Comment Massagement

Me, Pat and Steve on 25/09/11
Mum died on 21/10/11.

It's a long while since I've had any time for blogging.  Moving across the world gets you like that but I'm here to post a comment that was left on a blog that claims to be about humanism, although it's hard, given the vitriol and closed-mindedness in evidence there, so see what that might be that is of any use to anyone. I'm posting the comment here simply because three quarters of it was deleted, with the express intention of reputation destruction. (My comment policy is at the end of this post).

Schoolyard Critics

This post is a footnote to my review of Eugene Schwartz' short movie "Recessitation: Bullying in the Waldorf School", which inverts both joke mechanisms and definitions of play and bullying to ridicule the notion of both.

I've reviewed the movie on ANM, because it provides a lot of useful (if inverted) information about Steiner education, and this addendum examines how, in their own critiques of this movie the Steiner critics have continued and extended the inversions used by Schwartz, by which actions they reveal not only a singular lack of ability to self-scrutinise, but also a dangerous lack of awareness of the similarity of their position to the one that they are criticising.

A Skeptic's Guide to Bystanding

by·stand·er noun \ˈbī-ˌstan-dər\ Definition of BYSTANDER : one present but not taking part in a situation or event : a chance spectator

A Skeptical Witch-Hunt

This post title should be a contradiction in terms, because skepticism claims to require proper evidence, and witch-hunts are obviously built on hearsay. But you know what folks? It isn't a contradiction at all because quite a few people who wrongly call themselves skeptics are quite prepared to indulge in witch-hunts forsaking any pretence at critical thinking when there's a chance to get at someone they 'despise', indulge their vitriol and feel part of a groovy gang all at the same time.

Does it hurt to be attacked like that on the inter-web?  Well what do you think?