Posted by Dr. Bob on April 23, 2002, at 8:37:36
In reply to But Dr. Bob: » Dr. Bob, posted by beardedlady on April 23, 2002, at 7:04:23
> > I'm all for inclusiveness. But it has its limits. And the more sensitive people are (the thinner their shells), the more restrictive the limits may need to be...
>
> But that's not the way the world is supposed to work, Dr. Bob.So tell me, how is the world supposed to work?
> > It never hurts to reexamine, but what if one person, out of fear, restrains himself or herself and as a result another person feels -- or a number of other people feel -- safer?
>
> But what if tens of people, out of fear of being blocked, restrain themselves, and as a result, all but three or four of the people on the board feel unsupported?Then only 3 or 4 people would stay?
> I got a PBC for telling someone I believed he was the color of my beard... My response to him said, in an ironic way, that we have no idea what color a person is on this board.
The difference is, the first is jumping to a specific conclusion, whereas the second is a general truth.
> How did that undermine the safety of posters? How did it create an uncivil environment? ... My "intention" was obvious. I was called a racist, and I responded in a way that was neither uncivil nor unsupportive. It's not my responsibility to be supportive of him in that circumstance.
The environment tends to be uncivil when people jump to conclusions about each other. Whatever your intention was, your response was uncivil. IMO. It may not have been your responsibility to be supportive, but it *was* your responsibility to avoid being unsupportive, in other words, you could have just restrained yourself.
> We are individuals here. And we have individual ways of handling things. While different from the way you might do it, they are not necessarily uncivil for that reason.
Only certain ways of handling things are appropriate here.
> Otherwise, I hope you will consider what I said about intent and about the purpose of the board. This simply can't be a place where the thin few skinned get special protection to the detriment of the rest of the board. That's what SPF 30 is for.
So maybe my role is to be SPF 30?
Bob
poster:Dr. Bob
thread:4374
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20020420/msgs/4422.html