# Octopus is having a meltdown... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 28, 2018, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098 "2018-09-28T08:26:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/181 "2018-10-24T20:48:07Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > To be fair, horrible racists and bigots and misogynists probably feel legitimately outraged by political correctness, but could quite reasonably not want to post examples in that thread because of the predictable lack of support they’d get. > > Which is not to say **Scylla** ’s a horrible racist - I don’t know if they are or not. Their comment about thinking it’s incompatible with “a free society” does betray a gross misconception of what freedom is - in a truly free society people are free to call you out on your shit. Unless “free society” is a codeword for something more sinister of course. The latest, in the news bit about PC is Megyn Kelly and her blackface comments. So, PC is not letting white people dress up in blackface. Yep, PC is definitely incompatible with a free society. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/182 "2018-10-24T20:52:38Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > The latest, in the news bit about PC is Megyn Kelly and her blackface comments. So, PC is not letting white people dress up in blackface. Yep, PC is definitely incompatible with a free society. :rolleyes: I’d prefer we be as accurate as possible - PC is not letting white people dress up in blackface _without getting criticized for it by freely-speaking people_. It’s pretty important to distinguish between censorship and censure. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/183 "2018-10-24T21:22:46Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > I’d prefer we be as accurate as possible - PC is not letting white people dress up in blackface _without getting criticized for it by freely-speaking people_. > > It’s pretty important to distinguish between censorship and censure. Very true and thanks for the clarification. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/184 "2018-10-24T21:22:53Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > 1. Who’s “shitty people?” People you disagree with? > > 2. Yes. I hate PC. I did define it. It’s incompatible with a free society. > > 3. Identity politics and intersectionalism are pure racism. I don’t tolerate it. Playing dumb is beneath you. You are defending **octopus**. You can read the multiple posts in this thread detailing his asshole behavior. Yet you defend him. You lie and pretend it’s about “disagreeing” with him. I notice you’ve changed your tune about PC again. Before it was a minor annoyance. Now it’s incompatible with a free society. You went from reasonable to defending Trump for attacking PC. And yet you can’t define it in a way that is actually used by anyone, including yourself. And, again, identity politics is just the concept that people in certain classes (sex/race/sexuality/etc) have issues in common, and thus have more power if they vote as bloc. And intersectionality is the concept that a combination of two or more of these classes can have different issues than either class alone. So you’re saying “voting with people who share the same issues as you” is racist. * * * I’ve seen you make some decent points. So why are you playing dumb now? Why are you remaining willfully ignorant? I remember back when I didn’t know what those politics words meant. I looked them up. And I learned. And I have **octopus** on ignore. So I don’t even usually know what he says. But I read this thread to find out how he’d been an asshole (again). And then I didn’t defend him. And I actually repeatedly defined what PC means in common practice. And you ignored it every time. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/185 "2018-10-24T21:29:12Z")
In fact, I quoted dictionaries on what PC meant, because I went and looked it up. But you’d rather make up your own definitions that no one uses. You even made up a definition to attack Czarcasm for snarking back at you. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/186 "2018-10-24T22:00:52Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > I’ll tell you a dirty little secret - I don’t cache conversations. Even when I have noticed a particular person enough to associate a particular posting style with them, the memory of prior conversations never colors the current one, at least as far as I’m concerned. > > What this means in practical terms I that I’m _always_ honoring a truce - I quite literally never drag crap from one thread into another. If I’m calling you out on being shitty, it’s because you’re acting shitty _right there_, in the thread I say it in. So if you are in a thread playing nice and inviting no censure, then all my responses to you will be civil. > > One thing I do do, though, is call you out for being shitty to people that aren’t me. Which to be frank happens a lot. In fact it usually seems to be the bulk of your posts - being shitty to people. If the majority of my posts to you aren’t complimentary, it’s because you leave a lot of shit around for me to respond to, to the point that I can hardly remember you posting anything else anymore. That’s a good practice. But, look 99.999999.5% of the time if I am slightly unkind to a poster it’s because they started a fight. Have I started a Pit thread? Not that I can recall. Do I ever pile on someone as part of an unthinking mob? Nope. Did I start this cancerous sub forum? Nope. If there wasn’t a pit where a misanthropic, obsessed, and unhinged group could abuse other posters you wouldn’t see folks like me needing to post defensively. