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WARNING: KNOWLEDGE RELATED POST...PLEASE TURN YOUR HEAD FOR A MOMENT
"Fascists" is a very very very strong word to use about people who, in my opinion, are very open and very tolerant and if you really have such a hard time handling the fact that some of us think he's exactly the antithesis of what the 'Lith is all about then you go cuddle up with a man who throws out the words he does with impunity in his posts, irrespective of the emotional damage he wreaks.
Oh, for the love of Pete...
I assume that you are now ignoring me, ZoCher, so what I say probably isn't going to make a lick of difference to you. I am not Knowledge's minion. I'm not his friend, I don't support everything he says, and I'm even kind of perturbed about a lot of the things he says and does. The issue here is not and never has been about Knowledge himself. I'm not on his side and I'm not on your side. I'm on the side of fair play. This openness and tolerance you speak of has rarely been exercised towards Knowledge in the entire time that he has been here.
From what I've seen (and I have asked time and again for something more substantial than expressions of distaste towards Knowledge before judging him, proving that I am open to accepting your side on the issue), Knowledge was once just a guy who occasionally posted something a little outrageous (but often had something worthwhile to say) and sometimes couldn't spell his way out of a paper bag. Not such a terrible thing, but for some reason, a lot of 'Lithers adopted a really childish method of constantly ganging up on him whenever he posted about anything and giving him unwarranted shit about his stupidity or whatever. I saw this numerous times and called people on it. For the longest time, Knowledge admirably took this all in stride. After a while of this, though, he, like just about anyone else, got tired of it and started firing back. He did, I admit, occasionally get a little inflammatory. This pissed people off. From what I saw of the progression, Knowledge never entered anything resembling troll country until people started pushing him around. But once he did, he opened himself up to all of his detractors and gave them the fuel they needed to work towards getting rid of a person they didn't think very highly of. A nice analogy for the whole situation is a dog constantly being poked w/a stick for the amusement of others and being put to sleep when he's had enough and decides to bite back.
Now. Here's the thing. Everyone's told me that there's more to it than that. Fine. Show me. I am prepared to eat all of my words. I can't read every post on the board and I'm sure that there are a lot of episodes of this saga that I have missed. So stop telling me that there's more and show me what else you've got. You want to shut me up? Show me these threatening posts that he's written. I've seen a lot of irresponsible things that he's written that made my eyes roll and that would probably be offensive to people w/thinner skins (it seems to be more of a matter of his choice of words than the underlying thing that he's actually saying that people take offense to), but nothing directly abusive. Until I see these posts, I'll keep defending his right to speak freely and his right to be treated as an equal on this board, regardless of whether I ever agree w/another word he writes or not. Again, I'm not defending Knowledge per se but rather trying to maintain some sense of fair play here. I think that too much of the bad feeling towards Knowledge is based more on people going along w/other people who have a poor opinion of him than on anything that he's actually said or done that makes him such a focus of people's ire. And I think that sucks. And I would defend any single person here who was in a similar position.
Do I support Knowledge being banned if he has compromised the integrity of the board? Yes. Do I support his being banned if he has threatened violence against anyone on the board? Yes. Do I support his being banned if his actions on the board are in any way illegal and/or something that Tom himself might be liable for? Yes. Knowledge has been accused of these things. I have asked, numerous times, to see evidence, to have links posted to the inflammatory things that he's allegedly said, before I condemn him personally. I don't think that this is such an impossible thing to ask. I have never seen this evidence. I am ignored or told to shut up every time I bring up the subject. I'm expected to concede and join the lynch mob, I guess. It ain't gonna happen. Calling me names and using the tactics that pretty much turned Knowledge into a troll on me isn't going to work either, so give it up before you even get started. His unsolicited e-mailing of other 'Lithers around the time he was last kicked pushed things a little bit, but it seemed more annoying than abusive. It appears, though, that 'annoying' is enough for some people to want to see him banned. It seems that the fact that he would even dare to post is enough for people to slag him. I think that there were a lot of useful ideas and thoughts in his 'manifesto' (and, admittedly, a lot of chaff, but nothing really malignant), but I'm irritated to see that people are continuing to be such knee-jerk pricks about it just because it's Knowledge. It's perfectly w/in people's rights to be a knee-jerk prick about it and it's perfectly w/in my right to call people on being a knee-jerk prick about it. It seems like Knowledge might be willing to let bygones be bygones and act sensibly, but no one is willing to give him a chance. It's funny that none of my correspondence w/Knowledge on or off the board has been tainted by anything the slightest bit inflammatory. He's always been sensible and thoughtful w/me and I'm not so quick to judge the actions he takes in an environment that has been openly hostile towards him much longer than he has been towards it.
And so you don't think I'm favoring Knowledge, I have PM-ed him urging him to mind his P's and Q's now that he's back. I don't think he's an innocent in this, but I think he's been given an unfair way to go for a long time, even before he became the focus of so much anger. Give him a chance and treat him like a human being and he might stop acting like such a misanthrope (which I don't think he's done since he's been back, w/the possible exception of the Ierne thread [which I called him on]). Or continue to undermine everything he says and does and gasp in surprise when he continues to bite back. The choice is yours.
Arthur Sudnam, II |
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