# Comments from people that have either shocked you or have left you pondering... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 27, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comments-from-people-that-have-either-shocked-you-or-have-left-you-pondering/469821 "2008-10-27T19:32:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2008, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comments-from-people-that-have-either-shocked-you-or-have-left-you-pondering/469821/121 "2008-11-01T19:10:42Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > Did you read the part where her husband died and now she is raising a child alone? I know it’s easier to read when people use punctuation, but I don’t think it was necessary to point out in this particular thread, to that particular poster. Since it’s the thread for it, that comment shocked me. Apparently I didn’t get a memo or something… So when we discover someone is a single parent we aren’t supposed to notice massive run on sentences that are difficult to follow or make any suggestions on how they might be fixed? Do you think that single parents are somehow less capable than anyone else and that everyone should just acknowledge that? That’s just silly. That reminds me of when someone on another message board was running around attacking people and then when some people pointed out she didn’t know what she was talking about her friends all freaked out because they were offended anyone would attack someone in a wheelchair. How does being in a wheelchair, being a single parent, or anything like that affect the content of a poster’s writing? The completely unnecessary coddling and expectations of inferior capability is far more offensive than pointing out a better way something could have been written, even if it was slightly more harsh than it needed to be. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2008, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comments-from-people-that-have-either-shocked-you-or-have-left-you-pondering/469821/122 "2008-11-01T20:48:50Z")
> [@Dan\_Norder](#): > > Since it’s the thread for it, that comment shocked me. > > Apparently I didn’t get a memo or something… So when we discover someone is a single parent we aren’t supposed to notice massive run on sentences that are difficult to follow or make any suggestions on how they might be fixed? Do you think that single parents are somehow less capable than anyone else and that everyone should just acknowledge that? That’s just silly. On the one hand, I can appreciate what you’re saying. However, after reading **InterestedObserver** ’s first post in this thread, and then **Hostile Dialect** ’s reply, I looked at **Interested Observer** ’s other posts. Run-on sentences and lack of punctuation are not her usual style. I deduced—perhaps incorrectly—that the content of what she was writing affected her style. > [@Dan\_Norder](#): > > That reminds me of when someone on another message board was running around attacking people and then when some people pointed out she didn’t know what she was talking about her friends all freaked out because they were offended anyone would attack someone in a wheelchair. I really don’t see those as the same thing at all. One poorly-written sentence in a longer posting history =/= using disability as an excuse to be an ass. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2008, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comments-from-people-that-have-either-shocked-you-or-have-left-you-pondering/469821/123 "2008-11-01T21:47:49Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > Quote For Truth. > > (But don’t hire any Zombies. Man, but they are slow!) And you seriously don’t want to be sitting near them in the lunch room when they bring in their own food either. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2008, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comments-from-people-that-have-either-shocked-you-or-have-left-you-pondering/469821/124 "2008-11-01T22:54:48Z")
> [@Dan\_Norder](#): > > That reminds me of when someone on another message board was running around attacking people and then when some people pointed out she didn’t know what she was talking about her friends all freaked out because they were offended anyone would attack someone in a wheelchair. This sentence gave me a chuckle, given the context of your post. Here’s a couple of commas, no extra charge: , , 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MissIntent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/97f17d/32.png) [@MissIntent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissIntent)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2008, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comments-from-people-that-have-either-shocked-you-or-have-left-you-pondering/469821/125 "2008-11-01T23:14:34Z")
> [@Dan\_Norder](#): > > Since it’s the thread for it, that comment shocked me. > > Apparently I didn’t get a memo or something… So when we discover someone is a single parent we aren’t supposed to notice massive run on sentences that are difficult to follow or make any suggestions on how they might be fixed? Do you think that single parents are somehow less capable than anyone else and that everyone should just acknowledge that? That’s just silly. > . I believe the point was more of, this person became a single parent within the **last four months from losing their partner of 23 years**. I don’t think the single parent part had much to do with it as the part of them losing their spouse and their child losing their father. I believe we are allowing people who just suffered a terrible loss to be upset and not nitpick their grammar when they appear to be venting about something that is related to that terrible loss. ---
**Author:** ![Ted\_Y](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c77e96/32.png) [@Ted\_Y](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ted_Y)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2008, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comments-from-people-that-have-either-shocked-you-or-have-left-you-pondering/469821/126 "2008-11-01T23:29:06Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > I’ve posted this here before, in another thread about people’s insanity, but I don’t know how to do that cool high-level linky thing, so I’ll repost: > > I used to have a friend, well, acquaintance really, with whom I would occasionally hang out. One night we were out having some drinks, and she (a woman with an engineering job, who from all appearances was stable, normal, and functional) all of a sudden unloaded this gem. > > She believes that the dinosaurs were wiped out by aliens. Because “what’s the first thing you do when you’re starting a new experiment in a lab? You sterilize the lab, right, to make sure there are no contaminants in your results!” So, the aliens wiped out the dinosaurs to decontaminate Earth for their big experiment. > > Us. > > We are an alien experiment, and every so often the aliens come back to take samples. That’s why people are abducted and probed and whatnot. It’s the aliens checking their work. > > This explanation of humanity came to her in a dream when she was about 12. > > She then proceeded to show me all the little scars on her arms that were indications that she was one of the ones that was constantly being abducted, and the scars were from the probes and machines they used. > > There were no visible scars on her arms. > > I