toxcrusadr wrote:
You may be asking a lot from your
friends, acquiantances or even strangers to expect them to join in that
battle.

Nah, Tox, I don't see it as a battle. More like you say in a pub to a
guy who spills your beer, "Hey!" and if he's scum he starts a fistfight
and if he's decent people he says, "Sorry, man, I didn't intend to
shove you. It's just real crowded in here."

Here's your interesting letter in full:

toxcrusadr wrote:
I have to say I haven't read the thread, so my comments are general. I
sometimes lurk on this group just to learn something about tube audio.
I long ago realized: 1) there is an ounce of gold amongst a ton of
rock that is worth looking for here; 2) there are crazies here that are
best left to their own mad visions, and best left unprovoked; 3)
nothing I say is going to change reality - either the reality of who
Andre Jute is, or whether there are really arrogant, hateful and
possibly demon-infested people here; and 4) reading the spew rots my
soul, so I skip over most of it, so I don't feel like I have something
on me when I leave. Maybe some of the posters on that thread share
some or all of these thoughts. You may be asking a lot from your
friends, acquiantances or even strangers to expect them to join in that
battle. On the other hand, were such conversations taking place in
person, one does wonder if a crazy person would just be ignored by the
crowd or whether someone(s) who remembered their manners would stand up
to them.

Tox


Andre Jute wrote:
uk.rec.audio, rec.audio.opinion and rec.audio.tubes are newsgroups
populated by self-declared audiophiles. One would expect those who
boast about their interest in music, one of the arts which express
emotion, to be sensitive. One could excuse those among them who are
"engineers" and hangers-on of engineers for being crudely insensitive
as it is well known that these types lack the finer sensibilities that
distinguish (or are supposed to distinguish) music lovers from the hoi
polloi.

Yet on these three conferences we find a thread "WHY ANDREW JUTE MCCOY
IS A LIAR" with 128 message from 29 distinct contributors (1). The
thread is about liquor, CD players, and much else. There is a
contributor called Andre Jute well known to regulars on all three these
conferences. No effort was made anywhere in this thread to prove that
he is a liar. Of these 29 contributors, *28* never had the sensitivity
in all of the *10 days* and *128 messages* of this thread to ask if it
isn't poor manners to mangle someone's name, if it isn't poor manners
to discuss many other matters under a headline condemning someone
without proof, if a new thread wouldn't be a courtesy.

So much for the manners of the trailer park trash one finds on
newsgroups.

Only one of these 29 contributors, Iain Churches, remarked that it was
weird to discuss Calvados under such a heading. Another contributor,
Don Pearce, a self-declared "engineer" then insisted the thread was
about proving Andre Jute a liar. In other words, in Don Pearce's mind
this libellous calumny was conducted deliberately. Apparently he spoke
for the rest, as their continued posting to this maliciously named
thread on a wide range of subjects confirms. Thus the excuse of inborn
insensitivity and crudeness in "engineers" falls away: this was a
deliberate crime initiated by Stewart Pinkerton and knowingly supported
by the the "engineers" and their hangers-on, who all thereby become
Pinkerton's accomplices.

Let's see who apologizes and who adds abuse to the nauseating
insensitivity and appallingly poor manners they have already displayed
for 10 days and 128 messages.

Andre Jute

(1) Count conducted at 17.28 GMT on 14 Mar 2006.