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/187 "2018-10-24T22:09:19Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > That’s a good practice. But, look 99.999999.5% of the time if I am slightly unkind to a poster it’s because they started a fight. Have I started a Pit thread? Not that I can recall. Do I ever pile on someone as part of an unthinking mob? Nope. Did I start this cancerous sub forum? Nope. > > If there wasn’t a pit where a misanthropic, obsessed, and unhinged group could abuse other posters you wouldn’t see folks like me needing to post defensively. It’s just that your ripostes are _so cheap_. There’s no wit. There’s no flair. There’s no argument. They’re not fun to read, and you _don’t stop_. You just spew out tons of these short little contentless barbs in an apparent attempt to get the last word on an _internet forum_ - where getting the last word means that you’re not an interesting person anymore, not that you’ve “won”. Now, I get that once somebody insinuates that your mother is a hamster or your father smelt of elterberries, that morally requires you to shed the boxing gloves and start up a series of short jabs to the solar plexus. That’s surely what you do in real life, as I myself do any time somebody fails to nod at me or looks at me wrong. But on the internet it drowns any valuable posts you’ve made in a sea of shit, and upon that sea, your reputation sinks to the bottom. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/188 "2018-10-24T22:25:02Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > It’s just that your ripostes are _so cheap_. There’s no wit. There’s no flair. There’s no argument. > > They’re not fun to read, and you _don’t stop_. You just spew out tons of these short little contentless barbs in an apparent attempt to get the last word on an _internet forum_ - where getting the last word means that you’re not an interesting person anymore, not that you’ve “won”. > > Now, I get that once somebody insinuates that your mother is a hamster or your father smelt of elterberries, that morally requires you to shed the boxing gloves and start up a series of short jabs to the solar plexus. That’s surely what you do in real life, as I myself do any time somebody fails to nod at me or looks at me wrong. But on the internet it drowns any valuable posts you’ve made in a sea of shit, and upon that sea, your reputation sinks to the bottom. You think I care about my reputation in the eyes of who I just called unhinged and obsessed? No. The people who Pit others, lie, and stalk over the course of years are the people you should be concerned about not their targets. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/189 "2018-10-24T22:33:20Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > You think I care about my reputation in the eyes of who I just called unhinged and obsessed? No. The people who Pit others, lie, and stalk over the course of years are the people you should be concerned about not their targets. A quick glance at the forum page suggest that the average thread has at least 100x as many views as posts - to say nothing of the ratio of views to _posters_. Each of your facile little insult posts is targeting a single person, and thus is being viewed by _hundreds or thousands_ of people who aren’t the person who you are calling unhinged and obsessed. At _best_ you’re a person screaming incoherently at a child in the middle of a grocery store. More realistically, you’re screaming at them on the local news. It really doesn’t matter _how_ the child was acting; you look worse. And on the internet, you’re nothing but the impression you make. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/190 "2018-10-25T00:17:55Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > A quick glance at the forum page suggest that the average thread has at least 100x as many views as posts - to say nothing of the ratio of views to _posters_. Each of your facile little insult posts is targeting a single person, and thus is being viewed by _hundreds or thousands_ of people who aren’t the person who you are calling unhinged and obsessed. > > At _best_ you’re a person screaming incoherently at a child in the middle of a grocery store. More realistically, you’re screaming at them on the local news. It really doesn’t matter _how_ the child was acting; you look worse. > > And on the internet, you’re nothing but the impression you make. Wait. You mean to tell me it’s not the short sighted doofus who set up the pit and it’s not the venomous troglodytes who have inhabited the Pit for, in some cases, damn near two decades that are problem. The problem is a person responding to dishonest attacks from the mentally unhinged? :dubious::dubious::dubious::dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/191 "2018-10-25T00:18:26Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Playing dumb is beneath you. You are defending **octopus**. You can read the multiple posts in this thread detailing his asshole behavior. Yet you defend him. You lie and pretend it’s about “disagreeing” with him. You said “shitty people,” plural. Your words suggested that it was more of a generalization than a specific. Octopus seems ok. I haven’t read everything he is written, but I bet he is a mix pretty much like anybody else. > [@](#): > > I notice you’ve changed your tune about PC again. Before it was a minor annoyance. Now it’s incompatible with a free society. You went from reasonable to defending Trump for attacking PC. And yet you can’t define it in a way that is actually used by anyone, including yourself. Unfortunately for me, this a perfectly fucking fair criticism. So, yes, i’m Still thinking about it, and my views are still subject to change. The more I think about it, the less I like it. PC seems to cover a host of behaviors, some laudable and innocuous, some pretty awful. So, yeah. > [@](#): > > And, again, identity politics is just the concept that people in certain classes (sex/race/sexuality/etc) have issues in common, and thus have more power if they