# Taking a comment about a third party personally... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 31, 2005, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-a-comment-about-a-third-party-personally/328764 "2005-10-31T19:02:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-a-comment-about-a-third-party-personally/328764/1 "2005-10-31T19:02:27Z")
does not count as a personal insult! In [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=341849) about creative types dissing their fans, one poster commented on negative fan reaction to certain omissions in Peter Jackson’s LotR films. Other posters diagree with the negative reaction. Whereupon **Wendell Wagner** [responds](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6736441&postcount=83) with: > [@](#): > > I know a lot of people who don’t think the Peter Jackson films of _The Lord of the Rings_ are particularly good films or particularly good versions of the book. If you’d like to read an entire book of essays by people arguing this point, read _Tolkien on Film: Essays on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings_ (Altadena, CA: The Mythopoeic Press, 2004). The general opinion among these people is that removing the Tom Bombadil episode is the least objectionable thing that Jackson did and that skipping the Scouring of the Shire wasn’t that big a deal either. They have other objections to the film that they think are more important. **RikWriter** [responded](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6736489&postcount=85) to this with: > [@](#): > > IMHO these people are nitpicking ingrates. NO ONE would EVER have made the movies they wanted. **Wendell Wagner** [comes back](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6736644&postcount=90) with: > [@](#): > > This distorts the views of the people who wrote the essays in that book. They have objections to the films about things that could easily have been done better by better filmmakers than Jackson and his co-writers. Read the book, because I’m not going to argue about it. I’m tired of arguments about the films that consist mostly of people telling me, “It’s intuitively obvious that the films are great and you’ll burn in hell for saying otherwise.” Later, **Equipoise** [responds](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6741926&postcount=124) to **WW** ’s first post with: > [@](#): > > I can’t even begin to imagine how utterly boring such a book might be. Whining and yapping and moaning and groaning and being pissy about a director? Life’s too short for such crap. I’ll continue to enjoy the movies just fine, and they can continue being sad pathetic creatures with nothing better to do. From there, the thread continues on various and sundry subjects, [until](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6744062&postcount=148): > [@](#): > > \>\> BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! \<\< :::Moderator pounds gavel for attention ::: > > This forum is for a discussion about art and entertainment. Now, I grant you, there are some discussions that are about facts, but mostly discussions (and certainly a thread like this one) are about OPINIONS. There are no right or wrong answers, there’s only each person’s perceptions and opinions. > > You as a fan think that Shakespeare screwed you by having Hamlet die at the end? Fine. You’re entitled to that opinion. Someone else disagrees and thinks Hamlet should have died in Act IV? Fine, they’re entitled to that opinion. Neither of you is right or wrong, you have different opinions. And all opinions and perceptions are equally valid. And in this forum, we discuss them, **without insulting the other person for holding an opinion different from your own.** He then goes on to mention **RikWriter** ’s and **Equipoise** ’s posts quoted above in Official Mod Warnings, and mentions: > [@Dex](#): > > Those are just the ones I saw on a quick spin through. * * * Now, I don’t blame **Dex** for this. If I were a mod called into a trainwreck in the making where it was claimed that posters were directly insulting each other, on a very quick perusal to avert disaster, I might zero in on those two posts as well, as the presumed insults. Trouble is, the posts in question are insulting the authors of a book, not a poster. Seems as though someone decided “If you insult the cultural artifacts I love, you insult me!” Nothing posters actually directed at each other in that thread could be counted as more than gentle ribbing. Someone hates what you love with a passion and derides it mercilessly? Grow some thicker skin, people! ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-a-comment-about-a-third-party-personally/328764/2 "2005-10-31T20:14:53Z")
Some of those CS threads “Favourite/Least Favourite” threads do have a habit of plunging flaming into the hillside, when Poster X decides that Poster Y’s disdain of Author B is tantamount to heresy, the taunting escalates, and someone ends up banned: there was a particularly stupid one the other day when someone drunkenly posted about how awesome Green Day were, was teased about it, and then went off the deep end when someone dared to make a light-hearted derogatory comment about them. I don’t blame **Dex** in the least for nipping it in the bud. I still can’t fathom that “taking it personally” mentality, though: I like Deep Purple and Robert B. Parker novels, for example, but I’m happy to admit that they have their flaws and aren’t to everyone’s taste: I’m secure enough in my opinions not to care if someone doesn’t like 70’s hard rock and formulaic detective novels - if you don’t like 'em, that’s fine by me. It’s hardly worth fighting over. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-a-comment-about-a-third-party-personally/328764/3 "2005-10-31T20:25:40Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > …there was a particularly stupid one the other day when someone drunkenly posted about how awesome Green Day were, was teased about it, and then went off the deep end when someone dared to make a light-hearted derogatory comment about them. [Green Day totally do not suck!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=342061) ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-a-comment-about-a-third-party-personally/328764/4 "2005-10-31T20:42:48Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > [Green Day totally do not suck!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=342061) Wow, that’s some fast-acting bullshit in that thread right there. Most threads take three times as long to sink that level of inanity ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-a-comment-about-a-third-party-personally/328764/5 "2005-10-31T20:58:16Z")
> [@scotandrsn](#): > > Wow, that’s some fast-acting bullshit in that thread right there. Most threads take three times as long to sink that level of inanity I thought the “one hit wonder” quip was pretty funny, myself. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-a-comment-about-a-third-party-personally/328764/6 "2005-10-31T22:15:53Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > I thought the “one hit wonder” quip was pretty funny, myself. Yes, that was the one bright spot.