If I might bring this back to the original pitting? [sub]Not that you all aren’t funny, because you ARE…
[/sub] I sincerely hope that Liberal has a long and happy life, and I hope that he is taking care of his health issues as best he can.
Looking at it objectively, though, here is the thing.
If Liberal had started a thread in MPSIMS saying that his health was bad and he was thinking he had only a year to live…and if people had responded with the kind of things that some of them said? YES…they would have deserved a pitting. But that isn’t what happened.
What actually happened was…
A poster was getting pitted for chronic posting behavior that, it appears, a majority of members find offensive. Deep into the pit thread, he admits that his posting history has been problematical, (essentially admitting that they are correct) and says that he has tried to change but cannot. WILL NOT. THEN he infers that he doesn’t care because he doesn’t have all that long to live anyway.
I mean, I’m truly always willing to give anyone the benefit of the doubt, but after…how many times is it?..that he has indicated that he was wrong and taken a break to re-evaluate things…and come back…and continued along the same path…I have to assume that he doesn’t REALLY think that he is doing anything wrong.
Hey, there is nothing WRONG with that. He believes that he is correct, that he is right and everyone who disagrees with him/disagrees with the way he presents himself is wrong. That THEY are the ones with the problem. (At least that is the way it appears to me. “They” appear to be a large majority of this board.) He’s wrong, of course…at the very least, alienating people to the point that they are so ticked off by his presentation that they aren’t even willing to consider his opinion is sort of counterproductive, I’m thinking. Still, he has the right to do and say whatever he feels like doing/saying.
The problem is, when a person does this, he has to accept the responsibility for his words or actions. And tossing a statement that appears to be an “I’m dying so give me a break” statement deep into a pit thread looks suspiciously like a pity plea. I have no idea if it was or if it wasn’t…but I find it hard to fault the people who took it that way.
I believe that if a person truly believes that they are wrong about something, whether it be a belief or an action precipitated BY that belief…they CAN and WILL change that belief or action. It takes work, of course it does. [sub]Been there, done that, still a work in progress.[/sub] But if a person doesn’t REALLY believe they are wrong, then they can’t and won’t change anything. Why should they, if they don’t accept that they are wrong?
After awhile, saying that you have been wrong and are going to change…and NOT changing/repeating the same behavior…just seems like "crying wolf.
Personally, I wish Liberal all the best. I hope that he has good health, happiness and lots of joy in his future. And I hope it is a very long future, too. I also hope that he will get his act together about how to best to present ihis opinions and beliefs without offending people to the point that they don’t hear what he has to SAY…because they are put off by how he SAYS it.