Don't get sarcastic, now...

Well, we all knew that people from Dearborn are two steps away from KKK lovers and Nazis anyway, right? heh...

Maybe Schwartzy should skip the Shakespeare and pick up Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and John Locke to get the real feel for what a "liberal" is.

http://directory.umich.edu says he's an anthropology grad student. FWIW.

Dear Compatriots -

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Hope to hear from you!!!!
In Unity,
Haleh

Ah, thanks, Erica! I was trying to figure out where Michigan U was hiding their directory! :)

Maybe he's trolling around for a grant to study Dearborn "natives," or something. Heh.

And I don't think his drivel came out of the mouth of Delphi, if ya know what I means...

Remember when Archie Bunker used to make that 'raspberry' at 'meathead'? How do you spell that?

The proper raspbery spelling - pthththththththththththththth

For the professoriate, particularly at U-Mich, it's always the Sixties, and the enemies are the same, and the self-congratulations for courage and insight are always for "facing" (by means of e-mails these days) the Sixties enemies.

Curt, I'd hate to correct you, but I believe the proper spelling is 'pthbbbbbt!!!'.

I always spell it "pbtbtbtbtbtbt!"

Don't take it too hard, Dean. Remember, at least you're not getting the letters that Charles Johnson gets!

Awww, gee, Dean... The "content" and "kindhearted" tone of George Schwartz's "thoughtful" missive take me back to my years in academia... and remind me all over again why I'm far happier today, living on a gravel road amidst the cornfields of rural Iowa...

Nice to see that today's Professors haven't changed much from the vindictive arseholes I had to deal with in my time at Colby.

Alas poor Esmay, get thee to a nunnery!

Actually Dean, don’t take this the wrong way because I'm going to complement you even if it is in a back handed way, but I also think that in one very important sense you do lack introspection. The assumption is that that is necessarily a bad thing. In some cases it is, in other cases it's not only admirable, it's required.

In the case of your "world view", no I don’t think you lack introspection at all, in some respects you strike me as being the type of person with too much introspection. In other words on many issues you become defensive about opinions that don't match your own. And we all are to some extent. Where I think you lack introspection, and many of us suffer from the same affliction, is regarding a true understanding of another persons point of view.

Like many of us you tend to size up an argument and go right into a canned response that either misses what the other person is saying or you don’t appreciate the full depth and nuance of the other position to the point where you can clearly articulate it and understand why the other person thinks the way they do. In other words you see the opposing viewpoint not in isolation but as to how it relates to your view and if it seeks to invalidate it rather then see how that view might change your thinking in any way. I'm confident you will reject this characterization out of hand, but you have surprised me before and that's why we all come back.

But in another way this self-confidence about your views (Even with the lack of introspection for other views ) is, in large part, a reason for the success of this blog. For many who have nether the time, inclination or the ability to work out complex opinions on the wide range of subjects that you address they relate to and are drawn to your ability to articulate a view without equivocation which might otherwise only add to the their confusion. This is not to say people are robots who can’t think for themselves, quite the contrary, I would assume that people have very definite views, they simply lack the ability to articulate them and organize them into a useable context. I would venture a guess that if you took even one opposing view per day and tried to understand it to the point where you could, for a brief moment completely own it, and documented this process on the blog, there would be many who would be turned off by that exercise.

Sometimes though, the same qualities that makes Dean's World the popular blog it is, can lead to emotional disagreements with those who are most like you, not so much politically, but in personality. I truly hope you don’t take this as a put down, I like you blog, your views and I am certain if we were to sit down and share a beer I would enjoy your company. I just thought I would mention this because it' something that I had been thinking about for some time and this seemed like as good a time as any to mention it.

This is how I spell the "razzberry":

<razzberry>

The use of "reactionary" as an insult is a good heuristic for detecting AssHats(tm).

(And isn't it interesting how introspection and "progression" (ie, the opposite of reaction) Must Always Lead To The Same Conclusion, Which Happens To Be That Of The Person Suggesting Same? It never fails to amaze me, for one!)

Dean:

At least, your troll infestation seems to be semi-literate. Thank the Lord for small favors.

Rick:

I must point out to you that I spent an incredible amount of time in my life with opinions very opposite to the opinions I hold now. It was with a great deal of introspection that I came to decide I had been wrong about many things.

Thus, at times I simply lack patience for certain arguments not because I don't understand them fully, but because I long ago thought them through and have a little less patience with them than I otherwise might.

I spent about 20 years in intensive reading and study forming my opinions. I think hard about them before I form them, and I always put a good deal of time into analyzing the other side of the debate before I take my position. If that's not always clear, well, perhaps I'll make an effort to make that more apparent. But I am a tad surprised, since when I look at other bloggers who are popular, they seem far more emphatic and unyielding in their positions than I try to be. Just a bit of arrogance on my part there? Could be, I'll have to think on it.

But indeed, Rick--most of the longer pieces I write, I spend most of my time internally analyzing the opposing point of view.

I do, on the other hand, have markedly little patience for people who repeat stale arguments that are easily addressed. I can't make every conversation about carefully explaining everything that's gone into my worldview and assumptions I once held but discarded years ago as flawed. I do wait for people to share data I haven't seen, however, and always treasure that.

If I'm firm in my convictions, it's because of that introspective process. Indeed, it's my personality type--INTJ. ;-)

Why don't you invite Schwartz to meet you for drinks at a bar in Dearborn?

Fabulous idea, Alan. I've just sent him a note with said offer. Especially since I'm not mad at him anymore. Not that I was ever that mad, but I was a little mean singling him out in public like that. :-)

(Who was it who said, "Never get into an argument with someone who buys his ink by the barrel?)

Never get into an argument with someone who thinks they are open-minded and tolerant.

...and never date a girl that thinks she's not high maintenance.

Dean, fair enough, I would just point out the caveat that some of the rationals behind the "stale old arguments", can be new fresh and unique. Don’t judge an argument by it cover. :)

Make ya a deal, Rick: Any time you think I've missed something good like that, send it to me or tell me, or post it on your blog and remind me and I'll link it.

(I don't read any blog every day, so I sometimes miss your best stuff, I'm sure.)

Hayes: Hey! My wife thinks she's not high-maintenance, and she's right! (Most of the time....)

I hope this fellow is actually reading Shakespeare (the greatest writer who ever lived, in my opinion) instead of trying to "de-construct" him. (I know, I know. Dead White European Male Imperialist Warmonger...)