{"id":7827,"date":"2010-04-25T01:09:48","date_gmt":"2010-04-25T01:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/gregladen\/2010\/04\/25\/if-you-dont-understand-that-th\/"},"modified":"2010-04-25T01:09:48","modified_gmt":"2010-04-25T01:09:48","slug":"if-you-dont-understand-that-th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/25\/if-you-dont-understand-that-th\/","title":{"rendered":"If you don’t understand that there is message in the medium, then you may not be helping"},"content":{"rendered":"

Notice that I didn’t say that the medium IS<\/em> the message. Just that some of the message is in there. In the medium.<\/p>\n

I am forever amazed at how easily compelled my fellow skeptics, and\/or my fellow atheists, and\/or my fellow feminists, and\/or my fellow anti-racists are to tell each other that they are doing it wrong. It was once said (by a straight white male Christian, probably), that “If half the people who make speeches would make concrete floors, they would be doing more good.”<\/p>\n


\nWell, in an effort to promote sanity in this discussion, I’d like to point you to yet another voice in favor of the idea that the medium is, to no small extent, at least part of the message.<\/p>\n

\nI know that many of us are tired to the point of exhaustion of discussing our tone. We want to believe that the information content matters more than the delivery method. And ideally, that might even be true. But even among skeptics, who attempt to be as rational as possible, the way criticism is presented often matters as much, if not more, than the actual substance of the critique. The most efficacious medicine, delivered on a load of buckshot, is still going to do less healing and more blowing holes in people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Have a look at: Organized Skepticism: Process And Progress<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notice that I didn’t say that the medium IS the message. Just that some of the message is in there. In the medium. I am forever amazed at how easily compelled my fellow skeptics, and\/or my fellow atheists, and\/or my fellow feminists, and\/or my fellow anti-racists are to tell each other that they are doing … Continue reading If you don’t understand that there is message in the medium, then you may not be helping<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[3928,321],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5fhV1-22f","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7827"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}