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Re: AZTLAN list: fear of the new?
In article <5e7hki$4tp$1@trends.ca>, now even-handed, serious and courteous
(not!) yuku@mail.trends.ca (Yuri Kuchinsky) wrote:
> [snip] You
>see, I have a lot of respect for scholarship, and it's not easy for me to
>deal with this subject. It is really painful for me to see such things go
>on in this field of study... But, unfortunately, these things need to be
>said to clear the air.
>
To show how Mr. "what-a-moment" Kuchinsky uses scholarship, I will put one of
my preferred samples of wishful-thinking (which, when confronted, becomes
plain denial or rationalization, like "peer-reviewed means in front of peers"
or something into that league).
(If anybody is curious about why I do this, it is because in that discussion,
and in all good faith, I invested time reading old chronicles, even finding
material supporting some of the claims, but he would not be able to understand
that, because I supposedly was in the "other side", and he would recur to
childish arguments like "that is your opinion" or his famous accusations of
rhetorical fallacies in everybody's arguments but his own.)
Now to the most momentous "discovery" and announcement made by Mr Kuchinsky in
Usenet (he has since avoided the topic of diffusion "smoking guns", but still
chooses to refer to those "months of discussion" without any embarrasment!):
Mr Kuchisnky has never corrected himself of this "smoking gun" thing.
Mr Kuchinsky wrote, the 27th of December, exactly the following words:
>I have followed the maize, and other likely plants, diffusion discussions
>for a while. I cannot think of any evidence that is stronger than
>Johannessen's in demonstrating transpacific contacts. This is definitely
>the "smoking gun". It is so, because, and I guarantee you that, if you
>ask 10 "men in the street" to look at these photos and to identify these
>plants, 10 of them -- without any doubt -- will say, This is maize. And
>this is good enough for me.
(Did you notice the very scholar standards of proof he will accept?)
This followed a posting in which he made the following lyric and
earth-shaking announcement, just the day before:
>Nevertheless, up to now, I've not been able to identify a real
>"Smoking Gun". Such real "Smoking Gun" would need to be something
>preferably not too complex to evaluate that, if considered by an
>impartial observer, will _leave no doubt_ in the mind of the
>observer that these ancient transoceanic contacts _existed for
>sure_. But now, it seems, I have it! What a moment...
(I almost cried at the sight of these last, very scholar words!)
<snip>
>The best parts for a layman are the photographs. Yes, this is the
>"Smoking Gun", no doubt about it... The stone carvings are
>_extremely intricate_ and realistic -- and well preserved. No
>mistake about it. Every little grain of corn is portrayed
>painstakingly. _Little doubt_ can remain that corn was definitely in
>India very early on!
There you have it. I posted a very similar message some time ago, with no
scholar reaction, of course.
I thought that Mr Kuchinsky had actually improved a little bit, but now he is
back at the old moaning and whining, because he was kicked out from a private
list. And it is going at a rate of 2-5 messages a day, which, I tell you
(just check Deja News) can grow to hundreds of "me against the world"
postings.
Regards,
Domingo.
Domingo Martinez-Castilla
agdndmc@showme.missouri.edu
References: