I want to share my thought process behind a switch in my "internet behavior" that I'm working on... it may not work, or it may, or it may result in me forgoing discussions on forums such as this, KHC, etc. in the future. I've spent a lot of time on the GD board over the years discussing and arguing with a lot of you, and I respect the opinions of most posters here. Thus, I feel like I owe it to you to let you in on why you're seeing "edited to avoid a pointless argument" and the like from me.
As most of you know, I usually try to stay level headed, but like many of us I fail too often and let emotions get the best of me. On a forum such as this and KHC, it's wasted energy.
(Before I go on, I'm going to call out individuals, and usually it's in jest and it's not meant to start a fight or an argument about the specific topic or person cited.)
Why?
Because we're just handles... to each other, we're idiots behind keyboards. GMM is a whackjob with three initials, and qazplm is a left-leaning Obama shill with a cutesy keyboard series handle. We're not people to each other. We've never met, thus there is nothing invested in the conversation, often except our own pride. Thus, we take a position and stick to it, hell or high water, because we don't truly respect the intelligence of the person behind the keyboard.
Over the years, I've come around to the point where there are some posters I can have civil arguments with, and even if those arguments aren't civil all the way through, I don't hold it against them, and we seem to move on to whatever the next inflammatory topic may be.
And that's just it: these boards become heated arguments that may last a few days or a week, and once they die down, we're just waiting for the next opportunity to argue about something. Points and concessions made in previous threads do nothing once that thread is over to change the perceptions of anyone involved, and it just becomes the same tired arguments over and over and over again.
Some examples (again, not intended to spark fights or anything, these are just ones off the top of my head):
- qaz and others argued in favor of Obamacare to the dismay of me and many other conservatives. I am still diametrically opposed to the idea of Obamacare and expansion of government, but the program seems to be popular with a small minority of the population (that is, those who it actually benefits - there are many other people who cheer the policy on because their "team" supports it or they think it is the way government should work). We argued for months about this... and guess what? The world hasn't ended. The economy isn't in the tank, and it probably won't be - not because of Obamacare - and like it or not, in some form it's going to be here for a long time.
That doesn't mean qaz et. al. are "right" per se, but even if they ARE, we conservatives are just waiting for the next inkling of a problem and we're going to jump all over it despite the facts that are right in front of our faces.
- buygreekbonds surmised that the german pilot was a Muslim and there was some conspiracy to bring it up. This was after he was proven repeatedly wrong about airline crashes caused by "jihad". Yet he continues to post the same tired crap, and doesn't acknowledge the fact that he's been wrong with almost every post on the subject he's made. He's just waiting for the next time to bring it up, hoping to get it right sometime.
- DanielJClark on KHC "knows for a fact" that AJ Hammons will not be back next year and Biggie isn't coming to Purdue. His sources which he won't ID are "inside" and told him this. He's about to be proven wrong about Hammons, and his prognostication about Biggie may be true, but almost certainly not with the certainty he's cited. Will he acknowledge that he was wrong and never post that stuff again? I seriously doubt it.
- qaz practically indicted the Ferguson cop on his own, but has yet to even acknowledge the fact that every single authority that has come back, including Justice, has exonerated Officer Wilson. Yet we'll undoubtedly have the same conversations over and over again about police violence.
To what end do we do this? For reasons cited above, the fact that we're not human on here and have no reason to respect each other's humanity, we're just going to keep doing this. We'll never really challenge our beliefs; instead we just look for the next opportunity to defend them.
We're wasting our time.
So, in an effort to glean some enjoyment out of KHC (specifically) and to a lesser extent this place, I'm making a concerted effort to emulate guys like CalBoiler, who never get involved in opinion battles. They offer theirs respectfully, people disagree, and if Cal offers a retort, it's with words like "I think" and done so respectfully and often no more than that one post. He never argues post after post after post. I'm sure he reads all the same stuff I do, but he doesn't have to respond to every poke or every dissenting opinion.
In short, he lets it go.
I'm making the effort to let stuff go on these boards. I apologize if I get short or blow off arguments, but I think it's what's best for my time.
I'd look forward to sharing a beer with qaz and some of the others, arguing politics or Purdue sports. I think we'd probably be a lot more civil, even in disagreement, in person than we are on here. Either that or we'd recognize that in the name of civility, we should shut up and watch the ball game and enjoy the evening.
