zlacker

I don't think he intended to insult anyone, but I also don't think it's unreasonable to believe that people could be insulted based on what he said. That's the gray area your binary distillation completely ignores. It's a little more nuanced than "he hurt my feelings!"

>>pc86+(OP)
I think what he wrote should be judged on the merits of what it said and not how others choose to misinterpret it.

Put differently: We are going down a dark road when someone simply being offended by pretty mainstream views mean those views are the problem.

>>pc86+(OP)
That's not a gray area, it's the difference between intent and effect.

>>modusp+a1
I'm not saying that the views are a problem because people are offended. I'm saying that since people are offended, it's reasonable to take a step back and ask if the views are offensive, and if the intent was to offend. "He didn't mean to offend" doesn't automatically mean that whatever he said was okay. In this particular case I think it was, but there's nothing wrong with stepping back and asking if the underlying views are okay.

>>pc86+Wd
Given that the media and all of Damore's other critics have to overtly lie about the contents of the memo in order to cast it as "offensive", I think it's abundantly clear that the memo itself is innocuous.