I don't understand

[benlehman]

The amount of flack I've gotten for wanting to teach about Forge theory without arguing about it. Do people not understand the difference between a polemic and a teaching text? Or do the simply not recognize the latter as having any value?

Feh.

Comments

[foreign-devilry.livejournal.com]

Lame, dude. Polemics are for the Turkus. People need to learn how to listen.

And, as a side comment, people who think the Forge presents theory as dogma have obviously never participated in discussions there. Sure, there are some stupid gorillas who like to throw their weight around, but also a lot of people who are generally interested in exploring stuff. And that means questioning previous assumptions, especially Ron's (since they're the basis of so many conversations there).

[rob-donoghue.livejournal.com]

As one of those people, I'm obliged to remark that the presence of intelligent debate doesn't really take the edge off the gorillas if gorillas are what you end up dealing with (any more that the fact that there _are_ pedants means there aren't people seeking thoughtful discussion). I think the holy wars only begin when you start saying who is which. ;)

[foreign-devilry.livejournal.com]

True enough. And sometimes the gorillas wear sheeps' clothing.

Seems like whenever Shreyas and I discuss the Forge nowadays, it's mostly to talk shit or gossip about people whose posts we find annoying or more misleading than helpful. But that doesn't mean we aren't heavily indebted to discussions there.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

My goal with the essay is to try to get people who come to learn a place to do it away from the gorillas.

We'll see how it works.

yrs--
--Ben