ralper

I've thought long and hard about posting here. Even now I'm not sure I should. I certainly don't want to start another fight and I really don't want to be called a "sanctimonious little prick" again. Still, this is a thread about opinions and I have more than my share of them so I thought I'd share this one with all of you. Please read it and take it for what it's worth.

I don

tof

Rob, you are a sanctimonious little prick, in my opinion. And if you do not accept my opinion as fact I will certainly be forced to come to NJ and beat the truth into you.

ok...now what were you saying?

(I went to the Legal Bill school of humor. Forgive me for I know not what I type.)

Good post. Interesting point of view. And glad to see you posting, btw.

Of course from where I sit, when you say "Opinions are a person

ralper

[QUOTE=tof,May 13 2008, 03:52 PM] Rob, you are a sanctimonious little prick, in my opinion. And if you do not accept my opinion as fact I will certainly be forced to come to NJ and beat the truth into you.

ok...now what were

S1997

Good to see you posting, Rob!

I was thinking about all of our posts here on the board, and something we could all be better at... The language we choose does serve to express our opinions and views about external events and situations. But it is also an important way for us to engage in interpersonal communion. I think in a discussion or conversation it is important to juggle several interwoven aims. In addition to making our own opinions and views known to our interlocutors -- we also have to think about how to craft our message in such a way that it does not diminish the other person's self esteem or call into question their competence or intelligence -- or their command of the facts. Sometimes we are so intent on getting our own point of view across that we forget how we are making the other people feel along the way -- both the ones we are conversing with and the ones who are looking in on our conversation. The language has so many ways for us to show that we are conscious of the other mind(s) we are interacting with, and lots of the pieces of language that we use have exclusively this interpersonal purpose. If we don't properly mix these two aspects of language in our conversations we fail. And all of us could be better at this task. Here in Vintage I think the interpersonal aspect of our conversations is at least as important as the informational aspects.

I don't mean to imply that we should be PC, fake, or overly nice. We all appreciate truth and honesty, and we respect someone who tells it like it is. But we can avoid making our fellow Vintage posters feel like they are being abused -- either intentionally or unintentionally -- even though there will always be conflicts and disagreements. It couldn't be any other way.

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Filthy Beast

I try to be nice to everyone, however my wife thinks im an asshole......does that count ?

boltonblue

I thought that was a predicate to a successful marriage.

Filthy Beast

Your right, i forgot about that

RC - Ryder

Well done and thought provocing essay, Jim.

I do think there are informed opinions. Not perhaps facts per se' and subject to biased interpretation but at the same time based on real and first hand experiences and/or direct observation.

mikegarrison

Sometimes they are not competent nor intelligent. But I agree that it's not too useful to start spouting off that I think so.

Other times they do not have command of the facts, and that I see no reason to not "call into question". You make this place sound like the second grade, where everybody gets a gold star whether they got the answer right or wrong.

OhioRacer