Hello all,
Nice to meet some of you
About me: for now I'll suffice to say I joined this board because I glimpsed some intelligence and a little substance to some of these posts, but...
As my first order of business I would like to commend Hank for his intelligence and level-headedness throughout with the omission of a light infraction I noted, whether it was merited or not. Your attempt to transcend the pettiness and uncivilized manner of some brash individuals is encouraging for me and part of the reason I joined.
Let's see... first impressions on a new board. Well I have plenty to say after perusing this entire thread which is quite odd for (perusing, I always have a lot to say). Despite all I do have to say I instead
choose to withhold much of it for I can (quite easily) tell that it would incite the irascible and irrational members of this board, and I do not intend to initiate any vendettas. I found the intelligent responses to a parasitic conundrum quite refreshing and rather compelling and felt the urge to continue. Of course (go figure) the hope I initially held for the constituents of this corner of the virtual world quickly faded as I sifted through blatant hypocrisy, misdirected anger, prepubescent name calling, disrespect, a plea for pity on behalf of another, and racism - which is quite disturbing seeing as how we're all in the minority here - among others. On that note I'll point out the intelligent and respectful comment by Bionca.
Peace is nothing more than an ideal as it is against the basic driving characteristics of humans beings. Hate begets not equal hate, but abhorrence, and loathing in an attempt by each combatant to one-up each other until the outbreak of violence destroys the lives of them and their families leaving gashes which spew forth more vile vitriol from their survivors in a never ending cycle. He/she who hates more wins is the idea.
These tendencies are amplified by the safety net people have when they're on the internet. They feel they can say whatever they want whenever they want without the slightest consequence. Not wishing to draw the ire of the moderating team, but I feel this is compounded by the fact that many moderators refuse to enforce forum policies on most boards and also set out to harass and incite members by being overtly rude and disrespectful for absolutely no reason at all. I've seen members of forums warned/banned for things not against the rules while those breaking the rules we encouraged by that mod. I've seen an admin attack a board member and ban him because he was in a bad mood. Abuse of power.
Signature style, rambling on and getting off topic - my apologies - so I'll try and wrap this up. I always look at both sides of an argument and normally there is no answer. The grass is never greener. People get upset, and that's understandable. But why? If an ignorant individual makes an unjust attack on your character, try and see where they are coming from.
I would attempt to educate them.
I might ask "why would you attack me? What basis do you have for those
assumptions or allegations?" If they insist on instigating a situation
I would be an adult and appeal to a mod. I don't know how it works here but I would hope they would assist in defusing the problem. Causing more trouble does nothing but make two people look ignorant and childish and both be mad because of something that has no bearing in their life. Everybody here has something in common, but choose to focus on what they don't.
In tying this together I'll use my first and only explicit reference to a post. Someone expressed their disdain with guys making comments like "I want shemale sex!!!" Now neither you nor I came into this world with the knowledge we have now. All these poor saps have to go on is the porn industry and it has shaped their views on
transsexual woman more commonly referred to as shemales just like the media shapes the minds of the majority whether they believe it does or not. With the minimal knowledge they possess on the subject they could not begin to understand the the complex issues of gender identity and why transsexuals are not gay and that transsexualism is not a choice et cetera. Some don't want to know and there is nothing you can do.
We as the most intelligent species should act intelligently. There will never be peace. There will always be those who purposefully or unintentionally cause a dispute. It would be wiser to rise above it and direct your energies into a positive endeavor. I would guess many members here have enough troubles in there life that they would refrain from burdening themselves with more online. Lastly people are less inclined to cause problem online if there's some type of order in place like in real life. "I don't want to go to jail" "I don't want to go to hell" "Don't want a criminal record." The online world needs a similar policing factor like everything though less corrupt. Rules should be enforced, violators should be reprimanded.
I intended for this to be around two paragraphs, and less of a disjointed ramble. Oh well.