On Tue, Jul 02, 2002 at 12:46:05AM +0900, itojun@iijlab.net wrote:
> 	jason and thor: theo uses strong words as older netbsd guys like you
> 		don't learn to forget.
> 	theo: jason and thor make assertion as you use strong words.
> 
> 	it's mutual.  both ends has to stop.

Do you really think that negative comments (whether about another person
or his actions) and threats are the same?

I don't.  I don't think that most speakers of either of our native languages
do.  I know that neither the law nor any system of ethics that I've studied
does.

I understand that you want to work both with Theo and with the NetBSD
project.  However, I think you should consider that if that desire is
leading you to such dubious conclusions as that threatening others is
ethically acceptable behaviour, it is probably leading you astray.

Making threats is wrong.  Period.  Shunning people who make threats is
not just reasonable, it's good common sense.  I'm sorry it's inconvenient
for you personally in this case, but that doesn't change the underlying
reality: we shun Theo _because he does not hesitate to do things like
make threats_.  If you're going to insist that he should not be shunned,
it is patently absurd for you to pretend that explaining why he _is_
shunned is equivalent to the further evidence -- supplied freshly by him --
of his unacceptable behaviour.

Of course I'm not enjoying this, just as I'm sure you aren't.  However,
pretending the situation is some other way than it actually is (for
example, that Theo's very direct, straightforward threat was accidental,
or that my characterization of it as a threat was somehow as bad as the
threat itself) is not the answer.

-- 
 Thor Lancelot Simon	                                      tls@rek.tjls.com
   But as he knew no bad language, he had called him all the names of common
 objects that he could think of, and had screamed: "You lamp!  You towel!  You
 plate!" and so on.              --Sigmund Freud