A brief word from science fiction writer and critic James Blish

[eridani]

http://www.nesfa.org/press/Books/Advent/Blish-2.htm

"There is no such thing as destructive criticism. That is just a cliché people use to signal that their toes have been stepped on. After all, the whole point of telling a man he is doing something the wrong way is the hope that next time he will do it right. Simply saying that a given book is bad may serve the secondary function of warning the public away from it, if the public trusts the critic. But if you do not go on to say in what way it is bad, your verdict is not destructive criticism, or any other kind of criticism; it is just abuse. A good critic is positively obliged to be harsh toward bad work. . . . . [and] should be able to say with some precision not only that something went wrong—if it did—but just how it went wrong."

We should bear this in mind when discussing both issues and campaign strategy.

[Proserpina]

1. Far too subtle for the blunt object people

The abuse on this website is phenomenal.