Re: [Ksummit-2013-discuss] [ATTEND] How to act on LKML

[Al Viro <viro@ZenIV.linux.org.uk>]

On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 06:56:16PM +0100, Stefano Stabellini wrote:

> Abuse is never justified, I hope that's clear for everybody.

Depends on details of your definition of abuse.

> So we are down to the definition of verbal abuse.
> The Oxford dictionary gives me:
> 
> "speak to (someone) in an insulting and offensive way"

Insufficient details to tell if the statement above is correct.
Insulting and offensive to *whom*?

I have seen people making completely revolting statements about
e.g. females in general and get extremely insulted when said
statements had been described as sexist, no matter how neutral
had description been.  I have seen people deeply insulted by
being told (in absolutely neutral expressions) that recipe they
had offered for some task will not do what they said it would,
when the simple experiment (reproduced by a lot of people
present) would have clearly demonstrated just that.  The same
people tend to get _really_ insulted when somebody reports
the result of said experiment.  And anybody who'd been on
the net for a year (hell, a month would suffice) can bring
a lot more interesting cases...

BTW, is it an abuse to describe somebody as a demagogue?