slammed the rest of my drink, got out of there tout suite, and haven’t spoken to her since. It was…bizarre, to say the least, to hear utter and complete insanity come out of the mouth of someone I’d always thought was a bit different but perfectly functional. That’s the first I’ve heard of that theory. Maybe not the first because I get the feeling that this is a theory a lot of people know of. In either case, I found it very interesting and well thought out(up to but not including your friend being an actual abduction victim). The whole thing makes quite a lot of sense although I don’t believe it as the ultimate truth of our history. Actually I think I don’t believe it mostly because I’m afraid of this kind of thing and not believing it is my self-defense mechanism. Sadly, I read your post two nights ago - one of the last ones before going to sleep. It caused me more fear than I’d imagine. This is kind of off-topic but do people often fear superficial things like these? I hate it how I find these things really interesting and want to know them regardless of whether I believe them or not but I’m too scared to lol. ---
**Author:** ![twit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twit)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2008, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comments-from-people-that-have-either-shocked-you-or-have-left-you-pondering/469821/127 "2008-11-01T23:46:17Z")
> [@BaneSidhe](#): > > I know a person who said after Katrina, “Well, it’s not like all of those people dying was a bad thing. Just cleaning up the gene pool, after all.” She was also the same bright bunny who was pissed off that a bunch of the refugees were brought to WV because she said they were the “worst of the worst and it’s not like any of them were doctors, nurses, teachers and so on.” After Katrina, some congressman or senator – I don’t remember who – said that New Orleans shouldn’t be rebuilt. As a longtime resident of SE Louisiana, I was ticked off at this ignorant statement. He may have said that New Orleans shouldn’t have been built where it is in such a low-lying area. Fine. By his logic, then when the Big One hits southern California – Los Angeles and San Francisco – then we shouldn’t rebuild those areas because they’re on a faultline. ---
**Author:** ![Ted\_Y](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c77e96/32.png) [@Ted\_Y](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ted_Y)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2008, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comments-from-people-that-have-either-shocked-you-or-have-left-you-pondering/469821/128 "2008-11-01T23:52:39Z")
> [@Hostile\_Dialect](#): > > Here’s what I mean. Try this: > > Now try this: > > Isn’t that much easier to read? I think that yours broke down into too many simple sentences. It is easier to read but not as interesting(sentence structure wise, I know that the context remained the same). Perhaps a cross between the two would be good but in the end it’s all not as big of a deal as we’re making it lol. ---
**Author:** ![Ted\_Y](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c77e96/32.png) [@Ted\_Y](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ted_Y)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2008, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comments-from-people-that-have-either-shocked-you-or-have-left-you-pondering/469821/129 "2008-11-01T23:58:27Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#): > > I’m guessing that your dad meant John Hanson, who’s sometimes referred to as the first President of the Unirted States because he presided over the Continental Congress. Many myths exist about Hanson. The claim that he was of Negroid descent has been attributed to [comedian and activist Dick Gregory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hanson_(myths)#Hanson_was_of_African_descent), who apparently confused indentured servitude (of whites) with chattel slavery (of blacks) and/or mistook the eighteenth-century American Hanson for the nineteenth-century Liberian Senator John Hanson. > > . Interesting how you can actually find a link behind my father’s logic. Perhaps a little more background about him would make it clearer though. My dad is not a politically/historically involved person nor does he have a lot of knowledge/interest in those areas. My family’s Chinese and we live in Canada and he doesn’t even know a lot about Canadian politics/history. With that in mind, he most likely just said something ridiculous without any logic behind it. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comments-from-people-that-have-either-shocked-you-or-have-left-you-pondering/469821/130 "2008-11-02T00:44:47Z")
Several years ago, I was living here in Ann Arbor. Now, for background, I had recently moved from here from the Bay Area, which is probably the most left-wing and definitely the least religious metro area in the US. Like my entire family, I am an atheist. (As an aside, I am very interested in religion and try to be respectful of other peoples’ beliefs. I expect the courtesy to be returned.) Ann Arbor is almost certainly the most liberal city in Michigan, but I just laugh when I hear people compare it to Berkeley. (No way. I have seen like, _multiple_ McCain yard signs here.) Anyway, I was working in a boring office as a boring office manager and one of my coworkers - who was INCREDIBLY religious, I mean, if you asked her how she was, she’d respond “I’m BLESSED by the LORD!” - found some way to bring up my own religious beliefs. I told her that I wasn’t religious, and her jaw just about dropped. “Have you prayed to let Jesus into your heart?” she asked me, and _my_ jaw just about dropped. I had NEVER had anyone witness at me before, and that’s even taking consideration that I took a class in college called Born Again Religion that required we go to an evangelical church service. I stammered something about how I didn’t think that was an appropriate topic for the workplace. Fast forward a couple weeks. I did a work favor for this coworker, and in response, she wanted to take me out to lunch. Free food! Of course I said yes. She spent the WHOLE LUNCH witnessing at me. OMG. It was super, super awkward. She had clearly been waiting for a good moment to corner me when we weren’t in the office. Highly uncool, and I avoided her best I could the rest of the time I worked there. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comments-from-people-that-have-either-shocked-you-or-have-left-you-pondering/469821/131 "2008-11-02T06:49:40Z")
> [@MissIntent](#): > > within the last four months Oh wow. I totally missed that. I’m so sorry, **InterestedObserver**. > [@twit](#): > > then when the Big One hits **southern** California – Los Angeles and **San Francisco** Um, what? ---
**Author:** ![twit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twit)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comments-from-people-that-have-either-shocked-you-or-have-left-you-pondering/469821/132 "2008-11-02T20:39:49Z")
> [@Hostile\_Dialect](#): > > Oh wow. I totally missed that. I’m so sorry, **InterestedObserver**. > > Um, what? Sorry, I thought I was taking a chance when I included San Francisco with southern California as I didn’t check a map beforehand. The rest of the post stands. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comments-from-people-that-have-either-shocked-you-or-have-left-you-pondering/469821.md?page=6)