I don't mind condesention. I mind it when you put yourself in the position of speaking for others. "Now you're embarrassing yourself" isn't a statement one makes when providing an opinion meant for oneself--it was a perception as to what the group at large believes. Here's your quote: That's a far shade different than your above statement. For someone who enjoys a semantic argument, you should be nuanced enough to understand the difference. There's a difference between you believing me to be a liar and stating that you're quite certain that I lied. Again, for someone who believes themself to be careful with their language, you're awfully reckless when it suits your needs. I'll refer you again to your "Now you're embarrassing yourself" comment or your comments on your certitude with my lack of veracity. Those are comments that are not personal, they portend to speak for the larger group.
That is simply your interpretation, not an objective fact. The way I meant it was that, in my opinion, your attempts to critcize me showed an embarrassing lack of understanding of the logical fallacy you invoked. I didn't mean it as everyone else thinks you're embarrassing. I never try to speak for others. I'm sorry if you took it that way, but it wasn't what I meant. The difference is in tone, in my opinion, not in meaning. "I am quite certain you're lying" is the same thing, in meaning, as "I don't believe you." Both are opinion. My being certain isn't a statement of objective Truth. It is simply a statement of how sure I am in my opinion. I'll admit "I am quite certain you are lying" is significantly more confrontational. I regret that, but we are both confrontational from time to time. Odd comment. I don't think I've ever spoken to what I think about my own use of language. Well, as I've explained above, both comments were meant to be statements of entirely personal opinion. You are free to believe me or not, about my intentions with those comments.
