A Thread Among Threads.

[MANICHAEAN]

I regret the demise of the recent thread by Mr Codfried, but can fully understand Scheherazade pulling the plug when it got too personal.

But By George it produced some cracking responses & the wit flowed. To this moment I'm still undecided as to if it was originally a serious point of view, or so tongue in cheek as to begger belief.

Thank you all.

[dafydd manton]

If you check a few other sites, it was not in jest at all. But it was fun, wasn't it. Well, for us, anyway!

[ClaesGefvenberg]

but can fully understand Scheherazade pulling the plug when it got too personal.Yes, bring up some preposterous claim, and inevitably someone will raise to the bait. Sooner rather than later things will get out of hand and a moderator will have to pull the plug.

This is not exactly news. We have seen it happen before, haven't we?

/Claes

[AuntShecky]

I think I looked at the thread you have in mind as well as its earlier manifestation. Didn't know what the hey to make of it, unless it was a parody of (a) a would-be Ph.D in the literature department submitting a dissertation. [Even way back in yours fooly's student daze, the pickin's for new grounds to research were skimpy. "All the topics have already been done!" -- or (b) a possible journal article by someone who already has his or her doctorate, as well as a teaching gig and is attempting to obtain "publish or perish" tenure. In any event, maybe the notorious thread was satirizing obscure --or even bizarre-- academic papers.

The other reason could be a lower level piece of the Swiftian "Modest Proposal" variety. Perhaps the poster was skewering ultra-sensitive proponents of political correctness. Or the very opposite -- a screed against those who harbor bias against certain social groups. An attorney general once said that people of a certain country should finally have an honest discussion about race, but i think this thread is far from what he had in mind.

Any of those topics could make a comical and pointed satire --in expert hands. No matter the motive, the execution of the original poster's thesis went overboard on the exaggeration, and degraded from a possibly clever premise down to downright silliness.

So, along with the perceived ad hominem attacks, the thread had become insufferably inane and perhaps ultimately a waste of bandwidth. The moderator was absolutely right to "pull the plug."

[dafydd manton]

There is the point that one of the best ways to combat something as unpleasant as racism, in whichever direction, or indeed any evil, is to ridicule it, which seemed to be what was happening. Laughter is an excellent way to combat most nasty things - witness Chaplin's film parodying Hitler. Most effective.

[Scheherazade]

I regret the demise of the recent thread by Mr Codfried, but can fully understand Scheherazade pulling the plug when it got too personal.

But By George it produced some cracking responses & the wit flowed. To this moment I'm still undecided as to if it was originally a serious point of view, or so tongue in cheek as to begger belief.

Thank you all.
Thank you very much for the vote of confidence.

However, the thread is now closed and since the thread starter will not be able to answer your questions, there is no point discussing it further.