Re: Wilhelm Reich

[tim@toad.com (Tim Maroney)]

I said:

>Dana clearly sees book-burning as a very minor thing, of no real import
>as long as the books being burned are the right ones.  I find this mindset
>so incomprehensible that no possibility remains for real debate.  He would
>no doubt find better company in Jerry Falwell's Liberty College than here.

Dana Richards said:

>I seem to be defending myself against things I never said.
>(I confess it is a good debating tactic: paraphrase in so an outrageous way
>as to leave the impression you are dealing with an idiot.  Falwell would
>be proud.)

An even better debating tactic, at least as far as scoring points with
an inattentive audience is concerned, is to deny that you supported a
position which can easily be subjected to a reductio ad absurdum.  The
fact is that you said Reich was treated as he should have been, and
therefore since his books were burned, you supported the burning of his
books.

As for making it appear that you are an idiot, I need not lift a finger
to accomplish that which you have so effortlessly achieved.  Surely
more people that IED and myself were given the opportunity to snicker
when you claimed that your incoherent, ranting message against IED,
utterly devoid of points, was composed and extensively revised over the
course of eight hours.

>I never advocated book-burning, or any form of censorship.
>I merely said medical fraud is a crime.
>I am sorry if you think that is controversial.

You supported book burning.  You did not say "I support book burning",
but you said very explicitly that a situation in which books were
burned was handled well.  They are equivalent statements.

>>I can only repeat that any reading of the lyrics to "Cloudbusting" shows
>>that it concerns primarily Reich's arrest by federal agents, not orgonomy.
>
>No doubt this is meant to leave the impression the two things are unrelated.
>They are not.

How kind of you to close with a non sequitur.  It makes things so much
easier for me.
-- 
Tim Maroney, Consultant, Eclectic Software, sun!hoptoad!tim
"I was brought up in the other service; but I knew from the first that the
 Devil was my natural master and captain and friend.  I saw that he was in
 the right, and that the world cringed to his conqueror only from fear."
    - Shaw, "The Devil's Disciple"