Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

[Hussar]

There's a simple solution; don't drop into hyperbole or overgeneralization. Otherwise you're effectively saying "Its okay for someone to come out and yell at the world but not for people to knock it off because it might create an ongoing argument."

No. Just no.

(By the by, unless my browser is just being weird, something very strange happened with your quoting in the last two posts).

Yeah. I know. It seems to be a Tapatalk thing. Have no idea. It just comes and goes.

 

[Hussar]

I suppose so much of this is based on our own backgrounds. I’ve lived in non English speaking countries most of my adult life. I’ve taught numerous classes at various companies revolving around conflict resolution when dealing across languages and cultures.

So the idea of fixating on specific words instead of trying to understand what people are trying to communicate is almost always at the heart of conflicts.

We are not writing legal texts here. Nor are we writing contracts. Far too often I see people head off into the weeds trying to be technically correct. Which results in multiple pages of side bars and then, if it does get resolved and the original point gotten back to, another example or whatever gets injected in the discussion and we’re right back to the races.

The point of discussion is communication. Stepping back and trying to understand the point being made, rather than policing exact wording is how you do that.

There’s a reason pedantry and sophistry are bad things.

 

[Ryujin]

I have always been a “words” guy, so I’ve been painfully aware of how some have multiple definitions (see “run” or “set”), or have accrued connotations over time for much of my life.

One of the best examples I ever got was in my 1st semester at UT Law. Our CrimLaw prof was a new hire, fresh off of a gig with a group of legal scholars who had the task of rewriting huge chunks of the Texas Penal Code.

As he was teaching class one day, a student for whom English was not her primary language asked about a particular law we were studying. By her reading, it didn’t make sense. When he asked her why, she explained her rationale.

He froze. He stood in front of the class, silently reading the statute over and over again, occasionally mouthing the words as he did so. After several minutes of this, he addressed us again.

“Your reading of the statute requires using some words in unusual ways…but completely valid ones. All it would take is a single skilled and determined defense attorney to successfully argue for your interpretation and it could nullify this entire subsection of the penal code. When this class is over, I need to make some calls to my colleagues on the commission to revise this statute.”

He spent a LOT of time making urgent calls to other scholars that week.

I have always thought that language is both art and science. The choice of words is very telling. News editors, for example, make very careful choice of words in order to convey a specific meaning that may not be immediately evident to the casual reader. Using absolutes in a statement is the "baseball bat to the back of the head" version of this. While you may not actually mean the absolute, really yeah, you do.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Is that poking fun of someone in particular?

I don't generally poke fun at any specific person, despite that being the purpose of this thread. If I make fun, it's at trends and attitudes, some of which I agree with even as I'm making fun of their quirks. Because it's a game and shouldn't be taken too seriously by anyone.

Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. (I am large, I contain multitudes.) -- Walt Whitman

 

[Deset Gled]

I don't generally poke fun at any specific person, despite that being the purpose of this thread.

It really, really isn't.

 

[trappedslider]

Due to reading Kerbal Space Program's tvtropes page I have decided to reinstall it and see if i can remember how to get at the very least a satellite in orbit. Last time I played it was 2 years ago

 

[prabe]

Not here: You're making a distinction that I don't think is quite so distinctive as you seem to think, but I'm not in a mood to argue with you today. So I guess I'll allow you to continue to be both wrong and unchallenged.

 

[Scribe]

--

If my self imposed exile taught me anything, it's that frankly I don't really care.

 

[trappedslider]

 

[Thomas Shey]

Yeah. I know. It seems to be a Tapatalk thing. Have no idea. It just comes and goes.

Ah. I had weird enough experiences during my brief time of using that I can't be surprised.