vote as bloc. And intersectionality is the concept that a combination of two or more of these classes can have different issues than either class alone. I think this awful. It’s a terrible fucking thing. Race, sex, sexuality, religion etc. are the least interesting and the least meaningful things about people. I react strongly to the negative to anybody who dares think they have something in common with me because of these shallow features. It’s a terrible way to draw lines of tribalism. If you listen to Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech,” it is pretty clear that he is the enemy of these ethics. Content of character, not color of skin, and such. It is nothing less than a temporarily socially acceptable form of racism. > [@](#): > > So you’re saying “voting with people who share the same issues as you” is racist. Let me make a suggestion that you are free to take or not. I don’t often live up to this, but I give it a shot. Steel man the other guy’s argument, don’t straw man it. The premise I disagree with is that people of the same race, sex, religion, etc. share the same issues based on those qualities. It’s a stupid assertion. > [@](#): > > And I actually repeatedly defined what PC means in common practice. And you ignored it every time. Sorry. I found the definition insufficient. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/192 "2018-10-25T00:39:34Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > You even made up a definition to attack Czarcasm for snarking back at you. No. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/193 "2018-10-25T01:05:00Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Wait. You mean to tell me it’s not the short sighted doofus who set up the pit and it’s not the venomous troglodytes who have inhabited the Pit for, in some cases, damn near two decades that are problem. The problem is a person responding to dishonest attacks from the mentally unhinged? :dubious::dubious::dubious::dubious: > [@begbert2](#): > > And on the internet, you’re nothing but the impression you make. Yup.😃 ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/194 "2018-10-25T02:48:44Z")
Political correctness as it applies to language is a deliberate experiment, run it up the flagpole, see if anybody salutes. For instance, “Ms.” as a neutral term like “Mr.”, without reference to marital status. The speed at which that experiment became standard practice was breathtaking. Mostly, I think, because we were ready for it. “African-American” is another example. It is _deliberately_ respectful, you know its deliberate because its not as easy to write or speak, it takes an effort. And even if that effort is hypocritical, it recognizes a value, even if only by lip-service. “Survivor” rather than “victim”, offer an alternative, see if it catches on. “Challenged” rather than “disabled” is another, and the people will decide. They will use it or they won’t, if they do, the experiment succeeds, if they do not, try again. Now, let it be clearly said, someone tries to _enforce_ that experiment, they are fucking it up, it has to be entirely voluntary or it doesn’t work. But some folks just can’t help themselves, they are natural born scolds, and there is nothing to be done for them. Bless their hearts, they mean well, but bless them double if they shut the fuck up about it. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/195 "2018-10-25T04:05:10Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Not at all. Iirc, in one of my other Pit threads we had a nice conversation til I recommended you go to the gym. Well, it’s been downhill ever since! ☹ > > Are you proposing a peace treaty? > [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > Do you even read what you write? > [@octopus](#): > > I often do. And it usually makes sense. Why do you ask? Look at what you said: either you were an asshole then (you told him to go to the gym) or you’re an asshole now. You can’t argue that you’re the one being picked on when you’re the one who drops turds in “nice conversations” - in the middle of an argument about how you don’t make nasty comments. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/196 "2018-10-25T05:04:48Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > Unfortunately for me, this a perfectly fucking fair criticism. So, yes, i’m Still thinking about it, and my views are still subject to change. The more I think about it, the less I like it. PC seems to cover a host of behaviors, some laudable and innocuous, some pretty awful. So, yeah. Here’s a suggestion. You seem to have this _really_ broad umbrella of “things that bother you regarding inclusive speech”. You have, in the past, [failed](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21273883&postcount=188) to define this term. You have also been informed that this term is a snarl word, one used as a weapon and a tribal signifier rather than anything that actually _means_ anything. Just _stop using the term_. Don’t call it “PC”. Just actually say what bothers you. “PC” means _nothing_. Actually explaining the problem saves you having this discussion every single time it comes up. > [@](#): > > I think this awful. It’s a terrible fucking thing. Race, sex, sexuality, religion etc. are the least interesting and the least meaningful things about people. And this is how I know you’re white, male, straight, and _probably_ belong to a local religious group that is not suffering significant persecution. When you belong to a racial minority group that suffers from systemic racism, your race matters because of what others will do to you. When you’re a woman, your sex matters because of what others will do to you. When you’re _gay_, your sexuality matters because of what others will do to you. Let’s just take the one I _know_ is right from your posting history. You’re straight. You’re a guy, you’re