Hmmm… I create this thread with a title that names two specific people (about whom there seem little controversy on their lack of intelligence). I cite another thread where those two people are insulting me because I’m actually arguing a point with a degree of intelligence. I quote the same two people, and only those two people, in this thread. Half of the argument in the original thread (cited at the very top of the OP) stems from them calling my logic “torturous” and claiming that I speak for everyone in the world because I happen to style a particular post with the editorial “we” (of course never mentioning the actual points raised in this post).
Also note that I’ve commented on people’s respectable or superior abilities from time to time, including Chronos, Anthracite, and beagledave.
Hmm… obviously, I must be flaming the entire board, declaring myself to be the smartest human being in existence. Of course I am not insulting the intelligence of the two specific people I named in the title, quoted in the OP or was embroiled in a dispute with in the referenced thread. No! I am calling everyone on this board, everyone in the world, illiterate morons “who seem to have actual contempt for someone that can actually think his way out of a wet paper bag.”
I made only one serious mistake at SDMB: Thinking that logical reasoning and a degree of intelligence were valued here for their own sake. I’m certainly not the smartest person in the world. I have my talents and my abilities, my weaknesses and errors, and I sincerely thought I might have something to contribute. But without significant exception (and only on the most trivial or obvious of issues) every time I’ve tried to frame a complex argument, anticipating the opportunity to examine the refutations and explore an issue deeply and learn from people who might disagree with or have a different viewpoint from me, I’ve been met with very little other than overt hostility.
That’s fine. I’m not that thin-skinned. But it’s no fun trying to try to logically examine something from my own perspective and be met with a barrage of insults, hostility and abuse. I obviously did get torqued up about it, perhaps because my expectations were so violently contradicted. But I never demanded that my intelligence be regarded as superior, merely that I not be treated as a complete moron merely because I held a different viewpoint (as pldennison mentions). I never said I was smarter than everyone, merely smarter than two specific people (and that’s not much of a claim, as pldennison again seems to agree).
And I never said I was leaving to deprive this board of my godlike wisdom. I merely observed (correctly) that my contribution is unwelcome here: You have made it very clear that I have nothing to offer that this board needs or wants. I am no more welcome here, nor are my contributions of any more significance here, than at a lawyers’ professional message board, the LBMB or the American Association of Left-Handed Taxidermists (for the humorously challenged: all of whom are respectable and nice people with whom I have absolutely nothing in common).
Yes, xenophon, I so ran away from the gun control thread (that had degenerated to nonstop insults)… right to General Questions where I asked for assistance without debate on where I can find links to the very complicated body of law on gun control (remember, I am not a lawyer, and my vacation is almost up so I will be spending time actually working during the day). I ran away from the abortion debate… right to another thread in GD where I tried to examine the underlying problem of reconciling two camps trying to examine the same issue from two completely different perspectives. I made an aside in a Pit thread and returned to the debate on drug testing. Wow! What a coward I must be, what a total ass.
And sorry, Tris. I was just a little pissed off. I didn’t carefully check the exact correct procedure for resigning one’s membership. That, coupled with my two actual typos in the OP obviously brands me not only as a complete horse’s ass but probably shows me to be mentally defective and morally corrupt.
Some people here I expected no better from. But it does hurt my feelings to a degree that people whose intelligence I respect and admire, Anthracite, xenophon, and Gaudere, have interpreted a single sentence in a flame I thought obviously applicable to two specific people to be an indictment of ten thousand people I have known for only a few weeks. I think that’s called an uncharitable interpretation. Perhaps I should take xenophon’s advice and subject myself to the nastiest sort of personal attack to prepare myself for rational debate with civilized people. Or perhaps I should just get on with my life and allow you folks to get on with yours.
Sorry about the bagpipes. I wouldn’t have posted except to correct what I saw were egregious inaccuracies. I’m leaving now, using the correct procedure.
