Modesty, respect, trolls, anonymity

Good day y’all,

I consider myself a lurking member of this website. Sometimes I feel the urge to post, most of the time I don’t. But I always enjoy reading threads up until like 10 pages to see how it develops and if any breakthroughs are made. And I noticed something I thought was interesting: people never seem to cave in.

There’s always the blame of misinterpretation, out of context quoting, putting words in the other’s mouth, etc. But very seldom you read acknowledgements of the other person being right in some respect, or taking something back, or anything in that manner.

(By this time I feel it’s time for a little DISCLAIMER: I know I’m guilty of this too, this thread is not meant as fingerpointing, it’s mere observation)

Anyway, since I noticed this, I started to study it and came to another conclusion. Most statements are extremes and more importantly, people tend to see anyone who doesn’t agree with them as a part of the counter extreme of their statement. Follow me?

For example: Poster A provided a UFO vid. Poster B is skeptical of the UFO vid. Poster A will accuse Poster B of being a nonbelieving narrowminded sheep. Poster B will accuse Poster A of being a gullible loon. While Poster A might just be interested in the video and Poster B is really just a skeptic.

Now my guess is none of the two came with the intention of bashing someone but it happened anyway, because somehow it just seems to be the way it goes.

The follow up question is, where did this all come from? And I think the answer to that, though I hate to acknowledge their influence, are trolls (internet trolls, not the mythological onces).
So in effect, by insulting, flaming, name-calling and being stubborn beyond reason, trolls are forcing other people to take stance at extremes and change the mood of a forum.

They should not be able to do that...

Now where am I going with this? I don’t really know, I guess it’s about respect for each other and trying not to get carried away to much if you had no intention of insulting someone at first. Oh, and don’t take anything personal. Because in the end, no one here knows who you are, so nothing can be personal to begin with.


Peace

Ps.Okay, so maybe I’m just stupid for thinking I’m presenting some new insight, in which case, I am sorry. If you, however, had not come to my conclusion and feel the same way, I am glad.

reply to post by j-man


Sometimes people refuse to accept they are wrong or respect others opinions. It happens alot when people are passionate about a subject Not everyone is like this. Just yesterday someone pointed out in a post that what I said was not correct I looked it up realized that they were correct that my opinion was based on misinformation and I thanked them for bringing it to my attention and apologized. Personally I love it when someone can change my opinion and teach me something new!

reply to post by j-man


I think the fact we are online brings out the extreme in all of us. I think everyone is secure in the fact they are protected by a computer monitor to say what they want. When in reality, if we all were sitting in a room together, I would imagine there would be much more courtesy and respect given. Too bad we cant have a ATS convention somewhere!

Good observation. I don't agree with many of the viewpoints here...especially when it comes to chrisitanity vs Atheism vs other world religions...but hey, the great thing about America... and a guiding force in my own ideals...

We agree to disagree... I like a good debate.

I guess I fall into the Libertarian fold...you want to be straight or gay or cellibate...fine by me...may not agree with it, but that is your business.

Same with God, Jesus, the flag, John Wayne, Capitalism vs Socialism vs Communism...you have rights too.

If I can't support my opinion with facts...I say so...if I can..I use them. However, the worst thing we can do and do for this site, is to resort to insults and name calling and rants about why something is or isn't true.

I especially find it annoying when someone has all the facts and knows the political or economic theories..and they drop names and ideologies like they are at a black tie affair...but they don't really understand the impact..the cause and effect of those ideas and beliefs...at least not in the real world.

Anyway, good point OP.

reply to post by jrkelly77


And that's how it should be. Mistakes are valuable lessons, and can get you on the right track when you are able to embrace them.

Being right is fun though

reply to post by j-man


This goes beyond internet, this is human nature

reply to post by j-man


I see the same thing in other sites, and in real life. I think many people feel uncomfortable with moderation, as if it is "fence sitting". The world is black or white, and "if you are not on my side, you're on my enemies side".
I don't want to go to far in speculation on why they prefer that or see things that way. I do not share this, and I could be mistaken in trying to explain it. I just am aware that it is a very common stand point.

For them, choosing your side and sticking to it is extremely important.... not being "wishy-washy" not being easily influenced, not integrating things together so that you start down that slippery slope to being influenced.

I personally feel my focus tending to worry about slipping down either slope and into either extreme! I am comfortable with balance and moderation. This means people who aren't, often misunderstand me, and I get frustrated with them, and we dance round and round in debates as they try to get me to choose one side or another, and I refuse to budge from the middle.

Thesis- anti-thesis, they create contrast. They make each other stand out. Synthesis makes it all one.

Eh. We're all different. At least we dance.

Some of the arguments are extremely annoying to me, especially when there are pages and pages of posts between two or three people about an insignificant point in regards to the thread. What I do find amusing however is the smart**s comments; for example, there's currently a thread about a NASA announcement possibly of some new planet, and the poster says he's looking for Obama to produce a birth certificate saying he was born there. That's funny!!! If it weren't for posts like that, the arguments would have driven me from this site a long time ago.

reply to post by PapaEmeritus


It probably is. But it's not effective in the sense that we aren't learning from it.

Don't get me wrong: Debating is good.
People just shouldn't get very upset about losing one. In fact you can't lose a good debate, because then you learned something new!

This is in no way a personal attack to the OP, but I personally am really tired of threads like these. We all know what we should and should not do. Of course, some more than others. Either way, there will always be good replies, bad replies, people just trying to be plain mean or stupid. We know this. I see no reason why we need to keep making posts like this telling people to be nice. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course, but I just feel these ideas are all being posted ad nauseum. "Not a sermon, just a thought." Good day peeps.

reply to post by FoJAk


Yeah, I thought that exact thing while writing it, but if no one says it then what.

Every now and then a reminder isn't all that bad I guess, and if you don't like the subject just don't read any further.
(I personally could do with less threads of a different kind but hey...)

Thanks though, it's noted

reply to post by j-man


What do we ever learn from? We are doomed by our own stupidity

reply to post by j-man


Word.

2nd

reply to post by j-man


We have in modern culture an overriding theme. One that is seldom if ever discussed in political, social or religous venues. It just seems to be taken for granted as it is blasted at us daily in our movies, tv shows, in sports, from pulpits and in mega-doses from commercial.

This assumption we live by, with little question, is "be all that you can be". This particular phrasing of course comes from the US Army recruiters, but the underlying sense of the concept has been around for a much longer time.

Riding side by side with this concept is the concept of "not being all you can be" and it's relationship to failure, and we know how failure is viewed. Failure needs blame. If some other person fails it is his fault and in most cases if I fail, it is your fault.

But the other side of this is the view that we just didn't try hard enough. Please let me repeat that point because I think it is important. We just didn't try hard enough.

When we lose or fail and blame it on "we just didn't try hard enough" and don't blame it on someone else, we increase our efforts. Yeah yeah,sure sure, this is how we improve. But it can also be how we drive ourselves over the edge into extremism.

I haven't worked this though out more than this but I wanted to toss it out here for others. I've got to go and get busy for the day.

It's all about ego. Nobody wants to say "You were right. I was wrong". *FACEPALM*.

Wars have be fought. Thousands have died all in the name of somone's ego. It's human nature. Everybody has an opinion. Everybody has a differing viewpoint. What one person views as correct, another views as incorrect. You will find this in pretty much every facet of life.