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Reply #65: it's hard sometimes shugah. [View All]

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Runcible Spoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-23-08 03:02 AM
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65. it's hard sometimes shugah.
everyone gets called names, because with such high traffic, being as inflammatory as possible will get more people to read your stuff.

I've had my share of scuffles on DU over the years, and lately I have sat back and tried, tried, tried to treat people as if they were standing in front of me. I've really tried to go out of my way to PM people I have otherwise always liked on this board and try to find some common ground. People are very, very different in tone in PMs; they back off, regret the fire, and talk.

This is youtube generation, we all want our public spectacle and we are all entertainers, of all stripes. We are demons, we are prophets, we are victims, we are saviors, we are warriors, we are brokers. Sometimes we are many things in one day.

At the end of the day, it's interesting to go through DU threads and pick up the dominant themes. One thing I have noticed is that people will jump aggressively on a thread if they feel they have back-up. Echo chamber threads tend to stay that way until someone drops a bomb, but that's more rare since I'm fairly sure all of us desire at least a little bit to be liked by others.

So what does this mean for politics? Well, I think it's pretty indicative of how political movements gain support. We need blind faith in a campaign as much as we need searing criticism. In the end, just getting the word out is all that really matters.

People ask all the time why McCain doesn't get more heat around here. I always puzzled at that question since it's seemed obvious to me: we all know and agree that he is such a lame ass, business as usual republican hack. There's nothing much to be gained by dissecting him. Smear campaigns are largely considered unfair game to us, so we don't spend much time perpetuating untruths about him; besides he's vile enough on his own. Now Obama, now THERE is an interesting personality. He is as fun to talk about as a Hollywood celebrity for many. Part of the psychology, I think, is that many people are turned off by blind faith in any politician and attempt to point out his flaws to somehow humanize him. This of course riles those who think he is above reproach, and also the criticism can go unfairly and make it seem we only want to pick on him.

Of COURSE there are other people responsible for how things go down, but Obama has inspired so much belief in people that it is only logical that he is looked upon as the one who must answer to all.

The best thing to do, I have found, is find a balance between standing up to what one perceives as unfairness and allowing a certain amount to go under the radar for the sake of peace. I'm trying HARD to be a nicer person, however I am aggressive by nature as are many here, and have the instinct to attack without prioritizing communication above being "correct" all the time.


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