The Role of Insults and Profanity on Blogs

A blogger friend of mine occasionally writes things like:

Mr. XXXXX, you're a lying sack of shit.

That bothers me. Is it just a difference of style? Is it just that my friend has spent time with fisherman and others who tend to use more colorful vocabulary? Is it just that I'm out of touch with the modern world where profanity is common?

Actually, it's not the profanity per se that bothers me. Though I think that when it is used as frequently as it is, say on The Wire or even Jon Stewart, the words no longer have the power that profanity once had. After all, if every other word in every discussion has 'fuck' as its root, what can you use when something truly worthy of profanity happens? The power of the truly taboo word is gone when there are no taboo words left. But that's a minor part of my concern here.

Probably I'm most disturbed by insults like this in political blogs because they divert the reader from the argument. Wikipedia explains this sort of attack:

Ad hominem argument is most commonly used to refer specifically to the ad hominem abusive, or argumentum ad personam, which consists of criticizing or attacking the person who proposed the argument (personal attack) in an attempt to discredit the argument. It is also used when an opponent is unable to find fault with an argument, yet for various reasons, the opponent disagrees with it.

This isn't much more than a third grade level argument. But there's no teacher around here to explain to the children why this is inappropriate and to get them past being miffed and to go back to playing together.

I think it is also bad strategy for political bloggers for several reasons.

1. Calling others nasty things is a form of venting. It makes the ventors feel good when they are frustrated and feeling otherwise powerless to do something about a situation. (On the other hand it can be like kicking a victim who is already down and out. Perhaps that also is a sign that one knows the problem hasn't been solved.)
   
2. So, as self therapy, being bitchy is appropriate when you are alone or with your close friends. But not publicly. Your friends know that you are using hyperbole and they may even encourage you. Your friends probably agree with you, it's not aimed at them, and they won't hold it against you tomorrow. If it is aimed at them, they know not to take you seriously.
3. In fact, with your ideological cohorts, you may even build up a sense of solidarity and enthusiasm. Sort of like Sarah Palin on the campaign trail riling up all those anti-'them' passions.
4. But when you do this publicly on a blog, everyone else can listen in. This invective is proof of your weak arguments to them. More likely these are seen as fighting words that increase the divide and justify their own counterattacks. This is no longer political, it's personal. I can understand Sarah genuinely feeling that she's being attacked personally by some of my fellow bloggers, that it isn't her actions that are being attacked.
   
5. When someone starts calling you names, it's easy to react only to that and not even see the rational arguments that proceeded or followed. There is no trust for the motives of others. What 'they' say and do is merely strategy to defeat 'us.' So we don't listen to their arguments and they don't listen to ours.
   
6. I believe that people are extremely complex and their behaviors and words are often intended to be masks to hide what they really believe or feel. Rather than call people like Sen. Larry Craig a hypocrite or worse, we should be asking what is it in our society that causes people like him (and countless others - including Bill Clinton) to have to dissemble and even be hypocritical about their sexuality? Or their other socially disapproved behavior? What happened in their lives that causes them to have to escape into alcohol, drugs, gambling, or making lots of money, or having a bigger house? Calling someone a lying bag of shit doesn't help our understanding of the behavior. Understanding might ultimately lead to ways to reduce that sort of behavior in the future. Not just of this individual, but others who have the same behavior patterns.
   
7. In many Asian cultures, losing one's temper is seen as loss of self-control. It's natural to get mad, but it's generally better to be in control when you are dealing with your opponents.

I don't deny that it's important to stand up for what you believe. Standing up to bullies is a way to get them to back off. But one needn't be nasty and brutish. One does need to be firm and have solid facts and a stiff backbone.

