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[Daniel Fetchinson]

>> I was referring to this comment by Ben:
>>
>> "Suggestion: Please don't make efforts to fragment the community."
>>
>> This IMHO is hostile, because it presupposes that the mere goal of the
>> OP is fragmenting the community
>
> It presupposes nothing of any goal. It describes a predictable result of
> the OP's efforts, and requests those efforts to cease.
>
> So I deny the characterisation of that request as hostile.

Probably this thread is going by far too far :) but let's see this again,

If A says to B "please don't do X" then A assumes that B does X.
Otherwise the request of A doesn't make sense, since it doesn't make
sense to ask somebody not to do something that he/she is not doing.

Agreed?

If no, please explain why you don't agree.

If yes, then I guess we will also agree that if A says to B "please
don't make efforts to do X" then request of A only makes sense if B
makes an effort to do X.

Agreed?

If no, please explain why.

If yes, great, let's continue! If A says to B "please don't make
efforts to fragment the community" then this request from A only makes
sense if B makes an effort to fragment the community.

Agreed?

If no, why not?

If yes, we are almost there! In our example the request of A only
makes sense if B is making an effort to fragment the community, in
other words, assuming that A tries to make a meaningful request, A is
assuming that B is making an effort to fragment the community.

Agreed?

If not, why not?

If yes, with the substitution A = Ben and B = OP we get "in order for
Ben's request to make sense, Ben has to assume that the OP is making
an effort to fragment the community". This assumption on the part of
Ben, I think, is hostile, since it assumes that the OP is making an
effort to do something not nice. Whether the OP is indeed doing
something not nice, is irrelevant. If the OP does do something not
nice, the hostility is warranted. If the OP is not doing anything not
nice, the hostility is unwarranted. But the fact that Ben was hostile
is a fact :)

Cheers,
Daniel


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