From: b.scott@csuohio.edu   
      
   On Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:42:30 +1200, Zeborah   
    wrote in   
    in   
   rec.arts.sf.misc:   
      
   > Brian M. Scott  wrote:   
      
   >> On Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:49:08 +1200, Zeborah   
   >>  wrote in   
   >>  in   
   >> rec.arts.sf.misc:   
      
   >>> But even if they were intended to indicate that the insult   
   >>> was someone else's, the offensiveness of the words   
   >>> deserves, I think, a clearer disclaimer.   
      
   >> And I think that you're overreacting.   
      
   > No.  Overreacting would be, perhaps, if I said:   
      
   [...]   
      
   > This would probably be overreacting on my part because   
   > it's extremely likely (though it surprises and   
   > disappoints me) that you had no idea about the history of   
   > accusing people of hysteria, oversensitivity, and   
   > overreaction; that you had no idea that using words like   
   > this in discussions of this kind is a classic and   
   > insidious tactic to dismiss someone's objections and   
   > shame them into silence.   
      
   Of course I'm aware of that. [1, 2]  What's more, I think   
   that by now you ought to be pretty sure that I'm aware of   
   it.  But I also think that you ought to be aware that in all   
   likelihood I was giving you an honest opinion (as indeed I   
   was) and not playing rhetorical or psychological games.  You   
   are free to decide that the opinion is the result of some   
   blind spot in my sensitivity; I can't stop you, and I'm by   
   no means 100% sure that you'd be wrong.  But the fact is   
   that I do think that you were overreacting, I do think that   
   saying so was an appropriate response at that point, and it   
   didn't occur to me that someone whom I consider generally   
   very reasonable would see it as anything but a simple   
   statement of opinion -- unwelcome opinion, no doubt, but   
   just honest opinion -- especially when it merely said in so   
   many words what presumably was already pretty clear by   
   inference anyway.  And just off the top of my head I don't   
   see any other way to say it that doesn't in retrospect seem   
   likely to have produced much the same reaction.   
      
   [1]  I do not, however, put 'hysteria' in the same category   
   as 'oversensitivity' and 'overreaction': it's considerably   
   more offensive, as far as I'm concerned, probably not usable   
   at all in this kind of discussion unless offense is   
   intended.   
      
   [2]  I'm even aware that what I've written in this post can   
   be seen as a subtler version of the same tactic, and that my   
   backbrain is clever enough that I can't rule out the   
   possibility.   
      
   [...]   
      
   Brian   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)