I guess on a less important level, I'm dismayed by such language because it reflects a lack of rigor on the part of the writer. For me, a comeback should be witty and unexpected, so that even the recipient has to admire the mind that came up with it. Or it should be couched so that it takes a moment to realize that one has even been insulted. Ideally it should be closely linked to the issue at hand. Studying the words of masters - for inspiration, not for copy - such as Winston Churchill or Oscar Wilde might inspire one to work at it a bit. Here's one from Churchill:

He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

And Oscar Wilde reflects a theme I've been trying to get at here:

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

Still too nice to blog - So Here's Dennis' Snow Geese Pic

The blue sky and sun and warmth continue in Anchorage. Dennis sent me a link to the snow geese picture he took the other day, so here it is. I'm outside enjoying.

Sun Damaged Sanity - Sandhill Cranity

The sunny, warm weather - better than I can remember at all last summer - has my mind unable to focus much on blogging or anything mental for that matter. So here's a picture from Dennis Zaki's Alaska Report (with his permission.) I was going to post the Snow Geese he had up yesterday, but they are gone and not yet in his galleries. So enjoy the crane.

For a wonderful book that uses sandhill cranes as its metaphoric theme, check out Richard Power's The Echo Maker. The link takes you to an old post on the book with some quotes on the cranes and a description on how the fit into his main topic which has to do with the human brain. A commenter came up with a much better title than I had for the post - Cranes and Brains.

Satruday Forum On the Permanent Fund - Senior Center

Cliff Groh's post today at Alaska Political Corruption reminded me of tomorrow's (Saturday, May 2, 2009) event at the Senior Center:

…you should come to the forum on “Hard Times and the Permanent Fund” from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. It’s on Saturday at the Anchorage Senior Center at 1300 E. 19th Avenue. It’s open to the public and it’s free—there’s even going to be coffee, muffins, and fruit.

Here's from the flier:

Annual Meeting and Forum
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009, 10 am to 1 pm
Anchorage Senior Center
1300 East 19th Ave, Anchorage
Doors open at 9:30 am

Schedule of Events
9:30 am: Please join us for coffee, fruit and muffins
10:00 am: Annual Meeting

10:30 am: Forum: Hard Times and the Alaska Permanent Fund

Hard Times and the Alaska Permanent Fund
Moderated by Michael Carey

Panelists

• Janie Leask – President/CEO, First Alaskans Institute
  
  
• Larry Persily – Long-time Alaska journalist and former Deputy Commissioner at the Department of Revenue
  
  
• Eric Wohlforth – Former Chair of Alaska Permanent Fund Trustees and Former Alaska Commissioner of Revenue

The Principal: What is the untouchable principal? Can we
better protect it? How?

The Dividend: Can the dividend be made more stable and
predictable? How?

The Rest of the Earnings: Should part of the earnings be
available for public purposes? What are the alternatives?

Co-sponsored by: League of Women Voters Anchorage, AARP, First Alaskans Institute, Resource Development Council of Alaska and Commonwealth North

The event is free and open to the public

Time to be Outside

Yesterday at this time it was 69˚ in the shade (20.5C) according to our indoor/outdoor thermometer. It's a few degrees less today, but just as nice. So after reading the newspaper on the deck, I decided it was time to get the leaves out of the flower beds.









Six loads piled in the back. I was able to get some of last year's compost onto the newly uncovered beds, but down below it was still frozen. The compost heap doesn't get that much sun. So these are temporarily over at the old compost heap. I'll want to get some of my neighbor's lawn clippings to layer in with the leaves. But his lawn has to green up first. When the new solid waste collection system hits our neighborhood, I wonder how many people will start compost heaps?




I certainly don't claim to be an expert here, but I do know what happens in my yard after many, may years.

Some of the plants, like the phlox, stayed mostly green from last year under the leaf mulch.






Some of the lamium did too; some of these might not make it, but most will and others will be out soon. I'm still amazed when these come back. They just don't look like plants that should make it through the winter.




Others don't make it through the winter in plant form, but they send up new leaves as soon as they can. This one has light blue flowers, but I just can't remember their name. Some of these I only know what they are or what they are going to do because of where they are in the garden. If I just saw them at someone else's house, I probably wouldn't know them at this early stage.

