James Chapman writes:

Leo: I shall ignore your analogy between my call for more robust moderation and the Taliban as hyperbolic nonsense...

Non-existent, actually.  I wrote:

With the greatest of respect, that's [i.e. the belief that the expression of professional disagreement should be suppressed because it might deter some people from participating in a debate] analogous to arguing that the Taliban shouldn't try to shoot our soldiers because it's deterring people from joining the Army...

Therefore, I was not suggesting that you wished to suppress the expression of professional disagreement in order to enforce your own beliefs (i.e. the analogy between a call for robust moderation and the activities of the Taliban, which I did not make).  Rather I was suggesting that professional disagreement is a fundamental and important part of what an academic researcher is supposed to do; and that telling them not to is comparable to telling an army not to fight its opposing army - in other words, telling people that they're not allowed to do their job.

I'm sorry if there are some postgrads out there who aren't able to deal with this.  Maybe that's an argument for restricting the membership of this list (or whatever alternative only discussion vehicle that BAFTSS might create) to qualified PhDs, in the same way that you're only allowed to drive on motorways after you've passed your test?  After all, if it was proposed to lower the speed limit on the M1 to 30mph in order to ensure that it is a safe and welcoming environment for learner drivers, there would be overwhelming opposition from millions of motorists, the substance of which would be that taking nine hours to get from Leeds to London is an unacceptably high price to pay.  Likewise, if you decide that robustly argued professional disagreement on a professional discussion list must be suppressed in order to ensure a welcoming environment to the field's newcomers, then the discussion that is worth having will go elsewhere.

Leo
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Leo Enticknap
Institute of Communications Studies
2.35, Clothworkers' Building North
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT
United Kingdom
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