Hard News: Compromise
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Here's a touching plea for some kind of system to expose misleading use of the "Dr" honorific. It appears in the comments thread of an interesting Guardian column about people misleading their audience about their medical qualifications.
If you think it might help you to hold your end up next time you're chatting with Bishop Brian, why not get your own NZ honour? Here's the nomination form.
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I always liked Marquis, but I'll take Pope if noone wants it.
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3410,
Craig is a standup guy. Newbies and lurkers could do well to make a bit of a contribution before ripping into others.
Look, *every* comment worth its salt will have *some* part of it that will strike *some* person as unusual. Would it not make more sense to just post your opinion, if necessary, and leave it at that? It's getting a bit 'cancerous and corrosive'.
I'm guilty of this, and I've been on the receiving end, too, so I know what I'm talking about. The scrapping is diluting the quality of the threads. As PAS grows in popularity some of us, including myself, need to take more care with our 'silicon footprint' (c. 2007, 3410).
I welcome free and open debate ('God' knows I'm grateful for the opportunity after a lifetime of having TV dickheads controlling the public discourse) but personally, I'm making a pledge to be a bit more serious, a bit more forgiving of slips of the tongue, and to take a bit more time thinkng "Is it really worth making this comment?" We need to lift our game if we want to maintain the high standards that this place is known for.
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merc,
I have you now!
No fish for who can tell where that comes from...
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I'm guilty of this, and I've been on the receiving end, too, so I know what I'm talking about.
Everyone has their Pantomime Dame moments. Bishop Brian is one of the few who's like that 24/7.
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Apologies Baron Llewellyn, Marquis Hadyn de Wellington
Possibly you misheard your cat who was saying "More fish up here".
that's being a bit too generous.
Acutally i just said: "Am I a bishop?"
Cat: "meow"
I said: "I'll take that as a yes then" -
__The people who accused Simon Barnett of being a child molester and rapist?__
Fair enough, I'd forgotten them. But then, I didn't get to hear or read what they said: just Barnett's account of it. Not that I am accusing him of making it up, but how many such emails did he get? I rather suspect that Sue Bradford copped 10 times the slime that he did.
I think you're being unduly charitable here, Russell.
Claiming both sides are as bad as one another when one side is calling people rude names and the other is issuing death threats is just silly and makes me wonder if the accuser is really that lacking in perspective, or just making a disinegnious grab at attempting to seem like the voice of reason.
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Baron Llewellyn
Ta. I think just seeing it on the internet validates it.
I think I prefer to be more casually known as "The Baron" though. It sounds more elite.
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I always liked Marquis, but I'll take Pope if noone wants it.
I can't quite imagine calling anyone Your Holiness. What about Cardinal? Nice robes. No Harleys, but we can call you Your Eminence and start a lot of sentences with 'My goodness, I wasn't expecting..."
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any title preferences Emma - Baroness? Princess? Bishopina?
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The Unitarian Jihad christened me Sister Jackhammer of Enlightenment. In light of that, a simple, humble 'mistress' will suffice.
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merc,
Principessa, from that movie...
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Apologies Baron Llewellyn, Marquis Hadyn de Wellington
Ta. I think just seeing it on the internet validates it.Does this mean I can put it in my CV?
I think my Unitarian Jihad name was Brother Machine Gun of Inner Peace. But that was back in my activist days...
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yes Mistress Emma. i was deemed the Cutlass of Courteous Debate, but i think i'll stick with the humble Feline Bishop Riddley of the Guinea Pigs for now.
Does this mean I can put it in my CV?
well of course Marquis, it has been bestowed upon you - it's not like you've just made it up for yourself.
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i misread my title. i thought it was:
Bishop Che, truth and enlightenment.
kind of appealed to my ego.
and
i have you now!
the princess bride? spoken by the bloke who had his father killed, and kept reminding everyone?
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Che you can be whatever title you want, as long as "you" don't make it up and "someone else" bestows it on you.
(whisper it to me) -
merc,
I have you now, Darth Vader to Luke. R. you're inflating on this man, you're hooking up with Che is making me paranoid, you know Che's from The Agency don't you?
