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> It's not necessary to evaluate every work completely stripped of context to engage with it honestly It is a blatant ad hominem comment that adds nothing to t

> It's not necessary to evaluate every work completely stripped of context to engage with it honestly It is a blatant ad hominem comment that adds nothing to the discussion of whether or not the arguments in the article are valid, but rather is an attempt to prejudice your opinion.

howinteresting 4y ago
Nothing wrong with having your priors straight.
giraffe_lady 4y ago
Merely mentioning the publication a writer voluntarily contributes to is not ad hominem are you serious lol. That is a simple fact about their body of work. It is also not prejudiced to evaluate a single work of a writer in its context within their oeuvre, and to consider your own knowledge of their previous works when evaluating a new one. That is merely judgement, friend. You might would have us so carefully prune away context that judgement becomes impossible, but it's not a moral failure of others that they approach this differently.
- zdragnar 4y ago
  The first two lines are statements of fact. The third line: > Alrighty then. is a blatant dog whistle. Even without the last line, it's not enough to simply say "just providing context!" It's a bit like jumping into a conversation about the affordable care act by saying "President Barack Obama's middle name is Hussein. He was mentored by Bill Ayers, a man the FBI described as the leader of a terrorist group." It is all factual context, utterly irrelevant to the merits of the ACA and adds nothing to the conversation other than the prejudicial implication.
  - MilStdJunkie 4y ago
    Do people choose their middle names, generally? Cassius Clay did, and it most certainly informed on the things he said later, after making that decision. If he was born Muhammad Ali, then it would be a shitty thing to do to judge his words on his birth name. Did associating with Ayers preclude Obama from getting a TSC? Nope. Ayers wasn't active when he was Obama's BFF. He wasn't even a felon. Maybe Ayers was Wundergrounding it up in 2008, but he wasn't, unless I guess he was? There was a political price paid there[1] - in Obama's choice of mentors - and if that's not perceptible I don't know what to say. Among people who cared, Ayers. was a millstone. Among other people, it was a selling point. Which hits to the point of why everyone's getting so incensed right here and now: Bill Ayers was a hero to a part of America, and to another part of America he was the devil himself. We're in the same land, but we've come to have completely opposite values, fundamentally different, so that everything becomes an existential threat. The idea that this crisis has been artificially generated is of course scurrilous and would never occur to someone with a generous view of human behavior. [1] Conveniently steering eyeballs away from Goldman's PAC effectively putting Obama on the DNC board.

howinteresting 4y ago

Nothing wrong with having your priors straight.

giraffe_lady 4y ago

Merely mentioning the publication a writer voluntarily contributes to is not ad hominem are you serious lol. That is a simple fact about their body of work. It is also not prejudiced to evaluate a single work of a writer in its context within their oeuvre, and to consider your own knowledge of their previous works when evaluating a new one. That is merely judgement, friend. You might would have us so carefully prune away context that judgement becomes impossible, but it's not a moral failure of others that they approach this differently.

zdragnar 4y ago
The first two lines are statements of fact. The third line: > Alrighty then. is a blatant dog whistle. Even without the last line, it's not enough to simply say "just providing context!" It's a bit like jumping into a conversation about the affordable care act by saying "President Barack Obama's middle name is Hussein. He was mentored by Bill Ayers, a man the FBI described as the leader of a terrorist group." It is all factual context, utterly irrelevant to the merits of the ACA and adds nothing to the conversation other than the prejudicial implication.
- MilStdJunkie 4y ago
  Do people choose their middle names, generally? Cassius Clay did, and it most certainly informed on the things he said later, after making that decision. If he was born Muhammad Ali, then it would be a shitty thing to do to judge his words on his birth name. Did associating with Ayers preclude Obama from getting a TSC? Nope. Ayers wasn't active when he was Obama's BFF. He wasn't even a felon. Maybe Ayers was Wundergrounding it up in 2008, but he wasn't, unless I guess he was? There was a political price paid there[1] - in Obama's choice of mentors - and if that's not perceptible I don't know what to say. Among people who cared, Ayers. was a millstone. Among other people, it was a selling point. Which hits to the point of why everyone's getting so incensed right here and now: Bill Ayers was a hero to a part of America, and to another part of America he was the devil himself. We're in the same land, but we've come to have completely opposite values, fundamentally different, so that everything becomes an existential threat. The idea that this crisis has been artificially generated is of course scurrilous and would never occur to someone with a generous view of human behavior. [1] Conveniently steering eyeballs away from Goldman's PAC effectively putting Obama on the DNC board.