re: #1111 buzzsawmonkey

The Torah cautions us against slander, but also against lashon hara (evil speech); “you shall not go up and down as a talebearer among your people.”

“Slander” is the retailing of falsehoods; lashon hara refers to the injury that is done by repeating tales about someone even if they are true, because one cannot be sure that one knows the full story, and whether what one says, even if objectively true as far as it goes, is still a falsehood by virtue of being incomplete, or injurious simply because it needlessly incites speculation, or anger, or envy, or any number of other base emotions.

It is said that lashon hara harms three people; the person who speaks it, the person who hears it, and the person whom it is about.

If someone should see something that Charles should perhaps know about, the appropriate thing would be to notify him; if that person wants to ask someone about something they’ve posted here or elsewhere, the appropriate thing is to ask about it directly. Neither of these solutions blackens someone’s reputation needlessly, nor gives rise to unfounded speculation.

The least appropriate action—the lashon hara action—is to drag it in here like a cat with a dead mouse and drop it in the middle of a thread in that person’s absence.

I regret I have but one upding to give.