There was, but you were too busy not commemorating other wars to notice.
This. Is. The. Pit.
If you want to have subtle exchanges of nuanced phrases…well GD isn’t the place for it either, but moreso than here.
You’ve made your dislike for The Pit clear enough, but bluntly, the Pit is for verbal violence, not satisfactory outcomes. And unless Ed hands down another fiat, that’s not going to change.
If you want to have warm huggles and chats with someone, go to MPSIMS (which is what I suggested to Quasi).
I don’t dislike the pit. Humans need places to vent about life, the universe, and everything. I see the invective and verbal violence a lot like I see witnessing in GD, it’s the right place in the board landscape for it, but that doesn’t make it mandatory or universally appropriate, especially when it is intentionally focused on another board member. It’s like the difference between witnessing and proselytizing. One is a general statement of your personal experiences and beliefs and the other is getting in someone else’s face and pushing those beliefs on them. It’s perfectly possible to appreciate the invective and verbal violence in a general way but disapprove when it’s used to attack someone specifically, especially if you believe that person didn’t deserve it.
Your position seems to be the equivalent of saying that because GD allows witnessing then it also means it’s the place for targeted proselytizing(someone test this hypothesis, PLEASE!). I respectfully disagree. Just as I disagree that because the pit allows and is the place for invective and verbal violence that it means invective and verbal violence can’t ever be considered misplaced or inappropriate.
Enjoy,
Steven
I think that’s exactly what it is. It’s not that you can’t disagree or post with your view that opposes that post, but you can’t complain about the fact that the post exists in the forum where it is specificially permitted.
Again I think you’re wrong about that. The Pit is the forum where not only is that behaviour and language specificially permitted it’s directed here to remove it from other forums. Disagree with statements and positions but disagreeing with the way they’re presented when they’re here because that’s where presenting them that way is allowed is just silly and self defeating. There are places for everything and while you might not enjoy them all SDMB does a fairly decent job of identifying what belongs where and makes it very easy to avoid places where you don’t have to see the types of posts you’d prefer not to.
FWIW I don’t think mhendo was out of line. He was in the right forum and I don’t think his comments were meant to reference Quasi’s illness, just his attitude in this particular thread (although that is obviously influenced by his condition it’s not entirely the root). There is a lot being done and some pretty generous leaway being given to allow Quasi to continue to participate in the boards but that’s an individual choice and until the mods make it a rule it’s each posters right to make that for themselves. Of course it’s also each posters right to bitch at them for it (at least in this forum).
Actually, a better analogy is “Someone wanders into GD and starts preaching about how “dinosaur fossils found with human fossils proves that evolution is a lie and that anyone who doesn’t accept Christ is a’goin’ to hell” but that the GDers shouldn’t argue with the person because they’ve got a handicap that everyone’s expected to know about.”
I love how often discussions on the Dope turn into meta-discussions that are not about whatever the thread is about.
My two cents on the veterans question is that the over-arching moral authority and aura of holiness given to all things military, in our society, is one of the great factors holding back our society. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the personal sacrifices made by American soldiers, but this respect is often twisted into not only ignoring our own past military shames, but also to allow modern military personnel to commit crimes of their own. The military procurement system in this country is a tragedy, a massive vortex of filthy money and hidden kickbacks, but the Oliver Norths of the world put on their uniforms and their medals and tell Congress that it’s defeatism and ingratitude to ever say no to their expensive whims and worthless programs.
I have the utmost admiration for people who go out and get shot at for a living, but of the handful of such people I’ve known in my life, every single one of them considered his own officers a bigger enemy than the actual enemy that was shooting at them.
Also, I would welcome any chance to jump on military procurement in another thread.
Firstly, mhendo knew perfectly well that Quasimodem has dementia.
It just seems that mhendo’s version of being patient with the quirks of his dementia includes vituperation.
So back to the analogy. Someone wanders into GD and starts preaching something patently against all scientific evidence and demanding people accept Christ or accept the Christian hell. Ok, there are lots of responses available to us. If we know this person has dementia, as was the case here, we might choose to ignore them, or to engage them with some sort of Socratic dialogue where we start from basics and help point out their logical flaws. There are options available other than scorched earth rebuttals with colorful aspersions on the posters parentage, mental faculties, and sexual prowess. Save that kind of stuff for the Kent Hovinds of the world.
To use your analogy, I’m not saying people shouldn’t argue with them, I’m definitely not saying people should just agree with them, but if someone engaged our evangelizing hypothetical OP with flames then it’s perfectly legitimate to judge that reaction. If the OP was Kent Hovind, the judgment may be “flames well deserved,” if the OP was a generally friendly and likeable person who was suffering from dementia, which the flamer knew full well, the judgment may be “hmm, pretty dickish.”
