[Wikipedia-l] "genetically unequiped" women

Wed Sep 11 16:08:31 UTC 2002

Michael R. Irwin wrote:
> internet kook, etc.

One small but very useful rule in critique is to criticize *actions*,
not *persons*.

The assumption behind the critique must be that the person can change,
regret his or her earlier actions, maybe even apologize, and improve.
After that we will have to continue to deal with that person.  So we
better start now to act *as if* we were already talking to the new
and improved person, using past tense for the previous wrongdoings.

When Helga was invited to this list, I didn't see anybody holding that
door to the future open.  I got the impression that she drowned in a
flood of messages talking about her (not to her) as being an idiot.
A person who lacks knowledge or insight can learn, but what can an
idiot do?

The questions now is not what Helga did (she's banned, case closed),
but instead: What can *we* learn from this?

-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik
  Teknikringen 1e, SE-583 30 Linuxköping, Sweden
  tel +46-70-7891609
  http://aronsson.se/ http://elektrosmog.nu/ http://susning.nu/