(no subject)

[sophiaserpentia]

In the big discussion on my journal today, I made a sweeping generalization I should not have. I retracted it later, but still, I'm very disgusted with myself.

I guess I should learn how to let myself be wrong sometimes, but it's so hard. Especially when it is an error I should not have made, in light of the volunteer training I just went through. I feel like I have to go back to square one now.

Comments

Re: Square minus one.

[kwarizmi.livejournal.com]

I excelled in logic in school. ::glances at the math degree on my wall::

I'm sure it must be very pretty. No disrespect, but you must be aware that the considerable bias you exhibit negates any weight that your studies might contribute to your argument?

Your counterpoint is very valid, but as you allowed yourself a clarification, I must hereby tender my own.

There's nothing inherently wrong with arguing a position that is illogical. There is nothing inherently wrong with arguing a logical position in an illogical fashion. What is completely wrong (morally wrong, because it misleads those whose thinking is vulnerable to such rhetoric) is to use the tools and constructs of logic to attempt to legitimize an argument that cannot be sustained by logical devices, and furthermore, may not even need to.

This is why I strongly agree with your contention that logic, or rather, the outward trappings thereof, can be used for obfuscation and deception. But it cuts both ways; if it can be used by others as a smokescreen for the topic we want discussed, we can also use it to distract others from a topic we don't want discussed.

My strongest critique of your rhetoric is, and has always been, your insistence on what I call "using the weapon of the enemy." You feel marginalized, so you marginalize in return. You feel segregated, so you segretate in return. You feel vituperated, humilliated, wronged on many levels, so you do the same unto others, in the safe haven of the mostly sympathetic confines of LJ.

"But you don't understand", will be the inevitable reply. "You can't understand, you're not a victim like me!" Well, madam, my ability to empathize with your plight goes exactly as far as your willingness to alienate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alienation) me.

As evidence, this choice quote:

The human brain doesn't care about logic when you're being raped, okay?

Brace yourself, I'm about to cut loose.
What a perfectly abhorrent rhetorical device. Completely uncalled for. In a single stroke, you rationalize your prior lapses by taking on the mantle of the Victim (and not just any victim, mind you, but the victim of the repulsive act of rape) as an all-inclusive, get-out-if-the-jail-of-rational-argument card which of course trumps any opposing position, but also construct the argument in a way that I cannot counter without either appearing unsympathetic (and by extension, complicit to the rhetorical, non-existant rape).

So, having now been characterized as an insensitive clod (and a probable rapist, given half the chance), I cannot now include myself in your thinking in an agreeable way, for the same limbic reasons you alude to. Eye for an eye, ad infinitum. Where does it stop?

Look out, she's armed with... a LiveJournal! And she's not afraid to use it

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

My strongest critique of your rhetoric is, and has always been, your insistence on what I call "using the weapon of the enemy." You feel marginalized, so you marginalize in return. You feel segregated, so you segretate in return.

So in your eyes, that makes me Just As Bad?


So, having now been characterized as an insensitive clod (and a probable rapist, given half the chance), I cannot now include myself in your thinking in an agreeable way, for the same limbic reasons you alude to.

Are you seriously trying to imply that any indignation you've endured here, reading the words I and others write in my journal, is traumatic? You're going to need therapy to help you cope with the flashbacks, the despair, the self-scorn you feel after reading my LiveJournal?

BTW, when I mentioned rape, I was not referring to it in a rhetorical way. I was not trying to imply, as you apparently read it, that I take criticism of me as metaphorical rape. Sometimes it's triggery, but that wasn't what I referred to either. I don't use rape as a metaphor, because there is no metaphor for being pinned down and trapped in a way you can't breathe while being forcibly sodomized when you're eleven.

On top of that, there's no metaphor for having parents who spend 20 years making sure you know they disapprove of any effeminacy you might display, feeling justified in doing so because it's what the church, the government, and the culture wants.

So, I don't know what "non-existent metaphorical" rape you thought I was talking about. Why did I bring up rape at all? Because the emotion it's left me with is my constant companion. It makes me less than perfect, it makes me flop around and respond in illogical ways, it makes me feel guilty for that and leaves me scratching my head wondering why I do it.

And you'll note, in all of the things I've written about "dehumanizing" "dualism," I never said I'm above it. As I wrote recently, this is not me as guru expounding from a hilltop about things I have transcended, this is me in the thick of it trying to make some sense out of the world, including my own faults. Maybe the fact that I'm articulate is some kind of curse.