These are wild geraniums and will be the first to bloom in the back yard. (The others are all in the front with more sun.)




Posting to the blog gives me a chance to look up a few things and learn something new. According to GardenGuides.com:

Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla spp.) is a traditional perennial herb enjoyed in flower gardens for its attractive yellowish-green flowers, which are small and numerous. The soft-looking foliage has a bluish cast. Named after the Virgin Mary's cloak because of its scalloped leaves, Lady's Mantle is often found in northern European gardens, where it is native. Some species can grow to a height of about 24 inches and most species bloom from late spring until early fall.

The root is edible, as are the leaves, which sheep and cattle are said to relish. The entire plant is normally harvested in midsummer and can be used medicinally for bruises and wound healing. Lady's Mantle tea is said to be helpful for excessive menstruation.

And it spreads.



It wasn't even May yet yesterday, but the birch buds were showing. If the weather stays this way for a week, they could fully open pretty early this year.


You can see what some of these will look like in five or six weeks by looking at some posts from last year and 2007. The blog is turning out to be a good way to keep track of when my flowers bloom over the summer months.

Of the ones on those old posts, a few wild iris leaves are poking up, but I didn't see the chocolate lily or the dandelions yet. Nor the lillies of the valley, and the forget-me-nots. Not sure the lilac will bloom this year. It's hard for me to tell the flower buds from the leaf buds. The mountain ash buds are there, but no green yet.

What Does a Climate Change Worker Do? John Streicker

At the Indigenous Peoples Global Summit on Climate Change (click link for all the posts on the summit) last week, one of the people I spoke with was John Streicker from the Yukon. He said his job was in climate change, so I asked him what that meant. And he gave me a well thought out reply.


He listed five things climate change workers do:

1. Monitoring
2. Creating Scenarios - Projecting Changes
3. Public Education
4. Mitigation
5. Responding To The Changes We're Feeling Now

In the video he gives a little more explanation of each.

Susan and William Goldenberg Make Stunning Music

In amongst the books I've been reading simultaneously is this passage about a married couple who go off into another world while playing the piano together:

The millions sank, as Nietzsche describes it, awestruck in the dust; hostile boundaries shattered, the gospel of world harmony reconciled and unified the sundered; they had unlearned walking and talking and were about to fly off, dancing, into the air. Faces flushed, bodies hunched, their heads jerked up and down while splayed claws banged away at the mass of sound rearing up under them. Something unfathomable was going on: a balloon wavering in outline as it filled up with hot emotion, was swelling to the bursting point, and from the excited fingertips, the nervously wrinkling foreheads, the twitching bodies, again and again surges of fresh feeling poured into this awesome private tumult.

Robert Musil's description on page 45 of The Man Without Qualities came to mind last night as I listened to the Goldenberger Duo - a brother and sister - play the violin and piano together. While last night's music was mellower than Musil's couple's, the Goldenbergs too were invisibly connected, their fingers and souls producing magical sounds that is the promise, but rarely the reality, of live music.

The sanctuary at Beth Sholom has great acoustics, and the trees through the window made a soothing backdrop that included, for a while, a bald eagle making lazy circles in the sky.

I did take a bit of video, but if you watch it, remember it was taken with my little Canon Powershot and so the sound is a raspy whisper while their live sound was rich and enthralling.

For people like Phil who know the music, here's what they played:

Antonin Dvorak - Sonatina in G Major, op.100, Allegro risoluto

Astor Piazolla - Oblivion

Manuel de Falla - Suite Populaire Espangnole (six songs)

John Williams - Theme from Schindler's List

Ernest Bloch - Nigun - Improvisation from Ball Shem Suite

Antonin Dvorak - Sonatina in G Major, op. 100, Allegro

Traditional Hebrew and Yiddish Folks Songs


The last because this concert, nominally, was a musical performance for Yom HaZikaron and Yom Haatzmaut.

The two musicians were concluding a busy week, having played in Juneau, Skagway, Haines, Homer, Eagle River, and a morning concert at West High School in Anchorage before last night's concert.