Enjoy,
Steven
Jesus H. Christ, you’re a self-righteous twat.
I posted as i did precisely because it seemed to me that Quasi’s opinion in this thread was one that he held independently of his dementia, and the fact that he has continued to stand by his opinion supports this conclusion.
I continue to be sympathetic towards, and patient with the quirks of his dementia, while also believing that i have the right to hold him accountable for his opinions and his accusations within the rules of this forum, and that’s precisely what i did.
If he had simply offered his opinion that Google should have posted a D-Day Doodle, i would have let it go and moved on. But when you give your opinion, and then also claim that those who don’t share it are ignorant and/or morally inferior because they don’t care about war veterans, then that’s an insult. The fact that it doesn’t contain any curse words doesn’t change that.
But it’s clear that your need to be indignant on his behalf is not going to be assuaged or eliminated by any explanation that i might give, so may i conclude by inviting you to bite me once again.
Enjoy my ass.
I don’t know about Mtg, but I sure did.
No, I never got beat up by a kid, but seriously now, I suppose this is now the 10,000th time (cue the confetti!) that I say the apparent “I HAVE to, by contractual obligation, be a complete fucking cunt because this is The Pit” argument is fucking bogus. Just because you’re allowed to do something doesn’t mean you’re not a shit stain for doing so.
Let’s pretend we’re not in front of our keyboards for a moment, if we may. In real life there aren’t moderators censoring our language, making sure no one ever says “fuck you,” and you can say more or less whatever the hell you want. If I’m chatting up someone at a bar and I don’t agree with him, I just say so. That’s it. Not, “We’re at the bar, where I can say what I want, so fuck you!” Why the shit would I do that? If, however, I am dealing with someone who is just an unequivocal, flat-out douchebag, then sure, I have no problem telling him to fuck off then walking away, but I feel no obligation to be the biggest lowlife possible simply because it’s technically permissible. If someone is having a hard time but I know they’re trying very hard, I don’t give them a free pass on everything, but I’ll make an effort to see eye to eye, especially if they extended the effort first. If eye level cannot be attained, then I have no trouble dropping it. Shit, that’s my approach with anyone, regardless.
Maybe I need to take a course on never dropping anything ever because I’m right, goddamn it, and my voice will be heard! I will win this, so help me god…
You know, on a somewhat related note, my dad is 90 years old. Even though he’s in great health, he doesn’t move as fast as I do, because you know, that fucking happens to you when you’ve lived over 90% of a century. So one of my pet peeves is slow-moving people mainly because I equate it with some combination if laziness and the people around you (no need to correct how false my assumption is, thanks), but when he lags behind me when we’re walking, I just wait for him. I do not give him a free pass on general laziness (if he’s being lazy, I say, "Dad, stop being lazy), but I do not respond to him exactly like I do my 30 year old friends. When one of my friends is walking a half mile an hour, I say “Hurry up, you fat, lazy fuck.” With him, I’ll wait, and if he’s going out of his wait, I’ll give him the “Dad, come on.” Now if you want to call that giving my old man special treatment or treating him like a child, then knock yourself out.
More on topic. no one should feel afraid of disagreeing with anyone here, and I’m glad the moderators here don’t let threats fly with no warning, but if you’re incapable of or unwilling to gauge your approach based on your audience (and I’m not just talking about an audience that has a degenerative illness whose many side effects include impaired judgment, and erratic emotional behavior – I mean in general) then may your gods help us all.
I’m not even a nice person, but for fuck’s sake. I do not see trying to level with someone as a sign of being a milquetoast chronic bullying victim; I see it as a sign of being a normal person who is not a dickhead.
And now I feel like an asshole for having devoted this many words to the matter. I am done.
In any case, I’m fine with Googe’s doodle homepage, whatever it was.
And in the interest of fighting ignorance, Alzheimers is not a mental disorder – it’s a neurological one.
Ugh, I know I said I was done, but I’m outside of my edit window, and there are many typos and improperly articulated thoughts above, so if I come back with another post Sunday afternoon, I was lying when I said I was done.
Very well put. Not something an “asshole” could have taken the time to write. Good on ya’.
No-one, least of all me, has made such an argument. Not in this thread. Not ever.
