complaint all the same. Your posts really are full of unintelligible, contradictory nonsense and you don't listen to those who have intelligible, sensible things to say. Who would want to talk to a guy like that? Show me a guy who thinks that would be fun or productive and I'll show you a guy who's going nowhere and having no fun on the way. It's not about what you're "allowed" to do. It's about what you CAN do with the same meager power we all possess. Can you read, think and say what you mean? That's the only power anyone gets around here, dude. I'm only sending an e-mail, not an arrest warrant. Let's not get all dramatic. 

As a kid, I just sort of assumed that grown-ups were reasonable. Obviously I was wrong about that. Maybe I don't really have a right to be disappointed. But I am. It's really, really depressing. It's a drag in the biggest way, a "drag" in the evolutionary sense of the word. On second thought, maybe it's my duty to be disappointed.