I recently had a thread closed in General Discussions (“Evolution: Two Intriguing Lamarckian Experiments” http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=61016) and complained about it in “Censorship of Evolution: Two Intriguing Lamarckian Experiments” http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=61296).
This second tread was closed with the post:
I don’t feel that I reopened the original post - I merely complained about the rationalization used to close it.
Of particular interest in the above quote is the postscript “And, by the way, if it can’t be replicated, it ain’t scientific results.”
Naturally one would have to read the thread to understand the context in which the words appear but this is not really necessary to comprehend the following:
It is a classic behaviour pattern of an abusive personality to use whatever “power” the artificial structure of society gives them to affect another persons life and then, when on a psychological “high”, to further add to whatever distress they imagine they have inflicted on their victim.
The specific significance of the postscript is, of course, that it leaves no opening for a reply!. Through such righteous and rationalized behaviour are young children trauamatized.
I further predict, should the above moderator read this, that instead of expressing her reaction in a natural way, she will want to “punish” further.
I would like to add that when a person has a hidden capacity for “badness” that no human being is born with, and is intermittently triggered by the supposed misdemeanors of others, that neither I or the rest of the world are responsible for that “badness” being there.
And by the way, the experiments give every indication of being repeatable though I do understand the psychological reasons that makes you see only what you want to see. There was no suggestion in that thread that the experiments weren’t repeatable - rather the opposite in fact!.
I await your reaction with bated breath and am only thankful that I am not a young child, behind closed doors, who has knocked a drink over.
There, I feel much better now!
Jorolat