# You don't know what you're talking about = direct insult? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [July 4, 2015, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-know-what-youre-talking-about-direct-insult/724194 "2015-07-04T04:35:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 23
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-know-what-youre-talking-about-direct-insult/724194/23 "2015-07-04T22:31:35Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Exactly correct. And telling another poster not to pay any attention to him makes it that much worse. But John, the “Don’t pay attention”, part is what was substantive. Steering the conversation is a good thing. Smacking down bad ideas is a good thing. Insult-fests are of course bad for GD, so we are discussing matters of calibration. At any rate I was curious about what the civility advocates thought about this. I would recommend that they click the link for context. In particular, was there an obvious way of expressing the underlying legitimate point? > [@Morgenstern](#): > > The mods really need to stop defending each other here and come up with a standard that works, one that doesn’t require a code book to interpret correctly. ## I disagree with this actually: I perceive exaggeration. You don’t really need a code book right now. Just try not to be personal in your remarks. [1] Wolfpup captured the general issue here: > [@Does "Deliberately Distorted" = "Lied"](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-deliberately-distorted-lied/722598/72): > > The prohibition against accusing someone of lying or being a liar is something that I think most of us can live with because it’s unnecessarily insulting and hostile. But when we start outlawing anything that can even remotely be considered possibly synonymous, then IMHO we start to seriously impair the ability to communicate on this board. … > > …So I’ll say again: it’s fine to have rules that promote civil discourse, but not rules so far gone that we can’t properly communicate, and in particular, that impairs the ability to call out complete bullshit when we see it. Curbs on direct insults in GD fight ignorance. But so does setting aside bad ideas and focusing on more defensible and therefore debatable ones. That said, I’m doing a fair amount of hand-wringing in this post: I’m not exactly outraged by the OP. **Issue #2** Hm. I can see things evolving whereby a broader spectrum of posters get caught out with 5 warnings in 2 years, whereas they might have had zero warnings under older civility standards. That’s ok, but I’m not sure whether it’s what we want. Or rather I’m not sure whether it’s what we want in all cases. [1] Case in point: “I perceive exaggeration”, was actually a personal remark (and apologies Morgenstern) but it added clarity (if also hypocrisy ☹ ). --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-know-what-youre-talking-about-direct-insult/724194)._