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From: eric@snark.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.women,talk.politics.misc,alt.flame
Subject: MESmith, Larry Lippman and sanity
Message-ID: <288@snark.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Nov-87 16:16:44 EST
Article-I.D.: snark.288
Posted: Wed Nov 25 16:16:44 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Nov-87 20:09:16 EST
Organization: Cosmic Karmic Recycling Central
Lines: 45
Xref: hoptoad soc.women:13318 talk.politics.misc:9546 alt.flame:802

I have now been attacked three separate times for stating my opinion that
MESmith is out of his mind, and I understand there is a fourth one waiting
in alt.flame which ought to be good for a chuckle or two.

The attackers evidently didn't read my posting very carefully, or else I
was less clear than I thought in stating my opinions.  For the benefit of
anyone else who may be confused, if they care, let me state the following:

1. I do not claim to have medical authority nor an MD's training; my
   statements are therefore to be considered opinions, at best informed
   opinions.

2. I do not think MESmith is evil, wrotten, wrong, stupid or a no-good-shit.
   I *do* think he is a person who, under great stress, has substantially
   lost contact with consensus reality.

3. I believe there is a lesson here in the evils of sexism -- not the one
   MESmith and his indignant defenders would have us draw, but a sobering
   reminder of the costs of anti-female prejudice in the damage it does
   to people who might otherwise be well-integrated, contributing and even
   outstanding members of society.

MESmith's defenders really amuse me. They rake me over the coals for
making "strong statements about a person I've never even met" while implicitly
defending his right to scoriate entire *classes* of victims that have never
even heard of him -- most libertarians, most USENET sysops, most males.

You know, I think I have more respect for MESmith than they do -- *I'm* willing
to treat him as though he's responsible for his behavior.

Finally, I promise that I will issue a public retraction of my expressed
belief that MESmith is a delusional paranoid when he retracts his
reiterated claim that he has been deliberately victimized by a nationwide
conspiracy of sysops intent on suppressing his freedom of expression.

Until that happens, I intend to direct all flames on this topic to /dev/null
without replying.

[P.S.: My use of male gender pronouns for MESmith is intended to respect "his"
	expressed wishes, but should not be taken as an endorsement of "his"
	socio-semantic theories.]
-- 
      Eric S. Raymond
      UUCP:  {{seismo,ihnp4,rutgers}!cbmvax,sdcrdcf!burdvax,vu-vlsi}!snark!eric
      Post:  22 South Warren Avenue, Malvern, PA 19355    Phone: (215)-296-5718