married to a woman. You brought this up in what I still hold up as [one of the best threads on the forum](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=448717) (and no, not because it features a republican getting tortured, but because it features someone going to fairly extreme lengths to test their beliefs, finding out that they’re wrong, and changing their minds, something which is entirely too rare). You don’t have any reason to vote as a bloc when it comes to your sexuality because your sexuality is the _norm_. Nobody is coming for your rights. Nobody is trying to pass off “[He was hitting on me, so I panicked and shot him](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_panic_defense)” as a judicial defense of murder. Your sexuality doesn’t seem to matter that much to you, but to a gay person, when deciding who to vote for, the reality is that one party wants to _strip gay people of their rights_. That’s a big fucking deal! That’s the kind of thing that makes identity politics not just sensible, but necessary, to the point where a gay man who votes for a republican is a bit like a black man who pines for the Confederacy. > [@](#): > > I react strongly to the negative to anybody who dares think they have something in common with me because of these shallow features. Well, here’s the thing - the law may well mean that you have at least one very important thing in common with everyone else in that group. Maybe you and everyone of your skin color face increasingly serious difficulties being allowed to vote. Maybe you and everyone else of your sex has to worry about people forcing you to carry your rapist’s baby to term. Maybe you and everyone else that shares a sexuality with you faces a law that [literally makes your existence illegal](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/27/gay-relationships-still-criminalised-countries-report). That’s why identity politics matters! For a gay person in, say, Singapore, what issue would you propose as “more important” than the repeal of the law that makes my literal existence illegal? And that’s something _every_ gay person in Singapore has in common. That’s “identity politics”. And _of course_ it’s not such a big deal for a straight white middle-class man, in the same way that “class politics” matters a whole lot to those working minimum wage and a lot less to those who recently made their first million. Also, I’d be remiss not to link this article. > **[Thank God For Identity Politics](https://medium.com/the-establishment/thank-god-for-identity-politics-fba03f73be43)** > > You know what we had before Identity Politics? We had White Dudes. “You know what we had before Identity Politics? We had White Dudes.” > [@](#): > > It’s a terrible way to draw lines of tribalism. If you listen to Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech,” it is pretty clear that he is the enemy of these ethics. Content of character, not color of skin, and such. Yep, nothing like misappropriating MLK against identity politics. You realize his fundamental issue was the inequality faced by racial minorities, right? Y’know, something defined first and foremost by your _racial identity_? > [@](#): > > It is nothing less than a temporarily socially acceptable form of racism. No, it really isn’t. It’s about _fixing_ past or current racial injustice. > [@](#): > > Let me make a suggestion that you are free to take or not. I don’t often live up to this, but I give it a shot. Steel man the other guy’s argument, don’t straw man it. The premise I disagree with is that people of the same race, sex, religion, etc. share the same issues based on those qualities. It’s a stupid assertion. Congrats, your steelman is still stupid, because politics is about law, and _up until 2012, it was against the law for gay people to get married_. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/197 "2018-10-25T05:22:10Z")
Err, quick caveat, I mangled my hypothetical structure there. I am not a gay man in singapore. Quick caveat the second: “No, it really isn’t. It’s about fixing past or current racial injustice.” Modern black identity politics is first and foremost about this. But it is entirely possible to form identity politics that are all about racism; see also, Trump’s 2016 coalition. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/198 "2018-10-25T05:39:07Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > Look at what you said: either you were an asshole then (you told him to go to the gym) or you’re an asshole now. You can’t argue that you’re the one being picked on when you’re the one who drops turds in “nice conversations” - in the middle of an argument about how you don’t make nasty comments. Hello Sunny Daze! You understand how context works and how you are the one turd dropping? In a different Pit thread that you started about yours truly I was having a pleasant conversation with begbert in the midst of a group of nuts flaming me. Well, it was pleasant for a little bit. He brought up something about the ladies. 