[nabs-l] NFB/ACB

[T. Joseph Carter]

Hope in one hand and something else in the other...

I voted for the guy who offered substance, even if I didn't agree 
with it.  Now that I see what all that hope was worth, I'm sure not 
regretting my vote.  The only change involved will be what's left in 
the bank account after taxes.

The situation is much the same here.  Hope gives me nothing to grab 
on to.  Give me substance, and I can offer support and assistance.

Dismiss me if you want (and you apparently already have), but let me 
ask you an honest question:

Let's say you get thirty young Federationists, full of hope, ready to 
bridge the organizational gap with the ACB.  They're eager, they have 
no preconception that the ACB is nasty and venomous.  So they go out 
and try to interact with the ACB..  They join acb-l, and they start 
talking.  And then they're identified as Federationists.

The most polite response they get on acb-l is calling it an 
"invasion" by the NFB, with calls to ban the Federationists from the 
list.  There's a lot of four-letter word usage to describe your peace 
envoy on acb-l, and the general vibe is that they should go back to 
being "brainwashed" by Marc Maurer, since they're not welcome.  A few 
nice-sounding messages suggest that they're just kids, and therefore 
they have no idea just how evil the Federation is.  What follows is a 
long stream of hate and accusation so that these "kids" will know 
just what the ACB thinks of the Federation.

I estimate you lose about four students who are so sick of both NFB 
and ACB that they refuse to be involved with either.  Two or three 
will believe what they hear and join the ACB.  Probably about six 
will blame themselves, wondering what they did wrong.  The rest will 
return here, disgusted by the behavior on the ACB's main list, and 
how the ACB administration allowed it to continue.

That's a projection on my part, but it's based on about six or seven 
months of acb-l traffic and the patterns I observed there.  If I am 
right, you'd have indoctrinated a whole new generation into the feud, 
and I suspect you'd be among those wondering what you did wrong.

I'll tell you, preemptively:  You are trying to encourage us to make 
peace with a few like-minded people surrounded by people who really 
want only more war.  Without support from the list operators or the 
organization's leadership, you'll get nowhere.  That's why I said if 
you got them to stand up to the most egregious things, I'd support 
you.

At least then it'd be possible for this not to end in disaster.

Joseph


On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 09:10:37PM -0700, Aziza C wrote:
>Nice Hope.
>
>On 5/19/09, T. Joseph Carter <carter.tjoseph at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I never said everyone was part of it.  I said that it was tolerated
>> and even encouraged on acb-l, including by ACB leadership.  As long
>> as that continues, common ground is hard to find.
>>
>> Joseph
>>
>> On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 01:56:30PM -0700, Aziza C wrote:
>>>Chris,
>>>Am I correct to understand you are an ACB member?
>>>
>>>I apologize if I'm wrong... but, if you are...
>>>Everyone says ACB is trying to destroy us... Chris doesn't seem to be
>>>trying to do that. Sara once was an ACB member, she now monitors both,
>>>and yet she is not trying to destroy us.
>>>
>>>What do you guys say to that?
>>>
>>>Two people in the ACB wanting to try, is better than none.
>>>Aziza