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m you know a recipe of ancient chinese herbs is no match for an Overlord.
if it troubles you i will renounce all acknowledgement of Bishop Che. -
[writes in notebook] suspect experiences paranoia. may provide useful in manipulation. note: mention that rt. hon. clark watches "everyone".
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It feels pretty bad to be me today.
To recap, Craig said:
I'd also note that if you really want to be petantic about 'legitimate' titles, shouldn't we be referring to the Prime Minister as Mrs Peter Davies - even though she prefers to style herself with her maiden name
When you are being pedantic, you are being correct. I called Craig on that, and said that this was a canard, and that geting married did not entail changing your name.
Craig responded by telling me that he was being sarcastic. Now I don't see any sarcasm whatsoever in what I have quoted above, so I suggested that this was a post hoc justification, and said this:
Calling Helen Clark by her husband's name, illegitimately, is a way of belittling her, even in a joke. You are using the fact that she is a woman to make a dubious joke.
You might recall that we have had a long and agonising discussion on PA this week about how women get attacked qua women.
Then Craig told me that I was stupid, and that by calling him on what he had said I was being sexist.
He followed that up this:
I'm sorry if Deborah has some reading disability
In other words, not only am I stupid, and despite the evidence on this site, of my considerable ability to read and analyse what people are saying, it must all be my fault because I can't read. That little word "if" is rather nasty: people use it when they are dogwhistling.
And to top it off, there was this:
I also do try and pay people the courtesy of not ripping what they say so far out of context - or just making shit up - it verges on psychosis.
And again, the implication is that there is something wrong with me about all this.
So I had been told that I couldn't get a joke, that I am stupid, I am sexist, I have a reading disability, that I had made up shit, and that perhaps I was suffering from some sort of psychosis.
And despite all the things that had been painfully worked about perhaps not allowing such behaviour to pass unremarked, no matter who the abuse was directed at, the one person who called Craig on this string of insults and bullying was promptly slapped down for daring to be a newcomer with an opinion:
Craig is a standup guy. Newbies and lurkers could do well to make a bit of a contribution before ripping into others.
What am I to make of all this? I have been around here since the day that PA System started up, I have tried to make interesting and constructive comments, I have spent hours this week choosing my words with such care to try to understand and explain what people are saying, and now I am sitting at my keyboard and crying because not only have I been subjected to a string of abuse, but NO ONE HERE HAS SAID ANYTHING ABOUT IT.
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merc,
Now you both got me going on two threads, that's unnatural. When I find that notebook Che...saw Matador last night it was pretty good, moustaches everywhere, see R. that's an IN JOKE between me and Che, just us buddy, you can renounce all you like but when you sold the rights to THEATRE! to Che, things changed for me, awright.
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merc,
Word, I'm with you on each call Deborah.
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I'm with you on each call Deborah
me too. your comments are invariably well put and i can't recall ever disagreeing with what you've said over the past months. the person in question is clearly having yet another very off day and frankly, i just got tired with bothering with him. you were right to call him - i just thought, well leave him to his miserable world. it's not good, and i don't wish to minimise your distress, but i hope Deborah you will take at least some solace in the fact that i value your humour and thoughtfulness, and i think most members of this forum do too.
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Deborah, I'm guilty of not stepping in too.
I read Craig's comments with ever-growing dismay, but I didn't want to get involved because I didn't want to be on the receiving end of his vitriole myself.
Sorry for being a coward.Craig - my two cents says Malcolm is right, you owe Deborah an apology.
She (quite correctly) pointed out the fallacy of your statement, and you went a bit burko.
I also didn't read your comment as sarcastic, and I like to think I have a fairly developed sense for the thing.
This doesn't mean I think you're a terrible person, we all have off days, but you were totally out of line. -
Thanks, merc and Riddley. Usually I enjoy what Craig has to say, even when I disagree with it, but not today.
Having posted all that... I'm over the distress now.
And I enjoy the quick one liners between you two, and people like Juha - as someone else said somewhere, it says a great deal that most threads around here deteriorate to sheer silliness.
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