salix

Andy,

I think it's rather glib of you to say that saying someone is ignorant is not insulting. One could almost say that it's ignorant, in that the root of the word ignorance is ignore, to know something, but to disregard it. You know very well that to characterize someone (or their statements) as ignorant is insulting in the extreme, whether they are in fact ignorant or not. It's rude, I tells ya, and by describing someone in that way, you were trying to quash their personal views on art (Art is not majority rule) because they were in conflict with your own. You gave Earl's statement rather short shrift, I thought, and you presented very little to correct or contradict what he had to say. You relied on words like "wrong," "stupid," and the old standby for sloppy argument on forums, "ignorant," rather than on the merit of Earl's ideas. In fact, Earl was touching on the central question of this thread in a real way, and his ideas were more debatable than they were "wrong."

I invite you to take the time to really examine the ideas of others. If your views really are right, they will easily survive the assaults of the unwashed masses.