Maybe we should do this another way:
Hands up who doesn’t think Rand Rover is an ass?
Only one hand, Rand. The plural of hand is a strictly figurative usage.
So let me guess, you would go up to a 3 year old girl whose ice cream just fell off the cone and say: “Good riddance, sugar is bad for you. Oh, and you’re fat too, you need to get some exercise.” Maybe you would go up to a grieving mother who just lost her child to cancer and say “Such a shame, but at least your diseased genes would propogate in the human gene pool”. Sure, it may seem seem like reasonably truthful things to say, but it’s completely heartless, and it only differs from what you did in terms of severity which equated to “Too bad you lost that stuff. By the way, you should probably stop being a silly Christian while you’re at it.”
And really, where do you get off claiming that he was struggling with his Christianity? He said he was having trouble forgiving someone as he knew he should. Is it unreasonable that someone would have trouble forgiving someone that did something nasty to them? One of the major tenets of the Christian faith is that we are all sinner and all fall short of the glory of God, the fact that he was having difficulty forgiving someone in a situation where he lost seven weeks worth of work and a few hundred dollars worth of stuff is completely consistent with that. Moreso, the fact that he knew he should forgive him and was making an effort to do so means that he was being consistent with his faith.
You were not trying to fight ignorance, because you’re clearly the one who is ignorant about some of the most basic principles of Christianity. From my perspective, and I imagine that of many of the others here who saw your posts in that thread, you were attempting to use that opportunity to make a Christian feel just that much worse.
If you really want to share your atheist knowledge or have discussions about it, great, but you can’t possibly be clueless enough to think that was going to have illicit a positive reaction with regard to the position you’re asserting or help him feel better. Claiming to fight ignorance is a noble goal, but it’s by no means a license to be a jerk.
Because it takes one to think he knows one?
erislover’s original name was aynrandlover when he first came here. He’s an ex-Objectivist, but even before, I don’t recall him ever spewing such hatred and bile as you have, Sir, especially in so short a time.
It helps that erl has a fine mind, is thoughtful and articulate, and is a non-douche. None of the above can really be said this far about Rand Rover.
Maybe it’s because I’m an idiot, or maybe it’s because you are. But “Oh yeah? Well, so are you!” is not a persuasive refutation of criticism.
This is just another desperate attempt on your part to wriggle away from the subject of your own responsibility for your own assishness. It ain’t working.
Exactly my point. Sadly, all Rand Rover will hear is the great big WHOOSH!!!
It all boils down to: everyone is responsible for their own circumstances-no matter what they are. Except, of course, Rand Rover. No matter what, it’s ALWAYS someone else’s fault.
Why do you idiots think that one’s “circumstances” include the opinions of that person held by other posters in a message board? The answer is that you are all so desperate to find some exanple of hypocrisy on my part that you are grasping at straws. It’s really sad.
I’ve already sad that I take responsibility for everything I post. I don’t know what it means to take resposibility for your impression or opinion of me. My failure to say that I take responsibility for your opinion of me does not mean that I think my own rules do not apply to me. It means that saying that someone else’s opinion of me is “my fault” is ridiculous and meaningless.
Quoted for truth.
I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt as miss-understood; in a limited form objetivism is an amazing self empowerment tool. Some of the more passionate followers of various ideologies and counter cultures can be a bit socially rough, but mean well. A passionate follower of a counter culture and shake things up in new amazing ways, and provide an interesting perspective. If he was that he could have been a cool poster. But sometimes an ass really is an ass.
There’s hoping to see some good in people, and there’s being stupidly naive.
To use your own trick.
Yes you are already sad.
So what does that mean? Just that you admit that you’re the one who actually posted the things that appear under your username? Yeah, we’d already figured that out.
Let’s see you responsibly, frankly acknowledge that you habitually post things that are generally perceived as assish. Or that you frequently come across as an ass to a lot of posters here. That would at least be taking some responsibility for your behavior, even if you can’t bear to make the full admission that yes, you do frequently act like an ass.
At least give up this coy pretense of total innocence: “Gee whiz, everybody keeps calling me an ass, but I don’t see how I’m in any way responsible for their impression or opinion of me!” Pretending that the impression you make on other people doesn’t count as part of the “circumstances” of your life is a feeble evasion.
Ah! A voice in the Wilderness!
Yep. Agreed. 100 percent. Are you happy now?
I am now wearing my $100 houseshoes, sipping MacAllen 18, and petting my cat like the bad guy from a Bond movie. It is time for the airing of grievances! Bring it on, flitches!*
*Edited so as not to offend Ed’s delicate sensibilities.
Of course! It’s all upside! Can’t fail, I get the tacky pleasure of a jolly good round of pointing and laughing at a blazing asshole. And there is the slim but real chance that a barb might strike home, you might miss the left turn at Albuquerque, and on the way to Damascus get knocked off your ass by a fleeting glimpse of the Laughing Light. (And get busy cleaning up your karma, which, frankly, needs work. Way you’re stacking up bad karma, you’ll be coming back as an assistant slug…)
Anyway, good fun or good deed, maybe even both! What’s not to like?
Yes. Well done.
So from now on, when other posters call you out because you come across as such an ass, don’t bother protesting that you’re just trying to motivate people to take responsibility for themselves and make use of good teaching moments and so on and so forth. That’s merely changing the subject from your behavior to your intentions.
I am perfectly willing to concede that your intentions, at least as you perceive them, may be more or less benign. But good intentions don’t justify you in behaving like an ass.
OK. Please continue to have compassion on me. Thanks.
Rand Rover: Ass = Attention Whore.
What a trainwreck.
'Nuff said.
Trying to decide between the IWC Portuguese and Jaeger Reverso. Help a brotha out! Thanks.