I have made literally thousands of posts in the Pit in my 10+ years on this board. The vast majority of those posts have involved no direct insults at all. I’ve made what i think are some of my best-researched, most cogent, and best-received posts right here in this forum, and have been involved in extended debates on a variety of fascinating issues. I’m well aware that there is no “contractual obligation” (nice strawman there, by the way) to insult someone, and on many occasions i have engaged is sustained arguments in this forum without exchanging any insults whatsoever.
But, given the forum, i also reserve to right to insult someone if i feel sufficiently offended or annoyed or upset by what someone says. And i especially reserve that right if they insult me first, which is what happened here. Yes, yes, i know: what he said was not a personal insult by the very specific rules of this board, but that doesn’t change the fact that he was calling me (and others who disagreed with him) ignorant and immoral.
It’s sort of like you just managed to skirt the rules and call me a “complete fucking cunt” without actually using a direct insult. You have been quite careful to follow the letter of the law. You didn’t say, “You are a complete fucking cunt.” But it’s pretty clear what you meant. I don’t mind that you did it; in fact, i salute you for your judicious and precise language that allowed you to say what you wanted without breaking the board regulations. But don’t pretend that it’s not what you meant. And know that i appreciate the sentiment so much, that i would like to return it. With love, of course.
And she called me a milquetoast chronic bullying victim! That bitch!
We all take away different things from our interactions with others. You’re asking people to see the forest of your contributions, which are not all angry insult-laden screeds, instead of thinking of you as an anger-driven maniac. Ironically, however, out of everything MeanOldLady said, the part you seem to have focused on was the most negative. Instead of finding the places you agreed with her and building on those, you’ve internalized the small bits of indirect attacks and are making those your focus area. It’s an interesting dichotomy.
Enjoy,
Steven
I guess that, when it comes to MeanOldLady, my failure to focus on the positive, and on the areas where we agree, might have something to do with the fact that her first contribution to this thread was to call me “dickface.” Maybe you can bless her with one of your oh-so-charming lectures on civility.
And i’m not “asking people” to see anything. I was merely pointing out the inaccuracy of her suggestion that i feel a “contractual obligation” to insult people in the Pit. I don’t feel any such obligation, as my posting record demonstrates.
As for how people think of me, that’s up to them. Rest assured that i won’t lose any sleep over your opinion.
I think a point being missed somewhere (or is it?) is that the spat wasn’t Q freaking out over missing strawberries and demanding answers in the middle of the night. No, it was a normal, rational opinion that kind of echoed the OP.
That he seemingly misconstrued things (e.g. no one gives a shit what he believes in or respects; that hasn’t been the point) is SOP for lots and lots of disputes in the Pit and elsewhere. No dementia necessary. That he kicked it up a notch and expressed moral superiority at the notion that not everyone is grateful to veterans, accords them any additional respect, or puts them on a pedestal to his satisfaction is also a common enough attitude (note I don’t have to completely capture every nuance to get the point across–untie those panties!).
So had he flung strawberry-flavoured shit, yeah, flinging it back would have been out of line. But as it stands, it seems that it’s an opinion that he’s held for longer than the past three days, and in many humble opinions is worthy of an all-capped BITE ME. Attitudes like that are no different than those of the Freepers who got upset over a lapel pin.
I applaud the efforts to form a Kumbaya circle around Q, but direct your energies towards giving him warm fuzzies and warning him off mistaken attacks—back off people who are engaging him in the normal course of the Board.
You’re a douche, mhendo is worse, and I hope you both burn in Hell. Fucking cowardly pieces of shit.
What?
That made absolutely no sense. Are you sure you don’t have dementia too? That content-less turd pretty much shows you’re having difficulty following and contributing. It really did come out of left field without much of a reality-based root.
Cowardly? Sounds awfully Internet tough-guy of you. Is that your knee-jerk reaction to someone who disagrees? Cowardly? Um, yeah. That makes all sorts of sense and is clearly related to the thread. No, wait, that’s not right.
Hope we both burn in hell? For disagreeing with you? Sounds mighty Christian of you. Burn in hell for … for disagreeing with you? For reacting to Q as he said we should? Do I get special treatment because I expressed an opinion that mhendo shouldn’t be pilloried? I guess the burn in hell thing does have some root and they used to threaten heretics and blasphomers with it, so maybe in that pickled and perforated brain it made sense to you. I guess. Maybe.
You clearly missed out on warm fuzzies growing up. No wonder you’re such a bitter asshole. It shows.
Go piss up a rope, you stupid old douchebag.
I know what Oakminster can be like, but was I wrong to think he was having a little fun with y’all? I, too, was tempted to say something like that but have been reminded I can’t even troll in the Pit. And really, “piss up a rope?” You can’t tell me that splatterpunk wasn’t also getting into the spirit of things.