Hi Jon
I can see your point, (and this is not a critique of you) but I have found at times that the list really can be an outlet for certain people to behave like trolls and/or be vindictive
A couple of years ago I sent out a pro-Tibetan Olympics Team email. I received lots of obnoxious emails, telling me how ignorant I was of Tibetan/China issues
I did not really give my own opinion on the subject; I simply sent out an email so that people could respond to the cause and/or reject and/or delete the email if they wanted to. I put the email up on this forum primarily because I thought that other people might want to join the cause (or simply delete the email if they weren't interested).
Instead I got quite a few nasty emails from various scholars *(around the UK mainly) who made huge assumptions about myself and my work; I chose not to respond to any of it... because its tedious and eventually I just decided to keep my mouth shut.
The level of nastiness of comments however was so high, that I felt tempted to send a jokey email out, saying that often I hang out in Dharmasala with Richard Gere lacing up my Nike Trainers and drinking Star Bucks coffees; I felt like writing a jokey message like this, because the messages I received were so silly... but I chose to behave in the end.
Personally on Tibet issues, I do not really have a strong opinion; I simply sent an email out, that people could take or leave... So my point here is not to talk about Tibet. I really really don't want to get into that again and receive more horrible comments.
I think my point here, is that there has been a lot of trolling going on over the years (and I am not pointing the finger at you Jon - because personally I enjoy many of your messages) and some of it really seems to be vindictive and bullying; noticeably, a lot of it comes from UK scholars as well, which is a real shame.
I still think Crit-geog is a great resource, but I think also it is a sad state of affairs if academics simply contribute to this forum in a very bullish manner; as I said in a previous email once, it makes me wonder whether some of this unpleasantness, is just a result of the stresses of being in the scholarly business; and it seems that when people work in stressful environments - and I think many people on this list would agree that academia is stressful - sometimes an unconscious outlet for stress can be bullying.
Anyway peace and love to you all. I still think that there are many good things on Crit-Geog, including yourself Jon
Best wishes
Andy Law
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