Letter completely wrong
Re: “Thunderstruck by letter” (March 19)
Everything Sharon Jackson said about what I said is wrong.
Dara Quast does not have to agree with me. Nobody has to agree with me. Disagree with me all you want. That’s not the issue. But, if people are going to disagree, I expect them to make good faith arguments. Instead, they are making strawman arguments while using the red herring of alleged personal attacks. I’ve read that people who view any criticism, whether real or perceived, as a personal attack, have narcissistic tendencies. Is that what I’m seeing, here?
Race, religion, literacy and intelligence do not determine political alignment and I never believed such a thing. Imagine trying to disagree with me so hard, the letter-writer actually (accidentally?) agreed with me on something. I never said someone of Jewish ancestry couldn’t be fascist, but it would be very unlikely. Why would someone support an ideology that wants them dead?
If a disability affecting literacy or comprehension was the source of the communication problem, wouldn’t the solution be assessment and remediation, instead of just getting mad? By all means bury your head in the sand about the possibility if you like, but if people are constantly misrepresenting what other people are saying, then productive discussions cannot take place.
Is the real problem deliberate, malicious mischaracterization of my points, then? Is that a better option than an honest mistake from an as yet undetermined cause?
April J. Gibson
Duncan