How about we split the difference and commentate Operation Fortitude, the British disinformation campaign that convinced Hitler that Normandy was a diversion for a larger pair of invasions to come? The efforts of Juan Pujol, Thomas Harris and the Security Service kept Rommel and his tanks in Pas de Calais along with 19 infantry divisions for two months after the Normandy invasion. As horrible and difficult as the Normandy invasion was, were it not for Fortitude it might have been impossible.
Telling someone in uniform that I honor their service is undercutting a Veteran,Rhythmdvl?
As far as respect, sorry that you feel that way.
Well, I said I’d stay out of here and here I am trying to make peace for stumbling into this shit hole again. Set my rant rate back to zero, even though I didn’t think getting upset over being called an old douchebag was against the rules. As far as I knew everything was okay, but an admin and a good friend PM’d me and set me straight and it won’t happen again, and I’m sorry to lose you as a friend, **Rhytm Devl/B].
Q
This is pretty common Pit stuff going on. There’s nothing wrong with your opinions, or theirs, on the original subject. Now you guys have passed phase 1 and are just arguing about the traded insults instead of the original point. Fun innit?
“normally docile old man” – you make Quasi sound like an old dog that’s going blind. I’m sure that’s how he likes being treated. There’s a BIG difference between having patience with someone who has a disorder and patronizing them to the point you treat them like a cat who can’t control it’s bladder anymore.
Getting upset/annoyed/angry about someone insulting you, and insulting them back is not against the rules - see mhendo and BigT or MeanOldLady in this very thread. Threatening other posters with real life harm is and always has been against the rules. Jesus fuck, if you can’t determine that fucking distinction then perhaps someone DOES need to be vetting your posts before they’re posted.
Quasimodem was having an issue correctly processing the topic and instead conflating it with other topics that he knows well and feels strongly about. This is pretty much what dementia does. While group A is talking about topic 1, he’s over in group B because his understanding of topic 1 actually mapped in his head to topic 2. So when people say topic 1 is trite and unimportant, he hears “topic 2 is trite and unimportant.” The major disconnect happened around post 48 and he shifted gears from talking fairly lucidly about Google and commemorative actions into something more like a rant. Anger management issues are very common among those with dementia.
IvoryTowerDenizen responded pretty well to Quasimodem’s outburst, emphasizing their common ground and trying to re-communicate the nuances of the conversation that Quasi seemed to have lost track of. It was the action of someone who wanted to build mutual understanding. It restored some of Quasi’s lucidity, and his self-effacing nature showed through again in that exchange.
mhendo chose to take the implicit insults in Quasi’s post personally and respond with flames. If he were in a conversation with someone with a history of intentionally twisting conversations to score points(like most politicians and pundits) this would probably have been appropriate. Instead he’s in a conversation with someone whose mind unintentionally(and without any conscious control on his part) twists conversations as a result of his condition. Unsurprisingly, anger begat more anger.
Quasimodem is not Ann Coulter. It’s unfair to treat his confusion, even if it is paired with anger and frustration, the same way you’d treat her intentional malice.
And it is unreasonable to expect everyone on the board to ignore someone blundering into a conversation and being hostile. And it’s also not fair to expect everyone to even know about Quasi’s condition let alone all the nuances of it.
I’m sorry for Quasi having this condition, I have great empathy for him. But having a handicap doesn’t give one unconditional freedom to say whatever they want without consequences (despite what that dumbfuck BigTard suggested).
Quasi should put a sticky note on his monitor saying something like:
[ul]
[li]Before hitting “Submit Reply”, check forum–am I in The Pit?[/li][li]YES-IN THE PIT–DON’T POST! Delete message, go to MPSIMS and talk with friends[/li][li]NO-NOT IN THE PIT–Am I threatening someone with violence? [/li][li]YES-I’M THREATENING SOMEONE–Send post via PM to friend/mod. Talk to them but DON’T POST THE THREAT![/li][li]NO-I’M NOT THREATENING SOMEONE–Go ahead and post! [/li][/ul]
Quasi’s condition isn’t is fault and he’s holding up better than I think I would, but he still has some accountability/responsibility for what he posts if he’s going to post here. The mods have been bending over backwards to avoid giving him formal Warnings for threats that would have gotten anyone else instabanned–and I think that’s very kind of them. But Quasi started the fight with Mhendo and it’s not reasonable to expect everyone tp just let comments like Quasi made stand unchallenged.
And seriously, Mgtman, the entire point of the Pit is to rant and rave and spew invectives (whether while venting or arguing). It’s incredibly :rolleyes: to wag your finger and admonish people for Pit behavior… In the Pit.
The irony is that BigT, the board’s self-appointed Bloviating Buttinsky, is far more insulting and patronizing to Quasi in his harangue to mhendo than anyone else in the thread.
I think the parts I quoted are particularly on-point. I was going to elaborate more with my feelings on this (I’ve had two beloved relatives succumb to this disease) but I think I’ll just agree with Fenris here.
Don’t ignore it. Address it in a clear and mutually beneficial way, as IvoryTowerDenizen did. Escalating the verbal violence is unlikely to lead to a mutually satisfactory outcome. At best it makes you look like you’ve got a chip on your shoulder. Maybe you like your pit threads played with sharp elbows, and that’s up to you, but sometimes seeing an elbow get thrown causes a greater loss of respect for the team than losing the game without that elbow.
I ahemed when a guy spryly hopped out of the Corvette (with handicapped plates) he had parked in a handicapped space.
“What?” he replied, “Don’t you think a handicapped person can own a Corvette?”
“No, I just didn’t know one could get in and out of a Corvette.”
I did NOT say, “No, I just didn’t think moral bankruptcy was a protected disability,” because there may be a handicap that allows the athleticism he demonstrated but would still get him preferred parking. But this was shortly after Illinois cracked down on preacher plates and douchebags had to find another way to get the best parking spaces.
