[governance] Parminder's exchange with Bertrand

[Avri Doria]

On 27 Feb 2010, at 05:52, Bertrand de La Chapelle wrote:

> Milton, Avri, can you agree with triggering the Godwin escape button ?


no.

i am willing to be quiet on the theme if IGC is not the place to talk about such things.

for the most part i think godwin is overused.

it should only triggered when someone calls someone else hitler or calls their arguments hitlerian
it should not be not triggered by typing the word hitler.

and it is not supposed to be a measure for suppressing the debate - just a silly device for someone to claim - you called me a name so i win becasue you had to resort to name calling.

sometime calling it like it is, does include calling something Nazi.

in this case,

i certainly did not call anyone a Hitler or a nazi.
and while i would accuse MM of a lot of things, i do not think he was calling anyone  a hitler or a nazi (though one can question wether the reference to WWII was meant to trigger a particular response in anyone - would that be a godwin for you?

if talking about the phenomena that most vividly explored and described in modern history is cause for censorship on the list, ok.  i suppose i can live with that.

you ask what the discussion was about - it is an attempt to the lance the boil that springs up anytime those who believe there is value in group activity who believe that Multistakeholder activity is a good thing in itself that should be strngthened and defended start to be accused of exclusion by those who beleive only in individual activity.  a boil that springs up any time someone argues that perhaps direct democracy by all the poeple in world on IG ssues is not really a workeable solution.  then we get not only this boil erupting but we also get lots of straw dog arguments, dismissive vilification of the other, and the ultimate 'above it all' peace makers who tell us to cover he boil up with a bandage.

as for ceasing discussion on this list whenever people are talking past each other, well then we might as well use the list for informational bulletins and little more..

cheers

a.

ps. i am answering them as i see them.  maybe somebody else said thing terribly soothing which resolves all the issues in a later message,  in which ignore this one.



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