Request for member withdrawal

[Dennis Baron]

I've pretty much ignored Tom Truespell's posts since he began posting
on this list some time ago, because he seemed more interested in
promoting his phonetical hobby horse than in discussing the kinds of
topics that surface here, but the current thread prompted me to go to
the archives to see what was up.

Those archives confirmed my first impression, that Truespell's posts
seem to me to remain generally disconnected from most ADS-l discourse,
and he seems utterly unaware that his own serious lack of audience
awareness can cause problems.

A little googling shows that Truespell has also been trolling English-
teacherly websites, also in the hopes of promoting his fanatic
spelling scheme, though apparently on those sites he hasn't generated
much discussion among participants -- it's clear that he's not a
teacher, and never has been, but is instead a retired civil servant
with time on his hands and a need to write letters to the editor.

It's interesting to see how online communities regulate member
behavior -- everything from rational discussions about the
appropriateness of expulsion or censure to open flaming to off-list
counseling. Fortunately, email programs typically allow users to
create "rules" to block unwanted email or route it directly to the
trash. On an open list like ADS-l, that may be the most effective way
to deal with such posts. The other option is to close the list. Asking
a troller to withdraw tends not to be very effective, since one goal
of trollers is to promote discord and to get discussants to move off
topic.

Over the years I've learned to respond to nutty email the same way
that I used to respond to nutty snail mail before it: don't engage the
person in discussion, because they see even a negative response as an
invitation for continued contact. I  keep a file of the hate mail,
both paper and electronic, that I sometimes receive in response to op
ed essays on language issues -- yes, linguists getting hate mail, what
a concept! -- things like "you shouldn't be allowed to teach" or
"you've obviously never been in a classroom" or, my favorite, in
response to an essay about multilingualism, "when the revolution
comes, comrade Baron, your ass is mine!" --  but I've learned not to
respond to the senders, even senders who seem just a tad rational,
because it turns out that they're not rational at all, just high-
functioning when they take their meds.



Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English
University of Illinois
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801

office: 217-244-0568
fax: 217-333-4321

http://www.illinois.edu/goto/debaron

read the Web of Language:
http://www.illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage



On Jan 21, 2010, at 10:16 AM, Salikoko Mufwene wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Salikoko Mufwene <s-mufwene at UCHICAGO.EDU>
> Organization: University of Chicago
> Subject:      Re: Request for member withdrawal
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Bill Palmer wrote:
>>
>> And it seems so bizarre for a bunch of whites (I'm assuming here,
>> obviously)
>> to decide what is offensive to those of African descent.
> I am a foreign-born black/Black and I wouldn't dare make some of the
> comments that Tom has made about terms for African Americans. It's a
> matter of respecting the feelings of the referents, who could actually
> retaliate with terms that are offensive to some of us. People decide
> what terms are offensive to them and how they prefer to be referred
> to.
> The emotions associated with particular terms change with time (we
> learn/teach this in introduction-to-linguistics classes), while some
> of
> the terms remain locked in historic phrases and the like. Speaking a
> language appropriately entails learning when a term may offend
> individuals associated with it, and good communicative skills tell you
> when to make comments publicly and when not to, unless you are brave
> or
> stupid enough to defy social norms. I think this is the gist of what
> people have been condemning in Tom's verbal behavior. It seems to me
> that he is so proud that he offends even while he may intend to
> apologize. Whether or not Tom should be removed from the list is less
> important to me than pointing out that he has been insensitive to
> feelings of some people. It's a matter of being civil and he has
> not. I
> think the point has been made and we all have better things to worry
> about. I am writing now because I don't think it is a righteous
> whites'/Whites' thing. It's a matter of common sense.
>
> Sali.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org