<html><body>Why is it that some people seem to think that any kind of pressure is the same as violence? Taxation is violence. Law enforcement is violence. Ridicule is violence. At some point it needs to be recognized that violence is it's own thing. Just because something is disagreeable or hurts one's feelings does not make it violent in nature. An "invitation to violence" is not violence either. It is an invitation. The hurling of words can indeed cut deeply, but only in those who are open to listening. Violence on the other hand doesn't even allow the option of not listening. Things and ideas are different - hence the reason behind having different words for them. <BR>
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<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 8px; MARGIN-LEFT: 8px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid" webmail="1">-------- Original Message --------<BR>Subject: Re: [ExI] Basis of Belief<BR>From: ablainey@aol.com<BR>Date: Tue, February 26, 2008 11:11 am<BR>To: extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org<BR><BR>
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<DIV><BR></DIV>-----Original Message-----<BR>From: Henrique Moraes Machado <cetico.iconoclasta@gmail.com><BR><BR>
<DIV id=AOLMsgPart_0_895b466c-b59a-4475-a407-f8d8aba3eb09 style="FONT-SIZE: 12px; MARGIN: 0px; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,Sans-Serif; BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)"><PRE style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><TT><a href="mailto:ABlainey@aol.com" target=_blank _onClick="Popup.composeWindow('pcompose.php?sendto=ABlainey%40aol.com');; return false;">ABlainey@aol.com</A> February 26, 2008 12:21 PM Basis of Belief<BR>
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>>The point is that ridicule is a form of violence. Not physical violence,<BR>
>>but it is an invitation to physical violence.<BR>
<BR>
>We are chimps, not bonobos. On the contrary, there would be much more sex <BR>
>and much less violence. :-)<BR>
<BR>
>Ridiculing is a powerfull weapon on argumentation. If you make your opponent <BR>
>look silly and foolish, then you're closer to winning. If you can make your <BR>
>opponent *feel* silly and foolish then you've definitely won. <BR>
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Sorry, still having format problems.</TT><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The above quote should have been from </FONT><A class=aolmailheader title=mailto:aiguy@comcast.net href="mailto:aiguy@comcast.net" target=_blank _onClick="Popup.composeWindow('pcompose.php?sendto=aiguy%40comcast.net');; return false;"><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">aiguy@comcast.ne</FONT><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">t</FONT></A><TT> my response was the larger paragraph after that.<BR>
And I agree, ridicule is a powerful weapon in argumentation. It's not the prettiest, but it does a good job of killing many fallacious<BR>
arguments instantly. That is why I would happily use it in this case.<BR>
<BR>
Alex<BR>
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