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Archiver > NORCALCHAT > 1999-01 > 0916012750


From: "Joel and Lynn GAzis-SAx" <>
Subject: Re: Dysfunctional Family?
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 15:59:10 -0800


I have been trying to discuss things like an adult, but I have to say
quite honestly, I think the reason why Roland is so beloved is
because he is a rude and crude person who attacks people whose
views you don't like! If he were coming from the other end, he
probably would have been driven off the list months ago.
Fortunately, I have a killfile set up so I don't have to read his
garbage -- experience with him in other contexts has demonstrated
to me that he doesn't take the time to think or listen or learn from
anyone.

And I know I am not alone regarding him. Others have written to
me saying that they wish he'd shut up, too. They just don't want to
deal with the harassment they'd receive from "good old Roland" for
speaking up.

You say "perhaps if we knew you better". This is a step back from
your earlier position blaming it all on me, but still not good enough.
I believe that you should treat people with the same dignity
regardless of whether they are strangers to the list or not. If a
person is rude and nasty, then you should say so. If they try to
speak civilly, then you respond in kind.

Roland uses a lot of cheap shots to make his point. He also was
spamming my mailbox, trying to bring up the impeachment issue
whenever he could even in contexts which did not relate to it. He is
downright obsessive about this impeachment thing and his friends
just try to sing a little louder and pretend it's all in fun. You say
you love him because he brings up points you didn't think about. I
saw lot of shopworn reactionary cliches when I read him. The only
challenges I've seen to anyone's thinking, I dare say, have been
coming from me so far and you are ever so quick to reject them!
(e.g. I brought up the Fourth Amendment issue several times and
nobody wants to deal with that. I answered the sex issue pointing
out that the harm to the country would have been negligible had Mr.
Starr and his company not tried to dig it up -- Clinton is certainly
not getting rich off this. The only waste/theft of taxpayers' dollars
is from this pork-barrel special prosecutor's office which never goes
away, unlike the other ones which have been set up through the
years. And finally, let us not forget how deftly you try to dodge the
dysfunctional family analogy. The degree to which you try to get
me to spare "poor old Roland" is classic "don't mention the
elephant in the living room" stuff.) The reason I think why you
protect Roland, ultimately, is so that you yourselves can get away
with cheap shots and rudeness of a lesser caliber and never have
to say you are sorry. That, in my book is cowardice.

The good news, again, is that I have killfiled Roland. This is not
only because of his asinine behavior here, but also because of his
asinine behavior in private email, both before and after I joined
norcalchat (not knowing he'd be here). You see, I spent several
days trying to teach poor old Roland how to send a digital
postcard. I've got thousands of people using my digital postcard
sites and the instructions are the same for all. Roland could not
figure this out. He posted a message ~to my guest book~ saying
that he couldn't send a card. (Again, he has to make the biggest
show possible for all to see.) We exchanged several polite emails.
Then it wore into just before Christmas when the digital postcard
server was flooded and things were very slow. I patiently explained
that he would have to let the server do it's thing because it was
overloaded. Roland made a cheap remark about that it would be
easier putting a gun to his head. At this point, I washed my hands
of him. I'd worked hard to try to get him to understand the simple.
And I concluded that he just didn't want to.

So not only have I faced Roland's rudeness here, but in another
context. And in both places, it was completely uncalled for. So I
have killfiled him so that I don't have to read his crud. I honestly do
not know if he has written anything or not these last few days. And
I don't care. I'm not reading it!

My biography, incidentally, is at http://www.alsirat.com/joel.html
And I've been on the net since 1988.

Joel GAzis-SAx
http://www.alsirat.com
http://www.notfrisco.com
Politics are usually the executive expression of
human immaturity.
Vera Brittain

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