Thank you, William and Susan, for sharing your window to a better world.

Biking in Anchorage

Talk of Alaska is discussing increasing numbers of bike users in Anchorage right now (the show will be available as a pod cast later today or tomorrow). There's a draft bike plan and the commenting period has been extended to May 7 I think they said. (As I post this the website still says April 30 is the deadline, but don't believe it.) Lori Schanche of the Municipality said they've already got 80 comments. I suspect that some people haven't commented because they didn't have the time to read the whole plan. But if you're a cyclist and don't have the time, just say you didn't get time to read it all and tell them you support the general idea of improving biking conditions in Anchorage.

I did ride my bike three days last week to the Indigenous Summit last week, but there was lots of summit stuff to post on and I feel that some people out there get sick of cyclists pushing the idea of riding. However, it really is a viable alternative for many people for many trips. Not everything. The parts of Chester Creek I was on were almost totally clear of snow and ice. The picture shows one of the exceptions on the first day. But just in the three days I rode my bike, things cleared up significantly. And while I was disturbed that all the gravel that had been on the streets was now piled in the bike lane (on A Street) and the bike path next to the streets. But then the next day they were cleaning the A Street bike path - see the picture - and the day after the E Street path was clear of gravel.

Our streets were designed for cars so many people think that riding bikes isn't viable the winter makes it impossible here. But improving the infrastructure summer riding can be much safer and the advent of mountain bikes and LED bike lights has made winter biking much easier. And if people can ski or ride snow machines in the winter, then it isn't too cold to ride a bike. Listen to the show pod cast to hear what they are doing. Here's the Talk of Alaska link again.

IPS - Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, Canada

I've still got a couple more interviews and other video from the Indigenous Peoples Global Summit on Climate Change (click link for all the posts on the summit). I also have more observations after four days at the summit. This video was done Friday. Eriel was one of the youth representatives and had just been interviewed by an AP reporter and was upset because she felt the AP reporter had gotten her to say more than she should have. I'll have more to write about that topic - I saw that same AP reporter again soon after at the press conference, which I reported on here. She's identified in the rough transcripts as Mary. In any case, I mention that because Eriel was a little distracted when we did this quick video. But I think the content is important for Alaskans and others to hear.









[UPDATE Feb 12, 2012: Note today's comment from Maz - He's just finished mixing "Elemental" a movie that will get Eriel's message wider attention.]

Indigenous People's Global Summit - Felipe Iniquez, Mexico

It's late Saturday night already and I have a lot of video and pictures and thoughts about the Summit. Yesterday (Friday) afternoon I went with three of the African delegates on a short Anchorage tour. Their biggest interest was to go to the mountains and see the snow. We picked up my friend Jeremy on the way and went to Glen Alps and walked to Powerline Pass. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures - all my memory cards were full - but they had a great time playing in the snow for the first time. We even had some big fluffy snow flakes come down while they were up there.

On the way up the hill, Jeremy got a call that his Friday night live host couldn't do the show. Jeremy's been pestering me - and I've been pushing him - to do more live shows with interesting people. So I proposed that we had three delegates to the Summit from Africa who would make a great show. We ate dinner when we got back to Jeremy's and he played with wires, the mic, and his computer until he said, "OK, you're on in three minutes." And we talked about the Summit and their issues back home for the next hour plus. Jeremy's wife came home in the middle and I went to explain what was going on and she said, "I know, I've been listening in the car." Add my wife and I know there were at least two people listening to KWMD while we were on. I don't normally see myself as a radio type, but I was really into the topic and mostly what I had to do was ask the three guests questions.

Today I went with five others who had an extra day before heading back from Anchorage. We went to Hope and back with lots of stops on the way. And despite the strong winds along Turnagain Arm, they seemed to all have a good time.

Here's one video from the Summit - of Felipe de Jesus Iniguez Perez of Jalisco, Mexico.





Here's a link to all the Indigenous Peoples Summit posts.