# Could we stop the "take your meds" crap? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 15, 2003, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-stop-the-take-your-meds-crap/207596 "2003-10-15T16:19:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-stop-the-take-your-meds-crap/207596/101 "2003-10-16T17:44:05Z")
Aires, thanks for letting us know. * * * Lissener, your feeble attempt at sponging up some sympathy, while taking advantage of Gobear’s absence to do it, has failed. You say your point is not to kick a man when he’s down, and yet that’s exactly what you’ve done, calling Gobear a bully even as you’re bullying him. You call him a solipsist, even as you moan and whine about your own problems as though your travails somehow invalidate Gobear. You’re a jackass. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-stop-the-take-your-meds-crap/207596/102 "2003-10-16T18:05:55Z")
BTW, I am glad that **Gobear** opened up. I hope he doesn’t regret it. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-stop-the-take-your-meds-crap/207596/103 "2003-10-16T18:07:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sauron \* > \*\*Help me out here, **lissener**. > > You dislike **gobear** because of the way you perceive he acts on the boards. Now, you’re claiming that you’re acting like him. > > You disagree with him vehemently on a request he has made, to stop using (or at least think before using) a particular phrase. You also admit that people (family members) have hurt you deeply by engaging in the very behavior he’s asking others to stop. > > You seem to be in a position to understand the type of situation **gobear** currently faces, and yet you continue to deride him. > > It sounds to me like you’d support this request had it come from almost anyone else, but because **gobear** is the one who brought it forward, you’re going to oppose it. > > And **Lib** , please: I made no attempt to “sponge up some sympathy”; I thought my tone made that clear. I have ZERO regrets about my past family situation, and feel no need of sympathy on that account. I was merely presenting my credentials, as it were (and I say that with very little seriousness). I was just detailing the particulars of the background that informed my responses. > > Not that it’ll mean a lot, but I’m losing some serious respect for you as a poster and as a person based on this thread. \*\* As you should, if your characterization of my posts to this thread were right, but they’re not. I say again (and will not repeat, so please pay attention this time): I told the sister anecdote to _distinguish_ between the kind of behavior that is meant to cause pain and the flip use of a cliché dig. So while I’m agreeing with **gobear** that intentional cruelty is—wait for it—_cruel_—flip cliché digs are no more cruel than an eyeroll smiley, and on those grounds—not just because it’s **gobear** —I rationally and consciously disagree with him. I also understand the type of situation he is in, and on that level I sympathize. But I would no more let his current situation dictate my general board behavior than I would expect him to make the same blanket concession to me. And as far as my acting like him, I was merely pointing out the irony that his current position is so hypocritical as to place my position closer on the spectrum to his wonted insensitivity than his own current, convenient, but characteristically solipsistic and _hypocritical_ position. If he had posted a thread that said, “I’m in a slough of despond and would appreciate a little consideration,” I’d have reacted differently. But since, though that appears now to be the _subtext_ of his OP, his OP’s literal position was to hypocritically dictate the standards of decorum in these forums—a standard whose spirit **gobear** makes a practice of flouting—I have responded as I have. **gobear** SDMB style has been, up to now, one of condescending insensitivity and blustery self-importance. Not that one has to earn the right to compassion and consideration—I offer those by default to anyone I don’t know, here or IRL; everybody starts out with slack. But **gobear** long ago exhausted my reserves of such niceties, and he’ll have to expend a great deal of energy maintaining his “new leaf” before I have any more to offer him. ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-stop-the-take-your-meds-crap/207596/104 "2003-10-16T18:15:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lissener \* > I say again (and will not repeat, so please pay attention this time): I told the sister anecdote to _distinguish_ between the kind of behavior that is meant to cause pain and the flip use of a cliché dig. So while I’m agreeing with **gobear** that intentional cruelty is—wait for it—_cruel_—flip cliché digs are no more cruel than an eyeroll smiley, and on those grounds—not just because it’s **gobear** —I rationally and consciously disagree with him. Okay, I’m concentrating really hard now. Nope. Still idiocy in that post. “Flip cliche digs” include such gems as “That’s so _gay_”! and “You’re a _retard_!” These are generally considered to be impolite at best in civilized discourse. Or can you discern from the words on the screen whether one is being flip or being cruel, if no other context is offered other than “Take your meds”? ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-stop-the-take-your-meds-crap/207596/105 "2003-10-16T18:17:19Z")
And **Lib** , I had no intention of fishing for sympathy. I have ZERO regrets regarding my past family situation; I was merely presenting my resume, as it were: offering some anecdotal background on the perspective of my responses. I’d thought the tone I’d adopted in my life summary made it clear that I was not wallowing in self pity on that account, but if it didn’t, hopefully this will. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-stop-the-take-your-meds-crap/207596/106 "2003-10-16T18:31:25Z")
One more thing: Fine, so I’m bullying **gobear**. I make it a life principal, in general, not to be a bully, but I have no qualms against bullying a bully. ---
**Author:** ![Aries28](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Aries28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aries28)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-stop-the-take-your-meds-crap/207596/107 "2003-10-16T18:58:10Z")
Wow…just wow…this is ugly. As **gobear** isn’t here to defend himself as the OP, can I respectfully ask a passing mod to please close this? No one is debating the original issue anymore anyway. Talk about kicking a guy when he’s down. And from a 28 year old who surely doesn’t have as “obscenely high IQ” as you, I sure hope I never run across you again, **lissener**. The common courtesy thing to do when I said that he was leaving the boards for a bit would have been to let it drop. But was it just easier to post more without him here to defend his position? ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-stop-the-take-your-meds-crap/207596/108 "2003-10-16T19:12:28Z")
Agreed. Whatever reasons **gobear** may have had for his OP, it is clear that the matter is -or perhaps, due to experience has become- rather personal to him. We should respect the fact that he’s taking a break. And we certainly shouldn’t be taking pot shots at him when he’s not here to defend himself. This thread is closed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-stop-the-take-your-meds-crap/207596.md?page=5)