From: falcon@camelot.bradley.edu (D. Nathan Hood)
Subject: Re: Ray Shea Goes Ballistic (was Re: Top 10 bands of all time)
Organization: Bradley University
Date: 21 Nov 92 23:00:28 GMT

In <leo.722354510@galaxy> leo@ph.tn.tudelft.nl (Leo Breebaart) writes:

>falcon@camelot.bradley.edu (D. Nathan Hood) writes:

<stuff deleted because my defense to it came later...>

>> >Everyone has a right to an *informed* opinion. If you are willing to
>> >inflict your opinions upon hundreds of fellow newsgroup readers then 
>> >you also gotta be prepared to take the heat if they turn out to be
>> >extremely uninformed and narrow opinions. Especially if you don't
>> >even present them as opinions but as objective facts.
>> 
>> people are as informed as they want to be... you can tell people anything
>> you want and it is their choice whether or not to listen...  _you_ feel
>> that they are narrow and uniformed... they can say the same about you...
>> just because they are 'experienced' in a different form or genre of music
>> doesn't mean that they are uninformed... 

>Oh, come on. Look at what you're saying. Nobody is foolish enough to
>state that you have to be experienced in everything to be called
>'informed'.  Just be 'experienced' *in that which you want to
>publically write about*, and either shut up about the stuff you are
>not 'experienced in', *or* if you won't, be prepared to take some
>serious disagreement from people who know more about it than you.

apparently Mr. Silverman thought he was adaquately informed to make that
to post...  granted you are liable to be have your opinions questioned by
people that disagree with them... that is what this group is for... now i
know that Mr. Silverman did throuw the first flame here and he responded
inappropriately to ray's questioning his opinions but i think that Ray went
about that wrong... that is the way that i see it... i think it sent Mr.
Silverman on the defensive and saw Ray as an attacker rather than someone
asking him to back up his opinions...

>> there is no such thing as a narrow opinion

>Oh yes there is.

to you maybe and that is fine...

>> it is the opinion that that person holds and to them it is
>> sufficiently broad... if you see it as narrow and uninformed then
>> that is _your_ problem and not theirs...

>The urge to start writing analogies involving nazi's and world war II
>becomes almost overpowering, but I'll be strong...

already beat you to it...

>Other people's opinions are indeed not my problem, as long as those other
>people keep them to themselves and don't bother me with them.

it was _your_ choice to be bothered by them... you read the post in the
first place and you chose to respond to it... noone forced you into any of
this...

>As soon as they start posting those opinions to a public forum meant
>for discussion and argument, they are taking an explicit step that in
>effect says: "look here, these are my opinion, and I think they are
>interesting enough to present to you".

right...

>Coming out in the open with those opinions was *their* decision, not mine,
>and if I now disgree with those opinions, or wish to show that they are
>narrow and uninformed, I should be allowed to do so. If you don't want 
>your opinions questioned, *keep* *them* *to* *yourself*!


but it was your decision to respond to those opinions in what i see as a
non-constructive manner... yes you have every right to question those
opinions or to show that you feel that they are narrow and uninformed...but
again... people are as informed as they want to be... if people aren't
intersted in something they aren't going to actively seek it out... back
when you were in college (or maybe you still are i don't know) you weren't
going to take a class you weren't intersted in were you??? so why then go
out and seek out music that you just aren't interested in...