andrewducker | Waiting for the fallout

From:

yonmei.livejournal.com

My comment Exactly. The Israelis should just pack up and leave: the amount of fuss they make over being expected to share is unreasonable given the amount of land involved. was a sarcastic rejoinder to Andrew's comment It says that the amount of fuss being made over Israel is out of proportion to the amount of land it takes up.

My comment was sarcasm: it was not a serious suggestion that the Israelis should pack up and leave.

From:

stephenbooth-uk.livejournal.com

Oh well. It didn't come over as sarcastic to me. Possibly because I do know some people who seriously believe that the Israelis should leave Israel and 'give it back' to the Palestinians. A lot of them haven't quite thought it through.

From:

yonmei.livejournal.com

Oh well. It didn't come over as sarcastic to me

Sarcasm and irony are two "tones" that come across very badly in online communication. I realise it would be better to avoid using them entirely, or to use only with some signal (< Fe > is in use on a mailing list I belong to) to indicate irony/sarcasm.

Possibly because I do know some people who seriously believe that the Israelis should leave Israel and 'give it back' to the Palestinians. A lot of them haven't quite thought it through.

Sure. As there are people who seriously believe that the conflict in Israel/Palestine is all the fault of the Palestinians, who should just have politely accepted their exile. The picture Andrew used to start this thread is indicative of that way of thinking: that the Palestinians are making a terrible fuss about nothing, look at all the "Arab" countries that still exist.