RE: is being condescending ever a good tactic?
September 19, 2014 at 7:22 pm
(This post was last modified: September 19, 2014 at 7:25 pm by bennyboy.)
I think condescension is a kind of appeal to authority-- of one's own academic group or philosophical lineage or whatever.
There's plenty of it here. For example, if someone comes in with an argument we've all heard about a million times, and beat down a million times, there's a bit of an upturned nose from most. That's because we expect every member of this forum to be aware of those arguments, and see anyone who's not as unprepared and unwilling to get educated before heading into the fray.
And isn't that what condescension really is-- that one person sees him/herself as having earned membership into an important group, and the other as unworthy of that membership?
There's plenty of it here. For example, if someone comes in with an argument we've all heard about a million times, and beat down a million times, there's a bit of an upturned nose from most. That's because we expect every member of this forum to be aware of those arguments, and see anyone who's not as unprepared and unwilling to get educated before heading into the fray.
And isn't that what condescension really is-- that one person sees him/herself as having earned membership into an important group, and the other as unworthy of that membership?
