Reply #25: I have a much "softer" approach; it doesn't help at all. [View All]

I still get jumped on. But big deal.

There are actually some anti-nuclearists who are NOT recklessly aggressive. They deserve the benefit of the doubt, always. But this is a quasi-religious crusade for many people. It's also a way to affiliate with "cool" people. There is a deep divide and celebrity has never impressed me much.

All I have to do is post in favor of nuclear energy, and I am treated to the full measure of the wrath of the anti-nuclear crusaders. Earlier in the week, one of these self-appointed firebrands poured his hatred out at me in spite of the fact that the post I made was unrelated to nuclear energy -- it was about the system of "imaginary numbers" engineers use. This led another crusader to fits of laughter and ridicule.

I used to make the point that the "flavor" of energy was only secondary. They couldn't even deal with that.

They DON'T go after NNadir because they know they'll get crushed, AND it will be humiliating. Their retorts to him are laughable, consisting mainly of making fun of metric prefixes and 11th-grade math, and trying in vain to prove we're all getting money from the nuclear lobby. They have nothing to support their claims, their FUD, or their hipster preening. They can have a sig quoting peace and love, and scream that we're all fools and liars and murderers doing the work of Xenu, Dick Cheney, and the eeevil corporations.

Yet we aren't the ones posting one corporate press release after another.

Anti-nuclearists DO go after me because it's not my style to call them idiots and hypocrites. This is probably the most aggressive post I have made, and you'll notice that it calls out no one. But I personally don't care if some buffoon loses control as a result of what I post. Just because they won't be made to suffer as badly as they would from an NNadir whipping, they feel free to say anything they can get away with -- and who am I to object? I'm playing to the audience, many of whom have not made up their minds. They can well see how the dialog is going; who is talking about the facts, and who is throwing tantrums.

But then, I'm not in this for my ego, either.

--p!