[MD] Compatiblism

[david buchanan]

Steve said to Ian:
...Have you not read any of the shit this guy [dmb] has been flinging at me? .."You are such an unbelievable hack.  ..You equate opposed terms and then wonder why it doesn't add up. ... Get a dictionary. Take some reading lessons. Until you get ahold of these concepts, talking to you is utterly futile."
.. Well, fine. I just don't see why dmb gets a free pass. He has been far nastier to me and much more of a dick to me than I have been to him. ... He's a bully, and it feels like I am the only one willing to stand up to him, but I'm gotten a lot of crap for that. I don't want this kinda shit around here either, but I'm not sure how else to handle it.

dmb says:
How's the saying go? "Don't feel sorry for the martyr because he loves his job," or something like that. 

For whatever it's worth, Steve, I do exercise restraint. But if you can look past the nasty for a moment, it should be pretty clear that I'm frustrated for very reasonable reasons. Think about the simple fact that we have been trading posts for something like one quarter or one third of a year and in all this time we still can't even find agreement about meaning of the basic terms, namely "free will" and "determinism". Who wouldn't get frustrated under such circumstances? That's why I keep screaming about dictionaries and the proper use of terms. We're three or four months into the race but we can't get past the starting line. Come on dude, that's crazy. That's outrageous. I sincerely wish I could be nicer about it. But I sling less crap than you actually deserve. 

Isn't it just an objective scientific fact that you are responsible for this paralysis? Your insistence that we ought to drop the basic terms (because they are superglued to SOM baggage) has caused this paralysis and created all kinds of confusion. And you insist on this even though Pirsig explicitly says that the MOQ can reject the "traditional" meaning of "free will" and still argue FOR it and even though SEP says one ought not insist on any particular meaning either. Your insistence has persisted against way too much for way too long. It just isn't right, Steve. I think anyone can plainly see why I'm frustrated. Why can't you see that? Why can't you see WHAT I'm saying here about basic concepts and dictionaries? Wouldn't YOU like to get past the starting point?