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Path: utzoo!yetti!geac!daveb
From: daveb@geac.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.women,talk.politics.misc,alt.flame
Subject: Re: MESmith, Larry Lippman and sanity
Message-ID: <1902@geac.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 30-Nov-87 07:40:50 EST
Article-I.D.: geac.1902
Posted: Mon Nov 30 07:40:50 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 3-Dec-87 01:06:14 EST
References: <288@snark.UUCP>
Reply-To: daveb@geac.UUCP (David Collier-Brown)
Organization: The little blue rock next to that twinkly star.
Lines: 31
Keywords: sanity non-sequiteur
Summary: Sanity is in the mind of the beholder?
Xref: yetti soc.women:7961 talk.politics.misc:5824 alt.flame:667

In article <288@snark.UUCP> eric@snark.UUCP writes:
>I have now been attacked three separate times for stating my opinion that
>MESmith is out of his mind...
>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.
  As you are not a medically trained individual, you can't depend on
a title to make your opinion believable, have to demonstrate the
validity of your argument. I submit you have not done so.

>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.
  The last two words are critical: the argument is from consensus.
While this is (well, was) traditional in psycology, it is not the
only definition of reality. The consensus on the shape of the earth
(flat), the causes of madness (demonic possession), etc., have often
been wrong.  To summarize "humans are as fallible collectively as
individually".

>
>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

  Now *there's* something I can agree with.
-- 
 David Collier-Brown.                 {mnetor|yetti|utgpu}!geac!daveb
 Geac Computers International Inc.,   |  Computer Science loses its
 350 Steelcase Road,Markham, Ontario, |  memory (if not its mind)
 CANADA, L3R 1B3 (416) 475-0525 x3279 |  every 6 months.