Posted by verne on July 4, 2006, at 9:45:12
In reply to Not so confused about Teejay's block, posted by Jost on July 3, 2006, at 19:19:56
Jost, I was about to weigh in but after reading your lucid post, I discovered I had little to add. I think you're getting to the heart of the babble-politics conundrum. Can one serve both Babble and Politics?
I especially liked your comment: "but there are categories of discussion that invoke many intense feelings so if you're ever going to be careful, you should be careful then."
If I were to add anything, I might have wandered into the brambles and said something about "kidnap" being a bit of a loaded word, that there are more neutral, less judgmental, ways to describe what happened. But that's the wrong approach since there's really no words to replace "kill" without being laughably euphemistic.
Looking back at some of my babble transgressions, I remember discussing Australian adventures in the South Pacific. I deliberately used words like "invade" and "occupy" for maximum torkage and blockage. I knew I was causing trouble. I guess I was making a point at the time but I was still being mean-spirited and uncivil.
I was *accusing* Australia of bad intentions; judging and blaming them.So back to the comment about Israel's actions. Even though the words may be technically correct, there's the suggestion that Israel is at fault with the attendant accusing, judging, blaming, jumping to conclusions, and so forth.
Like you said, the situation is more complex than just picking a side and blaming the other. So we're left with mined areas best left untrodden.
That's as murky as I can make it after only one cup of coffee.
verne
poster:verne
thread:663689
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20060622/msgs/663943.html