karmafist has now re-blocked me, this time indefinitely. He and David Gerard
both base their actions on totally baseless assumptions about my psychology,
motives, and intentions.
As I see it, there are two questions that need to be settled here:
1) Is it acceptable to refer to people who actually are vandals as such?
2) If so, then are deletionists vandals?
I think (1) is obviously "yes" if for no other reason than that the
consequences of it being "no" would be totally unacceptable to anyone
seriously interested in creating a worthwhile encyclopedia; it is (2) that is
the contentious part. I am honestly convinced that deletionists are vandals;
there are many who think otherwise.
All I ask is that it either
(a) it be demonstrated that deletionists are not vandals (see my argument at
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Aaron_Brenneman&old…
to find out why I think they are), in which case it would be safe to unblock
me immediately (although I would understand a block of up to a week--I'd
prefer a week after the particular incident in question, of course, but I can
also understand the week beginning on the day it is put in place) because I
am not intellectually dishonest and I do not engage in behavior I know is
wrong, or
(b) that it be accepted that deletionists are vandals (or that at least it be
accepted that this particular argument for why deletionists are vandals has
not been refuted, in which case it is not known one way or the other--because
after all, lack of refutation does not constitute, in and of itself,
constitute proof), in which case I should of course be unblocked outright.
The thing is, karmafist and David Gerard have justified their actions that "it
is not acceptable to call someone a 'vandal' simply because he disagrees with
you"--and they are correct. What is incorrect is their assumption that I am
calling deletionists "vandals" simply because I disagree with them--this is
not the case; I am calling them "vandals" because I am honestly convinced
that they are (and if I'm wrong, I'm wrong and will change both my thinking
and behavior) They may insist otherwise, but they are wrong.
--
Kurt Weber
<kmw(a)armory.com>