The blogosphere has grown, and its collective memory has shortened, in such a manner that were I to bring up a blogfight as recent as three weeks ago, my readers would be lost without a large number of supporting links. There has been a grand discussion on the nature of language, and peoples’ ability to redefine a message out of context and original intent, between Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom and Patterico. The argument itself is neither here nor there, at this point, at least for me. This, though, I find interesting:

And what I find disturbing is that, rather than ask me to explain that position, these “scholars” have asked SEK to write something up so that they can understand it. As if SEK, by virtue of having waded into the anti-intellectual depths of Wingnuttia, is, by virtue of his being “one of them,” more capable of making my argument than I am.

Goldstein is one of the premier intellects I have come across in my six years of online writing. His arguments are clear and founded in logical consistency. Don’t take my word for it either; rather, spend some time on his site and read, and read some more. I have not seen the man backpedal in the name of increased nuance… But enough of the platitudes. What is most interesting is that in many blogs, across all disciplines, comments sections generally exhibit a level of intellectual maturity that lags the author. The best comments sections have been built over a period of years from loyal readers. A good example would be OTB and Althouse. Majority of comment posters, though, add little to the discussion past beting their chests one way or the other.

Unfortunately, the image of pilotfish and sharks doesn’t really apply.