How does a railfan spell "sycophant"?

[edblysard]

You sure can be, as long as you stay on one side of the fence for a while.

But sitting smack dab on the middle of the fence does nothing but add splinters to your backside.

Which might explain a lot of things......

So, boys and girls, save up those pennies, and help Dan and Sally wipe out this insidious illness!

Ed, sometimes.
I think....maybe...well, only if it lets me win...it depends...

[Overmod]

QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal, 20 Oct 2004, 01:00:38


Sometimes the slobber gets so deep a feller has to wear hip waders. Just an observation.

QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal, 20 Oct 2004, 15:55:50

Guys, don't read too much into this. It is just my opinion that sometimes the tendency to heap praise on certain individual(s) ad nauseum can have the effect of suppressing free expression of ideas, especially when the erstwhile disciples of said individual tend to become abusive and insulting to those who dare take a disparate course of discussion... the point of this topic is focussed on aquiesence [sic], not intelligence. Your point is well taken, though.

QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal, 21 Oct 2004, 14:39:05


As usual, most of you overreact. Most of you missed the gist of the post: Sycophancy can inhibit the free exchange of ideas. That's all. Nothing was said of being "PO'ed" about anything. The fact that most of you can only throw insults into the exchange as a result of this sycophant reference bears itself as a prime example.

I am not quite sure I understand how the original post can possibly be construed as addressing the 'inhibition of the free exchange of ideas' -- seems like it's more addressed to the free exchange of salivary secretion. It does not appear to me that it was considered 'just an observation,' either...

I do not have a particular problem defending my points against very expert people, or popular people, when I choose to do so. That I seldom choose to do so is not, by any means, an indication that I'm toadying for them somehow, because I want to be high up in some clique of {insert paranoid invective of your choice here] on a railroad forum in Milwaukee cyberspace. It's because I respect their understanding and knowledge as expressed in their posts, and I believe most of that understanding and knowledge can be, and has been, confirmed by external objective sources.

I had not noticed any particular hostility to 'bold new points of view', etc., on this forum. I have, however, noted -- perhaps because "I resemble that remark", that a wise, know-it-all tone that denigrates any other point of view is unlikely to gain a consensus of forum members. While it may be important to defend the truth, it is not always necessary to defend it with frothing jaws just because Somebody Else Disagreed With It. Perhaps another way to put it is that reputations and respect are earned -- not compelled by superior wisdom, or strength, or even eloquence -- in democracies and open forums. I do not consider snide sarcasm a particularly good way to go about the process. Your ideas are often good; it would be a shame to see people turned off from reading them...