Tim Lambert (deltoidblog AT gmail.com) is a computer scientist at the University of New South Wales.
Nosy wrote:
Saying all firearms are phallic symbols is stupid and a lie.
Bizarre. Nosy is apparently unaware of the difference between a phallus and a phallic symbol.
No, the whole concept of a "phallic symbol" is discredited and worthless concept. I'm not aware of any respectable schools of psychology that still teach it, except as an example of bogus methodology. The concept seems to survive only in non-scientific circles such as feminist literary criticism. To apply a term that is known to be meaningless is "stupid and a lie."
Let me get this straight: You claim
The term "phallic symbol" is meaningless. and
Therefore, to apply it is a lie.
Statement 1. is false and even if it were true, statement 2 does not follow.
Statement 1 is false:
You yourself admit that the term is used in literary criticism. If
the original post had been to sci.psychology you would arguably have a
point, but it wasn't so you don't. Furthermore, everyone seemed to
understand that by talk.politics.phallic-symbols Ted meant
talk.politics.guns. If "phallic symbol" was as meaningless as you
claim, the reaction would have been "Huh?" instead of the silly flames
that we saw.
Statement 2 does not follow from statement 1:
The term "sdfsdfdsf" is meaningless. According to you, the statement
"Sdfsdfdsfs are green." is a lie. Nope. The statement is merely
meaningless.
As for your claim that it was "stupid", the effect of that one line seems to have been to make several pro-gunners look stupid, so "part of Ted's devious master plan to make pro-gunner's look like idiots" might be a better description :-)
