Personal Attacks, For the record!

[tanesmuti]

(Not directed at anyone in particular, but applicable to everyone.)

With thanks to Patrick S., who's kindly allowed the use of this.)

Dear Automartyring Prima-Donnas,

If I or someone else:

*Disagree with something you claim or argue

*State that an argument or statement by you is flawed (with or without further explanation)

*State an opinion or fact which is at variance with your worldview

*State that you are ignorant of something (when - and only when - you in fact are)

*Criticise an insulting or otherwise negative attitude (when - and only when - it does in fact exist)

you are not being personally attacked.

Gods both real and synthetic, I simply don't understand that attitude these days. I know part of it seems to be this addled pseudo-postmodernist "there's no such thing as an incorrect opinion" bullcrap (hint: there is), but it seems to have really spiked lately. I know any number of things might have contributed to this mindset of infinite fragility, but that doesn't mean it's an attitude that exactly warrants much respect.

There is such a thing as criticising or testing an argument or an idea without automatically tarring and feathering the person who put it forth. Please, read that sentence two or three or sixty times until you get it through your skulls. Those long discussions in which you're constantly whining about how you were attacked? Guess what? More often than not, you weren't.
Some people out there are argumentative jerks. Being one, I have no problem with this fact. However, you'd be surprised at how few people you think are "attacking" you actually are. "You are obviously an inbred, syphilitic joke of a man with all the wit and insight of month-old roadkill" is a personal attack, for example. "Your claim is silly and wrong because even a few minutes' googling can disprove it, to say nothing of decades of built-up facts elsewhere" is not, no matter how much you want it to be.

Please, Messrs. and Mmes. APD, realize that yes, sometimes you are wrong about things, and having that pointed out to you is only a vicious assault on your humanity because you choose to make it so. Study some basic logic, look outside your little shells, and have the courage to evaluate your own views for a change. It'll do you some good.

Besides, if I decided to attack your persons rather than your arguments, there'd be astonishingly little room for doubt.