Doc Searls got blasted by Dave Winer today over a number of things, including podcasting:

Doc, how about looking at your words from our perspective. Talking to us through you ain't going to cut it. Your friends who want to earn the respect of the podcasters should explain in the medium, in their own voices, in their own words -- produce a podcast and tell us what the f*** they're doing, instead of leaving us guessing. Then you might see the hostility ease, because that's where it comes from.

Whereupon Doc says that he won't say a word about podcasting until he does one. Ok - this is a really stupid meme that ticks me off in more ways than I can count. What specifically, you ask - the one Winer leads with (but he's hardly the only one making this sort of argument) - summarized, it's: "You can't criticize/comment on that - you've never done it!"

That's a completely lame, stupid argument, and the people who make that sort of argument deserve to beaten with a cluestick. And yes, I've been guilty of the same lame argument with respect to Smalltalk, so I'll keep that in mind. There are tons of things that it's impractical to have first hand knowledge of - it's highly unlikely that I'll be writing for a newspaper anytime soon, or reporting on TV, or researching drugs, or fighting a war. Never mind the things I couldn't do even if I wanted to (give birth, say). In the constricted universe of the "no experience, no input" crowd, that means I don't get to have an opinion on any of those things.

Well heck - how do any of us get to have an opinion of any sort, then? No one can try everything - do we really want to limit debate (pick a topic, any topic) to those with direct experience? Bah.