Why do people feel the need to add this sort of prelude when praising someone? (Can I also ask that David answer first before anyone else does?) David, suppose you deleted the preamble and looked at the resulting sentence—what does your brain object to?
Stallman has spent nearly thirty years consistently being pretty much completely right, and utterly uncompromising about it. This is, of course, unforgivable
Because I was stating the general source of this sort of view of Stallman’s “reputation”, per the comment I was replying to. The version with the preamble deleted doesn’t quite answer the comment I was replying to.
For what it’s worth, the preamble does a better job of explaining to me why Stallman has the reputation he does. Also, I am less sure about this, but I found the prelude to be a joke of sorts—it functioned to set up “completely right” as a negative trait. The edited version lacks some of the punch—it tells me that people hate Stallman for being right, but it doesn’t quite communicate the intensity.
I do see and largely agree with your point, and I did consider adding “and by the way, he built your goddamned world”, but felt that wasn’t really part of an answer to the post as such either.
Why do people feel the need to add this sort of prelude when praising someone? (Can I also ask that David answer first before anyone else does?) David, suppose you deleted the preamble and looked at the resulting sentence—what does your brain object to?
Rot13′d to sortof comply with your request.
Vg’f abg whfg cenvfr, vg’f na rkcynangvba bs fubxjnir’f bofreingvbaf.
Fubxjnir fnlf “guvf vf fhecevfvatyl fnar, tvira EZF’f erchgngvba”. Qnivq rkcynvaf “EZF’f erchgngvba” naq gur “fhecevfvat fnavgl” ol cbvagvat bhg gung ur’f orra boabkvbhfyl gryyvat na vapbairavrag gehgu sbe n ybat gvzr, jurer “boabkvbhf” rffragvnyyl erqhprf gb “hasyvapuvatyl cevapvcyrq va na naablvat jnl, arpxorneqrq, trrxl”.
Gur snpg gung ur vf n arpxorneq vf eryrinag gb nal qvfphffvba bs uvf erchgngvba.
This is about right. (I wrote the above comment before decoding nyan_sandwich’s.)
Because I was stating the general source of this sort of view of Stallman’s “reputation”, per the comment I was replying to. The version with the preamble deleted doesn’t quite answer the comment I was replying to.
For what it’s worth, the preamble does a better job of explaining to me why Stallman has the reputation he does. Also, I am less sure about this, but I found the prelude to be a joke of sorts—it functioned to set up “completely right” as a negative trait. The edited version lacks some of the punch—it tells me that people hate Stallman for being right, but it doesn’t quite communicate the intensity.
I do see and largely agree with your point, and I did consider adding “and by the way, he built your goddamned world”, but felt that wasn’t really part of an answer to the post as such either.