Posted by Racer on March 19, 2006, at 12:35:30
In reply to Re: am i allowed to say..., posted by special_k on March 18, 2006, at 22:27:00
> > or would i be better to say that when people torture small children for fun then i feel sad in response?
>
> because the trouble is... that's just not right. i mean... not only because i'm having a little trouble naming the relevant emotion here...
>
> but also because I REFUSE TO BE AN EMOTIVIST ABOUT ETHICS dammit.
>
> see... emotivists think moral talk (talk of right / wrong; good / bad; should / shouldn't etc etc) is really just a way of expressing ones feelings of approval / disapproval. well that is an interesting theory but i do not believe it is true...Here's where I fall into a well of confusion -- morality and ethics are culturally defined. So, saying that something *is* morally right or wrong runs the risk of offending someone whose cultural norms are different. And to make it so much more difficult, we're not always aware of how deeply we are acculturated to those moral structures.
I agree, saying, "Torturing small children for fun makes me sad" doesn't exactly satisfy what I would want to communicate, either. But I think there are ways to say it within the guidelines for civility on this site. I'm with Dinah, I think there's something between "that makes me sad" and "Jane you ignorant s**t" (<I put the asterisks in, since the autoasterisking didn't seem to want to...)
Politics is a hard topic to discuss. And as someone who gets rather heated about it, and does get very pigheaded about it, I have no clue how to do it well within the guidelines here. It's frustrating, because I really want to write some things that I really don't feel safe posting. (I've got a request in to Dinah that I think she's forgotten, because I don't trust myself to walk that fine line between acceptable, and getting blocked for a year.)
On the other hand, part of me really appreciates the civility guidelines, because it forces me to think about how I express my views. If those guidelines weren't in place, I would blow up on a topic, and I'd be in trouble with other people here. Either I'd have hurt someone's feelings, or lost their respect, neither of which I would want to do.
So, it's a very mixed bag. Good and bad. It's what we've got, so we better learn to live with it -- until one of us starts our own politics board -- and it does have its up side.
And Sobriquet Style? I did cringe a bit over what I wrote, I can't believe that go through. But of course it's your right to link to it, because I did write it, even if it embarrasses me know. (which is different from saying that it's not my belief, of course...)
poster:Racer
thread:621784
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20060304/msgs/622070.html