Continuing the discussion from Do you believe in demons and is pornography sinful?:

[DemonTree]

@Czarcasm

If someone posted that they twisted their ankle and it had swollen up badly, would it be an insult to say they needed to see a doctor…even if that person said a doctor wasn’t needed?

@thorny_locust

And it is not an insult, or shouldn’t be, to say someone might have a mental illness and should investigate that possibility, any more than to say they might have a physical illness and should investigate that possibility.

@Aspenglow

I think you are reading more into the mod’s action than is actually there. You’ve decided that if we allow posters to suggest someone seek professional assistance, then that is intended to discourage others from interacting with you. That’s your interpretation, but it’s not our intention. We’re simply allowing posters to respectfully comment that another poster, who freely posted whatever they chose to post, might solicit professional help based on what was said. When you post in a public forum, that’s a risk you take.

All these responses are ignoring the fact that the comment @kanicbird is complaining about was not advising him to see a doctor (which I agree would be reasonable). The fact that the comment would have been okay if it had said something completely different is not relevant.

And @Aspenglow , kanicbird has not said “if we allow posters to suggest someone seek professional assistance, then that is intended to discourage others from interacting with you”. That’s simply incorrect. One poster made a comment explicitly discouraging another from interacting with him (on this subject). That’s the common-sense reading of the comment, confirmed by Eyebrows_0f_Doom who said he wanted to stop Czarcasm ‘goading’ kanicbird.

@Atamasama

All that being said, you can also say that a person reached a conclusion without using proper reasoning without that being a personal insult. I don’t see why pointing that out should be forbidden on this board. It’s not any worse than saying a person made a mistake, which even the smartest people are going to do now and then. It’s not the same as saying a person lacks the capacity for reason. Now, that would be an insult.

But the comment was saying he lacked the capacity for reason, at least on this particular subject:

@Eyebrows_0f_Doom

You can’t reason someone out of mental illness.

That’s not saying someone has reached wrong conclusions, it’s saying they are incapable of reaching correct ones, in the exact same way as saying “you can’t reason someone out of stupidity”. It is clearly attacking another poster.

(I do believe Eyebrows_0f_Doom when he said that was not his intention, but I think similar comments should be modded in future.)