From: robj@netcom.com (Rob Jellinghaus)
Newsgroups: talk.philosophy.misc,rec.arts.books,alt.politics.homosexuality
Subject: Re: Morally good necessary possible sometimes possible reprodictiveness
Date: 18 Dec 92 18:50:59 GMT
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)

In article <1992Dec18.111915.18664@husc3.harvard.edu> zeleny@husc10.harvard.edu (Michael Zeleny) writes:
>In article <1992Dec18.023243.3435@netcom.com> 
>robj@netcom.com (Rob Jellinghaus) writes:
>>There is room for you in your self-created mental niche, but I suspect
>>the vast majority of people here are seeing ever more clearly exactly
>>how suspect your "arguments" are.  And those of us who are concerned
>>with the real world are very happy to see those people making up their
>>own minds... perhaps they will help in trying to make the real world a
>>safer place for people of all sexual orientations.
>
>Nothing here to rebut, except by noting that if you think that my
>arguments are meant to prevent people from "making up their own
>minds", or lessen the safety of "people of all sexual orientations",
>you are suffering from paranoid delusions.

I made no such claims and have no such delusions.  Certainly I feel
that this thread has helped me make up my own mind about you, and
judging from the other replies, I am not alone.  I thank you for being
as forthcoming as you have been in describing the origin and basis of
your theory.  (And indeed there is nothing here to rebut--I now see
that your theory is self-consistent, assuming one shares your terms
and your definitions.  I don't.)

I made the comment about "making the world a safer place..." because
I feel that people are more likely to accept those with alternate
sexualities if they learn that said alternate sexuality is as healthy,
as uplifting for the participants, and as beneficial to society as
their own.  That is, people who know the facts about gay sex in the
real world are more likely to accept that gays have love lives that
are every bit as valid (morally, emotionally, and in every other way)
as straights; and people who come to feel this way are much more
likely to fully support gay rights.

Clearly there are people such as yourself who support civil rights for
all humans while spending many hours (years, in your case) detailing
why gays are nonetheless morally inferior.  I am glad you support
equal rights; however, I believe that your views in no way contribute
to the honest portrayal of gay sexuality, and that you yourself are
personally bigoted against homosexuals.  This is certainly your right,
but I feel that bigots (be their hatred only internal and wrapped in
layers of philosophical self-justification) make the world less safe
for the targets of their disdain.  I hope that over time such
irrational hatred will diminish, through wider participation in
dialogue such as this; _that_ is what I mean by "making the world a
safer place".

-- 
Rob Jellinghaus    |  "Next time you see a lie being spread or a bad 
robj@netcom.com    |   decision being made out of sheer ignorance,
robj@xanadu.com    |   pause, and think of hypertext."
uunet!netcom!robj  |       -- K. Eric Drexler, _Engines of Creation_
Newsgroups: talk.philosophy.misc,rec.arts.books,alt.politics.homosexuality