{"id":1845,"date":"2008-07-26T11:15:57","date_gmt":"2008-07-26T02:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=1845"},"modified":"2008-07-26T19:43:47","modified_gmt":"2008-07-26T10:43:47","slug":"tangent-why-i-dont-debate-outside-of-debitoorg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=1845","title":{"rendered":"Tangent: Why I don’t debate outside of Debito.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Handbook<\/a>\"\\\"<\/a>\"Foreign<\/a>\"\\\"<\/a>\"\u300c\u30b8\u30e3\u30d1\u30cb\u30fc\u30ba\u30fb\u30aa\u30f3\u30ea\u30fc\u3000\u5c0f\u6a3d\u5165\u6d74\u62d2\u5426\u554f\u984c\u3068\u4eba\u7a2e\u5dee\u5225\u300d\uff08\u660e\u77f3\u66f8\u5e97\uff09\"<\/a>\"JAPANESE<\/a>
\nHi Blog. \u00a0Every now and then (actually, practically every day) I get word that somebody is taking up an issue on another list\/blog\/what have you and debating something on Debito.org. \u00a0Great. \u00a0That’s exactly what I want.<\/p>\n

But I rarely ever go on those blogs and answer the claims made (often erroneous — the product of people who either haven’t read what I said thoroughly, or think that nobody will follow up and actually read what I said in context). \u00a0Even when they email me individually to say, “C’mon, we’re talking aboutcha.” \u00a0<\/p>\n

Thanks for the invites, but I have a very specific reason for not doing that. \u00a0I as I wrote in my book, JAPANESE ONLY<\/a>\u00a0(pg 298-299), after our announcement that we were going to be suing Yunohana Onsen<\/a>\u00a0in Otaru for racial discrimination:<\/p>\n

Olaf: \u00a0“I’m being bombarded with emails. \u00a0How about you?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Debito: \u00a0“As usual. \u00a0A couple hundred per day. \u00a0About two-thirds, actually, are supportive. \u00a0The Account I opened for the lawsuit has already collected enough donations to pay for our legal fees, and then some. \u00a0Very generous people out there.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Olaf: \u00a0“But how do we answer the critics?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Debito: \u00a0“That’s the thing. \u00a0We don’t. \u00a0There are lots of them and one of you. \u00a0If you try to answer them all, or even try to engage in a debate on a list, you’ll find yourself tangled up in shouting matches with a Peanut Gallery that will never see things our way. \u00a0They diss people like us for sport. Ultimately you get tired out from all the reading and writing, unable to concentrate on what really matters — keeping the message clear and focused. \u00a0So sit back, let the critics weigh in, see what kinds of arguments are out there, and only answer the ones who are earnest or from people whose opinions personally matter to us.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“This is not an unusual strategy. \u00a0Even the Reverend Martin Luther King used it. \u00a0In his ‘Letter from Birmingham City Jail’ (April 16, 1963), where one of his protests was characterized as ‘unwise and untimely’ by local White liberal clergymen, he opened his letter with:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

‘Seldom, if ever, do I ever pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas… But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I would like to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.’<\/em><\/p>\n

“I will issue a long answer over the Internet and on the website fairly soon. \u00a0After that, let that be our statement on the case. Send queries and a link and don’t bother saying much more.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That was a decision I came to back in 2001. \u00a0Nowadays, given that there are whole groups of attack blogs (i.e. people united by a common interest of wasting potentially productive lives attacking me) out there who have no problem whatsoever with issuing outright lies<\/a>\u00a0(no longer even deliberate\u00a0misquotes<\/a>, not even misreadings<\/a> due to sloth or political bent), I follow this policy even more so, I’m afraid. \u00a0Thanks to the inverse proportion of anonymity and responsibility<\/a>, the Internet has only gotten nastier over time.<\/p>\n

And even when a particular BBS has a more balanced (and literate) readership who can be bothered to take on the dolts, the debate goes on in circles because the dolts can’t admit they’re wrong and inject sophistry, or else latecomers don’t bother to read all the previous posts in the debate and it goes around in circles. \u00a0No thanks. \u00a0I think everyone has a better use of their time.<\/p>\n

Here’s an example. \u00a0For an entertaining read and seriously good debate (my thanks to the posters who actually bother to read what I write), here is a recent one from Big Daikon on the Hokkaido Police racial profiling issue I brought up last month:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.bigdaikon.org\/board\/viewtopic.php?t=110089<\/a><\/p>\n

The point is that even when the debate is enjoyable, when earnestly confronted with errors and facts of the case, critics still would not acquiesce and instead obfuscated. \u00a0Sorry, there’s no winning or truth-seeking on most online debate arenas. \u00a0I like games that come to a conclusion, thanks. \u00a0That’s why I basically confine my comments and thoughts to this blog and my Newsletters<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

To those who bother to read and quote me accurately, my thanks. \u00a0Arudou Debito in Sapporo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every now and then (actually, practically every day) I get word that somebody is taking up an issue on another list\/blog\/what have you and debating something on Debito.org. Great. That’s exactly what I want.<\/p>\n

But I rarely ever go on those blogs and answer the claims (often erroneous — the product of people who either haven’t read what I said thoroughly, or think that nobody will follow up and actually read what I said in context) made. Even when they email me individually to say, “C’mon, we’re talking aboutcha.” <\/p>\n

Thanks for the invites, but I have a very specific reason for not doing that… Nowadays, given that there are whole groups of attack blogs (i.e. people united by a common interest of spending their lives attacking me) out there who have no problem whatsoever with issuing outright lies (no longer even deliberate misquotes, not even misreadings due to sloth or political bent), I follow this policy even more so, I’m afraid. Thanks to the inverse proportion of anonymity and responsibility, the Internet has only gotten nastier over time…<\/p>\n

An example of a recent interesting and entertaining debate (on Big Daikon) which still gets fogged up by recalcitrant critics also included…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,26,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bad-social-science","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-tangents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}