😉 About not having luck in the romance department. So, instead of giving him a bingo stamp, I put on my Dr. octopus hat and gave some helpful advice. Which I will copy and paste below: > [@Octopus here's your own thread to shit all over](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-heres-your-own-thread-to-shit-all-over/815550/211): > > Dr. octopus can help. First you got to change your daily habits so that you can increase potential interactions. Gym is good. But don’t be a creep. It takes time to meet people. > > Finding romance is hard so that will take a few sessions. > > But you had more questions! Not just romance. > > 1. Maybe I am crazy? It’s not impossible. But the evidence I see is that online harassment does make its way into the real world. We have children who commit suicide after relentless harassment. We have people who get doxxed or swatted because of online disagreements. The world has changed and the speed and reach of communication is vastly different now. > > Perhaps my interpretation isn’t 100% accurate. I’d still disagree that in this day and age we shouldn’t be cautious with real life info because it has been used to hurt people. You might be comfortable posting a photo and your real life address here but I wouldn’t. > > 1. I believe the vast majority of the people here are fine. I also like reading and debating with folks who have a different point of view than my own. I don’t want to be part of an echo chamber. That is no way to be challenged intellectually and is a recipe for stagnation. [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/report.php?p=21010143](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/report.php?p=21010143) Notice: I am in the middle of the Pit in a thread you, of all people, start. I am being flamed by the usual pack of nutty jackals. I engage with someone who mentioned something to me in a decent tone. I suggested going to the gym just as an example where people hang out. Not to creep on women. But to do something positive with life and perhaps have a chance to build rapport and meet women. It was just an example. Honestly, if I were single now I’m not sure if the gym idea still is good. I’ve been out of the dating game so long that my advice may be outdated or ineffectual. However, it was not motivated out of a desire to ridicule or be an asshole. I was having a normal conversation with someone in the midst of me being pitted. What we need is a facepalm smiley for posts like yours in threads like these. Even my explanation to you, in another pit thread inspired by a stupid outcome in ATMB was far more polite and far more accommodating than anything you or multiple others have shown me. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/199 "2018-10-25T21:06:50Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Wait. You mean to tell me it’s not the short sighted doofus who set up the pit and it’s not the venomous troglodytes who have inhabited the Pit for, in some cases, damn near two decades that are problem. The problem is a person responding to dishonest attacks from the mentally unhinged? :dubious::dubious::dubious::dubious: You do realize this is a message board. Nobody actually _lives_ in the Pit, and nobody makes posting in the Pit a lifetime occupation. People exist in the real world and sometimes get online, posting on the board because they feel they have something to say, and a topic here interests them, or because they have a grievance to vent about and doing so in the Pit is perhaps the most harmless and humanity-friendly method of venting their spleen _possible_. Painting literally _anything_ anyone posts in the Pit as a crime against humanity is absurd. Oh, and also nobody’s stalking you. Some people respond to you a lot because they respond to _everything_, during the periods they’re reading the boards. The notion that you are so special that you have a grip on their attention is a similar idea to the notion that we don’t exist anywhere but on the boards; that we live in the Pit rather than post in it occasionally. It’s simply wrong. Oh, and the people you’re responding to aren’t mentally unhinged, and most of them aren’t dishonest. You want to see dishonesty, look at those response attacks of yours. The mischaracterizations in those flippantly tossed-off insults are egregious. Oh, and regarding that gym thing? I get that you were trying to lord yourself over me, but it wasn’t helpful advice. Particularly since at the time I was exercising an hour a night, every night, seven days a week. (“A few sessions?” Ha!) But seriously, I’d completely forgotten about that until you brought that up again. Old conversations don’t matter, people. Live for the day! ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098/200 "2018-10-25T22:12:40Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > You do realize this is a message board. Nobody actually _lives_ in the Pit, and nobody makes posting in the Pit a lifetime occupation. People exist in the real world and sometimes get online, posting on the board because they feel they have something to say, and a topic here interests them, or because they have a grievance to vent about and doing so in the Pit is perhaps the most harmless and humanity-friendly method of venting their spleen _possible_. > > Painting literally _anything_ anyone posts in the Pit as a crime against humanity is absurd. > > Oh, and also nobody’s stalking you. Some people respond to you a lot because they respond to _everything_, during the periods they’re reading the boards. The notion that you are so special that you have a grip on their attention is a similar idea to the notion that we don’t exist anywhere but on the boards; that we live in the Pit rather than post in it occasionally. It’s simply wrong. > > Oh, and the people you’re responding to aren’t mentally unhinged, and most of them aren’t dishonest. You want to see dishonesty, look at those response attacks of yours. The mischaracterizations in those flippantly tossed-off insults are egregious. > Oh, and regarding that gym thing? I get that you were trying to lord yourself over me, but it wasn’t helpful advice. Particularly since at the time I was exercising an hour a night, every night, seven days a week. (“A few sessions?” Ha!) > > But seriously, I’d completely forgotten about that until you brought that up again. Old conversations don’t matter, people. Live for the day! I wasn’t lording anything over anyone. I didn’t bring up the lack of romance to start with. I was giving friendly advice on how to meet people. It might not be effective but the intent wasn’t anything sinister. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopus-is-having-a-meltdown/822098.md?page=11)