There’s lots of interesting issues under discussion at present, but, inevitably, vigorous discussion is sliding into flamewar. No individual comment has been offensive enough for me to intervene, but there’s a lot of shouting going on. That tends to reduce comments threads pretty rapidly to repetitive exchanges between two or three people – entertaining for a little while, but a turn-off after that. Could I ask everyone involved to take a deep breath and avoid any personal criticism for a while. There’s plenty of meat left in these issues, I think.
20 thoughts on “A general request for civil discussion”
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John Quiggin 
Get stuffed, you hairy left wing economic beast.
You’ll have to be more specific, Nabakov.
And screw you too, PM Lawrence, you baroquely fish-based enemy of the people.
Yes Captain Quiggin left the door open here for ‘the most riduculous insult competition’.
I ‘ve started the ball rolling. Can any of you spavined fiat currency worshipping twister rejects pick it up?
NB: “billions of blistering barnacles” is not an insult, it’s a curse.
The one thing that makes my eyeballs bleed with rage is bourgeois counter-revolutionary paedophile Russian so-called writers who can’t even spell their own name.
Hah! I baste you with rancid diary products and consign you to the firery end you so richly deserve in my Hitachi microwave of doom!
As for you, Lawrence of Mesopotamia, pithecanthropus is the only word to describe you.
Each of you more than adequately illustrates the precept “si tacuisse, philosophus mansisse”. A free translation may be found in the sayings of Sir Humphrey Appleby.
C’mon, Nabs, leave off our hirsute professer. Mind you, I think the new look makes me think I’ve seen him before…
Schopenhauer was quite good on Hegel – flatheaded, insipid nauseating charlatan, etc
you must all go and get me a shrubbery!
Your rancid diary, Nabs: would that be past its use-by date?
In the 19th century they all looked like that, if they were eccentric economists (Marx, Spooner, Tucker) rather than mainstream (Marshall).
What would probably work is analysing the meaning of names, e.g. the name “Quiggin”. There’s usually at least one meaning that will serve your purposes.
Warbo, you pixelated pedant – may your nipples invert and your shadow disappear>
That last post from Nabakov about inverted nipples proves it.
JQ, you have finally got your knockers in a twist.
P.S., that was a pun, knockers/knockers, gettit?
Deranged, mentally unstable, psychotropic medication avoiding, obsessively Bushoward hating, latte sniffing, merlot quaffing , inner-city elitist, dictator appeasing, apologentsian, aubergine feature wall painting, lip curling, double tongued , tiny genitalled, mainstream Australia condescending, antidemocratic, poor losing, lifestyle magazine reading, Nepal trekking, mobile phone using, academician bunch o’ pooftas!
Just thought that since a number of regular commentators have apparently missed the thread, I should weigh on their behalf.
That’s Mr “Deranged, mentally unstable, psychotropic medication avoiding, obsessively Bushoward hating, latte sniffing, merlot quaffing , inner-city elitist, dictator appeasing, apologentsian, aubergine feature wall painting, lip curling, double tongued , tiny genitalled, mainstream Australia condescending, antidemocratic, poor losing, lifestyle magazine reading, Nepal trekking, mobile phone using, academician poofta!” to you, you LAWYER!
I see that went well.
Got it out of our systems though. I have noticed that comments on the next 3 posts have been much more civilised. Perhaps these sort of posts can be the equivalent of licenced graffiti wall.
I understand that pandasthumb.org has an entire comments database for that purpose alone.