Ardy, I don't think we're getting anywhere here. I'm going to respond to a couple of your last points and then I think I'm done

Normally I wouldn't quote the whole post but this covers a lot of ground.

Originally Posted by Ardy
Originally Posted by Mellowicious
It seems to me that there are much better ways to start a discussion than with an insult. If that really worked well, we'd see it used as an opening gambit here at RR a lot more often, wouldn't we?
IMO provocative postings initiate many discussions here on RR. The frequency of such opening gambits would likely be much higher if not for the rules of the board and the intensive moderation. I think the intention of the editor's decision to publish the article was indicated by the opening paragraph which said
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Agree? Disagree? Think this article should never have been published? Send a response to outlook@washpost.com and put "Smarter Than You Think" in the subject line.
1) There is a difference between "provocative" and "insulting." I just verified that with dictionary.com
2) That opening paragraph was added later, after the angry posts started pouring in. I'm fairly certain it wasn't there when I first saw the article.

Originally Posted by ardy
Originally Posted by Mellowicious
I went back and looked at that thread; the closest thing I could find was "My point being that it's as foolish to believe one candidate's campaign to be clean as is it to excoriate another's for being 'dirty.'" That's saying two things are equally foolish; it's not calling a group of human beings "dumb."

Julia, if you think there is a huge difference between foolish and dumb... then I sincerely offer you the apology that you deserve.

I know that there is a huge difference between saying "I did something dumb" and "I am dumb." There's also a huge difference between saying "that is a foolish act" and "you are a fool."

It's even part of our guidelines here at this site.

Originally Posted by ardy
Originally Posted by Mellowicious
she said "way down deep, we are...kinda dim." (emphasis mine)

Yes she did say that, just as Chris Rock might "insult" members of his race about some of their foolishness. Just as Garrison Keillor makes fun of the foolishness of Scandinavians. And just as you or I might criticise how things work in America ... and also be somewhat defensive if a non-American were to say the same thing. Julia, with all respect, I could generalize and say that we men are kind of "dim" in the sense that we often seem incapable of controlling our lust. And if I were to say it, I don't imagine I would be attacked by other men for my sexist comments demeaning men.

With all respect, there are black folks who think Chris Rock isn't funny. For me, the gender of the author doesn't lessen the poison of the words.

The Post says "Responses, most of them angry, flooded in -- hundreds of letters to the editor, more than 1,000 comments on the article on washingtonpost.com and more than 10,000 related blog posts." Several of the women on this board have agreed with me. If I'm being unreasonable about this article I'm certainly not standing alone here.

Originally Posted by ardy
Originally Posted by Mellowicious
You also say the article "did not intend to demean women." .... snip.... That closing paragraph insults all of us - and it does so intentionally. I had forgotten just HOW insulting it was until I went back to look at it

I can certainly understand that you would feel infuriated and insulted by what this author wrote. Clearly, the author does not move in the same circles that you do
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Most of the women I know, I also like, and respect. They don't fit this pattern. They are factory managers and accounts and software test designers and network designers and emergency docs and investment bankers. A couple are small-business owners. Some volunteer their time to other people. Many of them are also caretakers, of children or elderly parents. They are not dim.

I do not perceive any nasty intent from this author. She has an entirely different life experience than you.

Yes, she's a writer who is published in national newspapers (this is not her first article for the Post.) She is probably far more metropolitan, and far more sophisticated, than we are out here in Omaha.

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I am guessing that most of your friends do not watch Jerry Springer, or Dancing with the stars, or TMZ, or One Life to Live, ad nauseum. But we know that lots of people do watch these programs. Is it not possible that the author of this article is on of the large number of people who live a life quite different from the life lived by you and your friends? Is it not possible that "trailer trash" would have a different view of life and it's possibilities than you and your friends?

I'm related to a lot of trailer trash, thank you. Yes, their views are different from mine - but I don't think they're particularly, inherently "dim." I think they're particularly low-income, though.

A lot of people have different view of life, yes, from trailer trash to astrophysicists. Their life experience is no less valid than mine, or than this writer's.

That's my point.

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IMO the author wrote an article that reflects her own opinions and her own experience of life. Obviously it is far different than the experience of you and your friends. But it does seem a stretch to accuse the woman of intentionally insulting you and your friends.

Oh, I don't think she's offended me and my friends. I think she offended women, generally. But I am not going to be able to win you to my point, so let's call it a draw.

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I would also offer you my apology if I have inadvertently offended you by defending the honor of a woman with whom I disagree.

No apology necessary.

Julia
A 45’s quicker than 409
Betty’s cleaning’ house for the very last time
Betty’s bein’ bad