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Re:Over-The-Rhine Digest V3 #783

It's.  Um.  Listen.  

No fun in here.

Teach don't screed.

I'm serious.

One issue at a time.  One.  One.  One.  Argument is patient.  Use proofs.  Stop shouting.

Teach.

Teach.

When I say "teach," I'm not talking to the short-post folks.  I'm talking to the long-post folks.  You're throwing too much, too fast, too proudly, too much without patience, sources, explanation.  You're not attempting to tell people about something: you're attempting to sledge hammer the opposition.

Do not attempt to win arguments by insisting.  

Less words.  More substance.  

I'm highly irritated.  The list irritates me.  This is not why I signed on, and it is not what I once found here.

I haven't been around much in six months.

As a result, many people here don't know that I used to engage with conversations here a lot.  Maybe it's a loss to the list that I no longer do.  Maybe it ain't.

I might have said a couple of interesting things.  

But the sheer amount of energy it would take to put a handle on all of the empty rhetoric--as opposed to useful rhetoric--I keep reading here is more than I have.  No time.  And does it matter?  Why would I try to communicate with abunch of folks who like to barrel roll each other with bang-bang-slam-smash assertions?  Why would I stay?

I may not stay.

I have defended the list in the past.  I'm not sure I want to anymore.  I can get cacophony anywhere.

You may argue that we sledgehammer the opposition in order to silence fools, or that we must throw out facts quickly and loudly if we want to be heard in this ol' fast-paced world.  To which I say: we are not the media; you are not Tom Brokaw; we ought to be better than that.  

Cacophony is cheap.

A mixture of beauty and wisdom?  That's more rare, but I've seen it on the otr list.  Not today.

Flame me; I'll wince.  Flame me twice, and I'm outta here.

Fred



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