Comment on draft PEP for deprecating six builtins

[Laura Creighton]

> 
> 
> > [James J. Besemer]
> >
> > > I don't interpret this strongly worded and slightly sarcastic crit
> iqu=
> e to
> > > be hostile.
> 
> Fran=E7ois Pinard wrote:
> 
> > For me, sarcasm and strong wording are not welcome.  There are ways 
> to
> > disagree, and even disagree much, while staying friendly.
> 
> Americans tend to value straight talk.  I put it all under the categor
> y o=
> f
> effective communication.  Being French Canadian, this may be alien to 
> you.

No, there is nobody left on the planet, let alone in Canada who hasn't
already heard more than their fill of Americans touting rudeness as
effective communication.  
 
> Although I agree with you that sarcasm and rhetorical questions are no
> substitute for a logical argument, they can put an effective emphasis 
> on =
> an
> otherwise factual and logical post such as Logjam's (or whatever his n
> ame=
>  is).
> 
> Nor is Sarcasm or frank talk necessarily unfriendly.  My close friends
>  te=
> ase
> each other mercilessly.  After an exchange that grew a bit tense at po
> int=
> s,
> Steve Holden and I emerged better friends and better acquainted with e
> ach=
>  other
> than I think we would have otherwise.  Many people rely on close frien
> ds =
> to
> utter the bare truths that mere acquaintences would avoid.

Yes, this is a well-documented problem Americans have in participating
in international forums.  You need to learn that we are not your friends.
In nearly all countries, friendship takes a very long time to create.
It is not something which is freely there, all the time, and always to
be given to new acquaintances, and it is something which we do not desire
to hand out and have freely available in such a fashion.

When you treat us this familiarly, we take offense.  This is because only
small children and the mentally deficient behave this way around here.
Thus we think that you are being irritating for the purpose of being
irritating.  You will have an easier time of it, if you stop assuming
that your expression of American values is common to all Americans,
and that there is any reason for any of to actually care about American
values in the first place.

Laura Creighton