Life is too short to worry about what gr8indoorsman's and TheCainer's opinion on police shootings is...
As most of you know, I usually try to stay level headed, but like many of us I fail too often and let emotions get the best of me. On a forum such as this and KHC, it's wasted energy.
(Before I go on, I'm going to call out individuals, and usually it's in jest and it's not meant to start a fight or an argument about the specific topic or person cited.)
Why?
Because we're just handles... to each other, we're idiots behind keyboards. GMM is a whackjob with three initials, and qazplm is a left-leaning Obama shill with a cutesy keyboard series handle. We're not people to each other. We've never met, thus there is nothing invested in the conversation, often except our own pride. Thus, we take a position and stick to it, hell or high water, because we don't truly respect the intelligence of the person behind the keyboard.
Over the years, I've come around to the point where there are some posters I can have civil arguments with, and even if those arguments aren't civil all the way through, I don't hold it against them, and we seem to move on to whatever the next inflammatory topic may be.
And that's just it: these boards become heated arguments that may last a few days or a week, and once they die down, we're just waiting for the next opportunity to argue about something. Points and concessions made in previous threads do nothing once that thread is over to change the perceptions of anyone involved, and it just becomes the same tired arguments over and over and over again.
Some examples (again, not intended to spark fights or anything, these are just ones off the top of my head):
- qaz and others argued in favor of Obamacare to the dismay of me and many other conservatives. I am still diametrically opposed to the idea of Obamacare and expansion of government, but the program seems to be popular with a small minority of the population (that is, those who it actually benefits - there are many other people who cheer the policy on because their "team" supports it or they think it is the way government should work). We argued for months about this... and guess what? The world hasn't ended. The economy isn't in the tank, and it probably won't be - not because of Obamacare - and like it or not, in some form it's going to be here for a long time.
That doesn't mean qaz et. al. are "right" per se, but even if they ARE, we conservatives are just waiting for the next inkling of a problem and we're going to jump all over it despite the facts that are right in front of our faces.
- buygreekbonds surmised that the german pilot was a Muslim and there was some conspiracy to bring it up. This was after he was proven repeatedly wrong about airline crashes caused by "jihad". Yet he continues to post the same tired crap, and doesn't acknowledge the fact that he's been wrong with almost every post on the subject he's made. He's just waiting for the next time to bring it up, hoping to get it right sometime.
- DanielJClark on KHC "knows for a fact" that AJ Hammons will not be back next year and Biggie isn't coming to Purdue. His sources which he won't ID are "inside" and told him this. He's about to be proven wrong about Hammons, and his prognostication about Biggie may be true, but almost certainly not with the certainty he's cited. Will he acknowledge that he was wrong and never post that stuff again? I seriously doubt it.
- qaz practically indicted the Ferguson cop on his own, but has yet to even acknowledge the fact that every single authority that has come back, including Justice, has exonerated Officer Wilson. Yet we'll undoubtedly have the same conversations over and over again about police violence.
To what end do we do this? For reasons cited above, the fact that we're not human on here and have no reason to respect each other's humanity, we're just going to keep doing this. We'll never really challenge our beliefs; instead we just look for the next opportunity to defend them.
We're wasting our time.
So, in an effort to glean some enjoyment out of KHC (specifically) and to a lesser extent this place, I'm making a concerted effort to emulate guys like CalBoiler, who never get involved in opinion battles. They offer theirs respectfully, people disagree, and if Cal offers a retort, it's with words like "I think" and done so respectfully and often no more than that one post. He never argues post after post after post. I'm sure he reads all the same stuff I do, but he doesn't have to respond to every poke or every dissenting opinion.
In short, he lets it go.
I'm making the effort to let stuff go on these boards. I apologize if I get short or blow off arguments, but I think it's what's best for my time.
I'd look forward to sharing a beer with qaz and some of the others, arguing politics or Purdue sports. I think we'd probably be a lot more civil, even in disagreement, in person than we are on here. Either that or we'd recognize that in the name of civility, we should shut up and watch the ball game and enjoy the evening.
Life is too short to worry about what gr8indoorsman's and TheCainer's opinion on police shootings is...
