[extropy-chat] Hubert Mania's comments

[Greg Burch]

Robert, will you please acknowledge that nuking Mecca and/or Jerusalem without further context would be wrong.  Perhaps then we could move on.  In the meantime, I would like to note that occasionally the "science types" on this list do come off with some pretty Asberger-y stuff like Robert's post.  It's not the first time and it won't be the last time it happens.  I'd probably write some pretty off-base things if I were to try to write about physics.  I would heartily recommend just a LITTLE study of moral philosophy to my scientist and engineer friends.  Oh, and get a dog, too.

GB

> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
> [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org]On Behalf Of Bryan Moss
> Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2004 9:16 PM
> To: ExI chat list
> Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] Hubert Mania's comments
> 
> 
> Some comments on this rather surreal happening...
> 
> 1. Robert is on ExI's board.
> 
> 2. Robert *does not* make it clear that these are his own views.  In fact,
> he has explicitly stated that they directly follow from "extropy."
> 
> 3. If Hubert's classification of Robert as "neo-fascist" is 
> incorrect, it's
> probably only because we don't *have* a word for someone who proposes an
> otherwise democratic government perform pre-emptive nuclear strikes on
> people who rub him the wrong way.  I wouldn't be shocked, 
> however, if, after
> the mushroom clouds had cleared, the international community did, in fact,
> settle on "neo-fascist" or similar.
> 
> 4. Given the above, Hubert's classification of ExI as "a frankly 
> neo-fascist
> group" doesn't seem quite as *obviously wacky* as some seem to be
> suggesting.  To be sure, I don't think ExI gets to pick and 
> choose the brush
> with which it is tarred in quite the manner that ExI might think.
> Apparently ExI thinks it more important to distance itself from 
> being called
> names than from the repugnant views its board members are airing on its
> wholly owned public "ExI chat list."  Note that Natasha chimed in 
> merely to
> remind us all that ExI is not libertarian or fascist.  ExI's Vice 
> President
> meanwhile tells us that he thinks Robert's view is not only "wrong" (as in
> mistaken) but also "morally wrong."  Harsh words indeed.
> 
> 5. Harsher words are reserved for Hubert, who we're told has always been
> quite grumpy and *not just* when an ExI board member is 
> suggesting genocide.
> Heck, we probably shouldn't be surprised a hater like Hubert would latch
> onto an ExI board member's numerous disgusting suggestions posted to ExI's
> wholly owned public "ExI chat list" and use them to "tar" the 
> "community of
> common interest."  The man *obviously* has an agenda!
> 
> 6. Robert apparently doesn't "like making the same mistake twice."  He is,
> however, apparently very, very adept at doing just that.  This is 
> the third
> time I've seen Robert play "Devil's Advocate" in exactly this (nuclear)
> manner and I take frequent, long breaks from this list.  While I 
> myself was
> also once quite taken with the "Devil's Advocate" role, I 
> eventually managed
> to wise-up and heed the ever sage advice of Damien Broderick: 
> "shut the hell
> up."  Alas, I think it has become fairly obvious that Robert isn't playing
> "Devil's Advocate" (even in this lame sense) at all: he's serious.
> 
> 7. I think Robert needs some Robert-time, preferably spent with some good
> books on moral philosophy.  Meanwhile, I think ExI should go stand in the
> corner and seriously reflect on the absurdly disingenuous, pompous and
> ego-stroking manner in which it handles matters of PR.
> 
> BM
> 
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