Comments on: Giving offense http://carldyke.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/giving-offense/ Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:29:31 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Dead Voles http://carldyke.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/giving-offense/#comment-1341 Dead Voles Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:48:57 +0000 http://carldyke.wordpress.com/?p=26#comment-1341 [...] Carl on June 27, 2009 Hate to repeat myself, so here’s a repost of one of this blog’s earliest posts reacting to a previous blogtastic poo storm of delicate feelings. When things irritate me I either [...] [...] Carl on June 27, 2009 Hate to repeat myself, so here’s a repost of one of this blog’s earliest posts reacting to a previous blogtastic poo storm of delicate feelings. When things irritate me I either [...]

]]> By: Carl http://carldyke.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/giving-offense/#comment-320 Carl Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:03:05 +0000 http://carldyke.wordpress.com/?p=26#comment-320 Better the cooked than the raw? I agree with you about the curmudgeons, despite my own overlap with that kind of difficulty. I'm sticking to my point that an excess of sensitivity is just as chilling of good discussion as an excess of insensitivity. Inferiority complexes and impostor syndromes play out in both performances, but the root problem is the same: the conversation is not what it's about, it's about someone's delicate feelings. Which has its place, just not when we want to figure out, say, how to more effectively develop and manage social media strategies. ;-) Am I really this narrow-minded? Nah, I spend my days managing students' sensitivities so I can teach them some stuff around the edges of their defenses. I just dream of a place and a posse where all that misdirection isn't necessary. Better the cooked than the raw?

I agree with you about the curmudgeons, despite my own overlap with that kind of difficulty. I’m sticking to my point that an excess of sensitivity is just as chilling of good discussion as an excess of insensitivity. Inferiority complexes and impostor syndromes play out in both performances, but the root problem is the same: the conversation is not what it’s about, it’s about someone’s delicate feelings. Which has its place, just not when we want to figure out, say, how to more effectively develop and manage social media strategies. ;-)

Am I really this narrow-minded? Nah, I spend my days managing students’ sensitivities so I can teach them some stuff around the edges of their defenses. I just dream of a place and a posse where all that misdirection isn’t necessary.

]]> By: enkerli http://carldyke.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/giving-offense/#comment-318 enkerli Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:54:23 +0000 http://carldyke.wordpress.com/?p=26#comment-318 Maybe it was still a bit moist in the middle, but I wouldn't call it half-baked. As blogposts are a bit more like brownies, it was almost overcooked. I should have read it at the time as it does explain other things you've said. These days, I tend to think about some of those people who occasionally make online communication difficult. Trolls, obviously. But also curmudgeons and "<a href="http://www.zefrank.com/thewiki/Hard_Charger" rel="nofollow">hard chargers</a>." Yes, much of it has to do with lack of confidence. And a peculiar type of "intellectual inferiority complex" which is almost the mirror image of what I conceive as the impostor syndrome. Basically, the effect is that of the "<a href="http://linganth.blogspot.com/2007/02/how-flame-wars-get-started.html" rel="nofollow">flame war</a>." Maybe it was still a bit moist in the middle, but I wouldn’t call it half-baked. As blogposts are a bit more like brownies, it was almost overcooked.
I should have read it at the time as it does explain other things you’ve said.
These days, I tend to think about some of those people who occasionally make online communication difficult. Trolls, obviously. But also curmudgeons and “hard chargers.” Yes, much of it has to do with lack of confidence. And a peculiar type of “intellectual inferiority complex” which is almost the mirror image of what I conceive as the impostor syndrome.
Basically, the effect is that of the “flame war.”

]]> By: Words and things, pt. 2 « Dead Voles http://carldyke.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/giving-offense/#comment-119 Words and things, pt. 2 « Dead Voles Tue, 27 May 2008 21:48:52 +0000 http://carldyke.wordpress.com/?p=26#comment-119 [...] Giving offense [...] [...] Giving offense [...]

]]> By: Empowerment and entitlement « Dead Voles http://carldyke.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/giving-offense/#comment-113 Empowerment and entitlement « Dead Voles Wed, 21 May 2008 19:02:11 +0000 http://carldyke.wordpress.com/?p=26#comment-113 [...] The horns of this dilemma seem to me to spring from a distinction I’ve been trying to work through — between empowerment and entitlement. Entitlement is visible all over; in Freire’s much-criticized but actually quite apt gendering, it is the attitude of men and people trying to become like men. With aristocracies in mind they imagine that power means they should get all of what they want, that everything should go their way, and that others will be means to their ends. Any sort of compromise with complete autonomy looks like subordination, any challenge to it gives offense. [...] [...] The horns of this dilemma seem to me to spring from a distinction I’ve been trying to work through — between empowerment and entitlement. Entitlement is visible all over; in Freire’s much-criticized but actually quite apt gendering, it is the attitude of men and people trying to become like men. With aristocracies in mind they imagine that power means they should get all of what they want, that everything should go their way, and that others will be means to their ends. Any sort of compromise with complete autonomy looks like subordination, any challenge to it gives offense. [...]

]]> By: Tragedy and pathos « Dead Voles http://carldyke.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/giving-offense/#comment-81 Tragedy and pathos « Dead Voles Sun, 04 May 2008 16:11:45 +0000 http://carldyke.wordpress.com/?p=26#comment-81 [...] Giving offense [...] [...] Giving offense [...]

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