Posted by chujoe on June 20, 2010, at 13:35:29 [reposted on June 21, 2010, at 10:17:45 | original URL]
In reply to wording of pubic 'rephrasing requests' » Dr. Bob, posted by violette on June 20, 2010, at 11:05:49
Once again, Violette, you seem to take the words right out of my mouth. I've been feeling uneasy for a while about the way Psychobabble is run, but haven't quite been able to put my finger on it, except that the word "paternalistic" occurred to me; but your description of shaming behavior names the mechanism for what it is. I am pretty sensitive to this since I experienced shaming virtually every day of my life until I was 18 and went away to college.
As a college teacher, I try never to shame students in my classes, though I have colleagues who use it as a regular part of their pedagogy. But shaming a student for getting something wrong, or even for falling sleep, just feels creepy to me. Which is not to say I don't correct students or let them know it bothers me when the fall asleep, etc.
As for "civility," it's a slippery concept. Honest discussion requires respecting those with whom one is communicating and so personal attacks are obviously a problem; but part of respecting others also involves being critical of one's own views and developing the ability to hear oneself as others do. Failing to do this is self-centered and, yes, sometimes "arrogant." So I admit to being baffled by the seemingly arbitrary use of the moderator's power on this forum to threaten Bulldog with expulsion for describing as "arrogant" a series of remarks that were in fact arrogant while saying noting about Christ-empowered's patently ridiculous claim that "psychiatrists kill people every day." Failures of intellectual honesty distort and ultimately destroy communication, which is the ultimate offense against a community like this one.
poster:chujoe
thread:951716
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20100321/msgs/951719.html