It’s better to say I think the authors should have thought about X rather the author is a moron and incompetent for not doing X. You can still say it by critiquing the actions not the character of the person. Similar rules exist in the Houses of parliament around accusations of lying simply because everyone would decend into that as a method of argument. It’s harder to call people out but still possible in my opinion.
When you're the author, yes, absolutely. When you're a reader, absolutely not, you need to consider what the author is saying rather than what your personal feelings make you think he's saying. Each party must be responsible for their part, and while "he could have been more tactful" is valid criticism, "he shouldn't have offended people" is not.
Just to be more tactful, I don't remember exactly what had happened with this whole thing, I'm only talking about this specific fact.
Personally, I think it's OK to hold professional writers accountable for what their words convey. If not intended, he still should have been able to realize how others would interpret it.
Everybody makes mistakes and this isn't a huge one, but part of making mistakes is getting called on it.
> "You really shouldn't be writing, you should be reading"
So basically you are the type of person that caused the problem being discussed here.
There is a difference between someone making mistakes and someone feeling the need to point them out in public or private, or to judge who should be writing.
Maybe they should be reading more. But who are you or any other anonymous person to comment on that. If you don't have anything nice to say...
In those situations, it's appropriate to point out potential biases or agenda from the author, but it is not appropriate to reinterpret their words based on a mental model one has of the author.
That model is likely to be flawed and incomplete, but even worse, it makes the text subjective. Two people, reading the same text, won't agree what it said. That prevents honest discussion.
I usually agree, but in this case maybe the author needs to hear exactly that. At least the author might the want to stop boasting about these things (and save his future career etc).
Might be. However, in a world where attention is currency and bad information rife, it is not the reader’s fault if the writer does not express their views clearly enough to warrant attention.
Regardless of whether or not you should have a say, it seems clear to me that telling the world someone wrote something they didn't write is morally dubious at least.
Not arguing that it does or does not. However, if the author is going to make an argument and discredit whomever made the comments and skip the part where they do exactly what the author says they should have done, the author starts to lose credibility.
Surely, every author has their own stand. I meant that in some cases making a statement without due facts or figures to back that statement, makes it assumptious and biased.
No, actually it's not. This isn't ignoring the issue at hand and just attacking the author's character, it's attacking the authors authority on a subject matter.
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