hate,hate and some more hate

It amazed and disturbed me recentley whilst reading posts on ATS at how vicious and hating our on line community and world in general appears to have become.

With all the worlds present problems (especially the Iran crisis). It seems everybody wants to have a pop or point the finger of blame at someone but the trend appears to be doing this by starting off posts behind an impartial smokescreen, once a reply is offered; it would appear the original thread decends into a 'tit 4 tat' competition spiralling far away from the original subject- in point, more so that stupid comments best left ignored are replied to with the same stupid; sometimes aggresive, attitudes of the previous poster.

I had always believed us to be the benchmark community for respectfull and polite discussion, just because we may not agree on a subject or a point of view doesnt mean we have to lower ourselves into the realm of insult and points scoring.

Whilst posting on the more serious and pending issues (again, mainly Iran) there seems to be an underlining hatred for Islam coming across, with comments like 'nuke them', 'kill them', etc, i cant believe that anyone that has made a concious desicion to join a site such as ours would show such immaturity or blatant lack of respect for their fellow human race, why are we not seeing posts like "how can we achieve peace in the middle east?", surley we have a combined intelligence to put some theories together that leave the rest of the worlds hatred at the front door?

Dont get me wrong, i to in the past have posted comments i wish i could take back, ive grown as a person (with help from many members, young and old on ATS) and whilst looking back at posts i made nearly 2 years ago i laugh at how stupid some of the things i said were but was actually quite proud of how un-jaded i have remained. The one thing i am thankfull for is the way in which i can listen honestley to a persons point of view and remain respectfull, without insult....Ats honed that skill within me.

I think all members should take some time to reflect on the following word and what it actually means:-

RESPECT

its the most integral part of our community, and it feels like its been 'shelved'.

Regards All.