Heh. I'm probably guilty of a few of those
I'm sure we all have from time to time, even if we didn't intend to. That's language for ya, and part of being human.
The Reliance on the Vague:
- I will use terms that have dozens of internally conflicting meanings and then cry foul when someone interprets my point in a way I don't like. AKA Using the -y Clause.
The over analysis of the Example:
- When provided with an example, instead of trying to parse the intent of the example, I will hammer away at the example for pages until the disagreement is more about the example than the original point.
Those two were good twists and obverses of these two:
Ass-umptus Maximus: You didn't really say this (or that), but I'm assuming it's obviously what you meant, and even if I could easily verify your real point by asking you a few simple questions, it's just more fun to argue my assumption than the exactness of your point. Assumptions are fun after all!
Misunderstandus Inexplicipus: For some inexplicable reason I cannot yet fathom your point, and so therefore, since you didn't make it plain enough, your reasoning is naturally faulty. (You failed to communicate in such a way that I could easily understand you, therefore, you must be an idiot!)
I think these kinda things are best explained by understanding the inherent limitations of language, but modern folks, especially Geeks and Nerds (and I'm not using those terms in the derogatory sense, but in the descriptive sense) think that human language oughtta work like some kinda current software language, and the truth is it just doesn't and probably never will. So rather than seeking to clarify what might be implied (and human language is filled with
unexpressed yet
underlying implications), each Geek and Nerd has their own "database of denotative definitions" (Geeks especially I have noticed often have a very hard time distinguishing vagueness and metaphor in communications) which they immediately assume must be "correct in all circumstances." The typical Geek does not connote well I have observed, or easily detect implied statements of irony and so forth, and I think this is probably the result of modern society's way of educating people and the current typical and standardized way of using language, like it is a mere
"technical function." Anyways, that's my observation, and this modern way of using language leads to some silly and amusing arguments to me, because often when I read some argument on the internet the first thought that occurs to me is, "these guys are arguing pretty much the same thing is the same way with pretty much the same language, and they are only off by less than a degree in terminology, yet to them you'd think one guy is speaking Swahili and the other guy a dialect of Apache."
Anyways, it amuses me. By the way I also think that this is why so many Geeks and Nerds like things like Lost, and D&D, and so forth. Vague, implicational, metaphorical, symbolic entertainments return to them in language and form what they have lost from or purged from their own language and everyday, work-a-day
"idea set." In other words, in other worlds they get to be metaphorical and psychological (as the Greeks meant the term, not as moderns do) and spiritual and symbolic again. I mean, other than just mathematically symbolic.
