I remember that thread and I remember it disappearing also but not before Richard made some statement along the lives of - we don't need to offer anybody proof.

'We don' need no stinkin' proof'. Celine just needs to write it and that's all the proof we require Richard because you are all about integrity and your wife is all about heart.

Still? Show me the proof otherwise Celine is nothing but a liar where I come from.

None forthcoming?

Jury is back: Celine is guilty as GW charged.

Applying human frailty to actual wicked intent could be one of our most undoing subjects.
Corruption loves being humanized......

... is one of the roots of the deception here at United People, good folks.

In any random community, there will be a normal distribution of frailty, e.g human weakness. Three populations. A strong-minded population and a weak-minded population. In the middle, the average-minded population.

Map the weak minds to the thin skins ... the strong minds to the thick skins ... and the average minds to the average skins.

The slightest ad hominem against the thin skin sets them off. The thick skin is immune to most ad hominems.
The average skin has a flip of the coin response to ad hominems.

That being said, most humans drift towards comfort spaces and away from conflict spaces ... and when they find the latter, they tend to walk around eggshells in this space. Strong minds are closer to robot mannerisms than are average minds; and weak minds are closer to the other extreme of human potential, e.g. prima donna mannerisms (such as exhibited by drama queens and other emotionally-invested individuals). Average minds are the most populous and, consequently, the best representations of human potential. Not too logical. Not too emotional. The perfect balance.

What is the point of this preamble?

Well, once we understand that human community runs the gamut of emotions and the gamut of logic ... it is easy to see that human frailty is a necessary, even dominating feature of human community. The hermit accommodates human frailty by forgiving himself. But how does a group member accommodate human frailty? That is the essential question that needs to be asked in order to understand human community (of any stripe).

Human community in alternative internet forums is best understood by the degree of accommodation of human frailty and the degree of intolerance to it. As is often the case, those who are greatly intolerant of something do so because they fear that something in themselves. They point fingers at external sources of human frailty because that allows them a measure of triumph over the frailty that exists inside. Alas, this triumph is hollow ... because the frailty inside is merely avoided, not conquered.

Which brings us back to Nexus and UP. The founder of UP, a strong-minded individual on the robot extreme of human potential ... fails to recognize human frailty at Nexus. To reconcile his experiences at Nexus - and with Nexus - he has instead chosen to see in Nexus a power pyramid (which, in reality, doesn't exist in any form other than a minor technical one). Incompatibilities have developed in the MOD chamber ... and the staff has navigated these incompatibilities by walking on eggshells to avoid the conflict space and embrace the comfort space.

But walking on eggshells is not evidence of a kingdom ... or a pair of potentates ruling over servants ... as Chico is eager to argue and has falsely assumed. It is merely the accommodation of human frailty by individuals who represent the most populous and best representation of human potential --------> the perfect balance of logic and emotions. By contrast, Chico represents the imbalance of the robotic extreme, pathology, abnormality, etc. Inspector Javert chasing the River Seine and jumping into it, as it were.

Which is why when he started the thread Banning For Dollars on a false assumption ... it was only a matter of time before karmic energy caught up with him. Indeed, United People has demonstrated - in the past few weeks - the very human frailties (and attending foibles) that Chico could not or would not recognize in Nexus. And now it has them and has them with interest on the principal, e.g. the ratio of weak minds to healthy minds at United People is much higher than it ever was at Nexus.


ps: To complete the thought, failure to recognize human frailty translates into failure to accommodate it.

ps2: FWIW, United People has built itself a hidden pyramid on the open plane ... whereas Nexus never had a pyramid, only incompatibilities and derivative perturbations of the plane.

What is the point of this preamble?