Subject: Re: On nil qua false [was: Re: On conditionals] From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 23:22:10 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3216064927754484@naggum.net> * Bruce Hoult | I should probably not reply to other people in the same session in which | I have to deal with Erik. You imply that you are _personally_ affected by my articles. _This_ is your core problem. _This_ is how these things develop badly. Quit it! Become a _professional_, and just _quit_ the stupid personal reactions. It is the sheer stupidity of your _professional_ opinion as posted to a professional forum that is attacked here. You do _not_ have a personal opinion on nil vs false, or on language design. (If you have, keep it yourself.) When you post professional bullshit, you should _expect_ to be treated harshly. If you do not understand this, suppose you are in a meeting where the object to design something, and you bring up your idiocy again and again and refuse to get the point. Do you think people will tolerate you? If you persist in being an idiot in a professional setting, you _will_ be beaten up and thrown out of the forum. Do you think anyone will care how _you_ feel, when you have ignored the whole reason for the forum's existence? People have a _purpose_ when they come to a forum like this. The fundamental premise is that you are here to share information and knowledge and professional opinions in order to further a clearly constructive interest. When you violate that premise, you are what is known on USENET as a troll. Much less favorable terms are applied in real life to people who violate the premises for a forum. You have a moral obligation to be intelligent when you post to a forum for professional discussions, which you have not understood and do not appreciate. If you take these things personally, you are making a very serious mistake. Yet, if you are unprofessional, there is something wrong with _your_ attitude, not just your arguments and opinions, and _you_ need to fix it. Since you are in a professional forum, critique of your (personal) behavior is _not_ about _you_, it is about your _role_ in this forum. If you do not understand this, you will miss most of what is going on, here. If you are taking things so personally that you lose your mental balance, you should spend time with someone who cares about you, even if paid to do so, and talk it out. Newsgroups are not therapy sessions. The above quoted line was obviously intended on your part to blame me for your mental instability, because you think this is a forum where anyone cares how you feel and why. It is not. (People may care, but that is a personal choice, not the purpose of the newsgroup.) It is increasingly evident that you Dylan guys are here to get personal affirmation of your misguided _professional_ choices, which is highly inappropriate for a professional forum. If you have that kind of personal needs, imposing them on other people is the pinnacle of inconsiderateness and rudeness, but people who think their personal feelings should be on CNN every day, do use USENET for this. Now, sharing personal stories is one thing, but demanding that other people satisfy one's personal needs is just plain bad behavior. Those who think they have a "right" to push their personal concerns on other people never consider any other person or concerns, and hence do not tolerate that anybody else reprimand them for their behavior because those others do not have the "right" to do so in their view. This whole "rights" thing is very strange, and basically just nonsense. It is as if someone has been watching too many crime-fighting TV shows and think that anyone who criticizes them for anything has to follow the strict rules of a government agency and violate their "rights" if not. /// -- The past is not more important than the future, despite what your culture has taught you. Your future observations, conclusions, and beliefs are more important to you than those in your past ever will be. The world is changing so fast the balance between the past and the future has shifted.