Subject: Re: less parentheses --> fewer parentheses
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net>
Date: 2000/08/26
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3176311449226077@naggum.net>

* danfm@dartmouth.edu (FM)
| Because you started?

  Oh, grow up!

| You made this into a flame war.

  No, _wars_ start with the party tha answers fire with fire, and they
  stop when one party lays down their weapons.

  I find it curious that you have zero introspective ability and don't
  even recognize your own part in what's going on, but hide behind
  "it's _your_ fault that I'm acting like a bad, bad moron!"

| It's funny how every little thing that I supposedly do that you
| complain about applies much better to yourself.

  I wonder if you it is at all possible for you even to think about
  any relation to _yourself_, if this game you play with mirrors is no
  more than a deeply hysterical defense mechanism without which your
  brain would implode and entire psychological infrastructure crumble.

| Anyhow, if you start calling someone names with no justification
| whatsoever, expect the same and don't whine like a baby.

  Oh, now I'm "whining like a baby", too.  You know, that mirror game
  of yours is quite interesting, because clearly you have lost track
  of who you're attacking.  I'm _not_ the figure in your mirror, OK?

| You mean you sent me an insult-laden email.

  No, I actually mean what I say.  However, it _is_ clear that you
  received it as such because you have lost or never had the ability
  to introspect sufficiently to recognize that you didn't _need_ any
  contents in any e-mail to be insulted.  I could send you an empty
  message (not even a subject header), and you would be insulted.
  (That's the kind of thing that happened to poor Barry, too, he
  doesn't have to see anything bad on my part to see red, my quoting
  style is sufficient for him to prejudge my articles.  You don't want
  to end up like that, do you?)  When this happens, when the outside
  world no longer has any relevance to your emotions, I have solid
  evidence of your mental state, but it _might_ be situational and not
  evidence of low intelligence.  When you figure out that you are
  wholly responsible for your own actions, just like everybody else,
  you will feel very ashamed of yourself.  I'm only waiting for that.

| I have no desire to exchange emails with a particularly unpleasant
| stranger who has proven beyond doubt that he is a complete waste of
| time.

  Thank you for continuing to waste your time here.  At least I keep
  you off the street and out of other kinds of trouble.

| I'll act hostile to any stranger who has the audacity to do what you
| did.

  Suppose you interpret hostility where it wasn't, and you are at
  fault for first attack with that justification.  How do you expect
  that whoever _you_ attack should respond to you?  More importantly,
  is there at all a way out of your mindless "you started it, so I
  have to continue" line?  It seems that as long as you continue to
  insult and fight, you're keeping this going.  You know, it would be
  a brilliant move if you suddenly turned into this mature intelligent
  being with adult-like features like responsibility and introspection
  and you figured out that "hey, I could stop this any time I want".
  I'm only waiting for you to realize that.  I don't have to insult
  you anymore, because you're doing such a marvelous job yourself.

| It's funny that you expect others not to act hostile when you
| meticulous spit a derogatory remark at a regular interval.

  Yes, quite funny.  I find it quite interesting that _anything_ I say
  is interpreted as hostile once the recipient has lost his marbles.
  I find it highly informative to sort people out that way, but most
  of the people so sorted actually have a flash of insight after a
  while and realize exactly what I've done to them.  There's a reward
  for me at the end of that flash of insight.  You seem quite the
  resilient dude, though.  We've had another figure like here, some
  time ago.  Obviously not a very bright fellow, either.

| Unless you use insults to calm other people down, the
| above is a completely false account of what happened.

  Look, if I said the weather was nice, you would be insulted.

| In any case, that doesn't change the fact that you sent an
| unsolicited email message telling me I'm an idiot and if that's not
| an invitation for an email flame-war, what is? I asked you to stop,
| yet you have continued.

  Excuse me?  

| >  On the contrary, the morons provide me with ample amounts of
| >  evidence, such as you do yourself.  Congratulations!
| 
| Here comes another cheap shot.

  Actually, it's true.  You don't _have_ to play the role of moron,
  but you keep doing it as if you couldn't do anything else -- and
  _that's_ what I'm trying to find out.  If I were content to brand
  you once and for all, like some Barry Margolin, I would have been
  done with you once you looked like a moron, and I wouldn't even have
  to answer you at all, but I'm trying very hard to make you snap out
  of your moron role and realize that you're doing, why you're the one
  doing it (as opposed to being done to, or blaming me for it).  SO
  SNAP OUT OF IT, MORON, and let some other role you can play that is
  a little more mature and smarter than you want to look right now get
  a word in edgewise, too.  OK?  Choose some other role.  If you don't
  (such as because I'm the one telling you to), you're providing me
  with evidence that you really _are_ a moron, it's not some role you
  have fallen into more or less of your own will.  OK?

  You see, there's some important stuff you could _learn_ from this,
  but you're so dead set on defending _yourself_ that you completely
  miss the opportunity to watch yourself in action, and that would be
  _very_ educational for you.  Trust me.  :)

#:Erik
-- 
  If this is not what you expected, please alter your expectations.