Being human. It's not easy is it...

[walldude]

Being human is not easy. I find myself torn between wanting to support the man I voted for, and wanting to smack him upside the head for some of the insanely stupid things he is doing. Holy shit! I must be HUMAN!

I also find myself torn between wanting to call someone an asshole on DU, and actually wanting to have a serious discussion about why they think I'm not supposed to speak out when I see something I disagree with. I find myself swinging towards asshole. Can't help it. I find my instincts are to "hit" back when someone "hits" me. There I go again... Human.

Granted this is a political board and there are going to be heated flame wars, it's the nature of politics and the internet. I don't mind that at all. What I do mind is when there are dozens of posts, daily, asking people to "shut-up". Or telling people that "they knew what they were getting into and to just deal with it" and to see those threads get hundreds of recs. Do people want me to stop posting? To stop thinking? What? Help me out here. My visits have become less and less frequent and I have been debating on throwing in the towel altogether. (This is not a "goodbye thread, if I leave you won't know it)

When you ask someone to stop criticizing Obama you are asking them to go against their nature. To stand up for something they don't believe in. To put their very thoughts into check. Well I can't do this. Hell, half the time I'm not sure if people are pissed at me because I'm right or because I'm wrong! How the hell am I supposed to know what you think if all you want to do is make me shut up? My mind is always open for debate but not when the entire debate consists of "just shut up" or "it's only been 2 months"(sorry, when I think something is wrong I'm not going to shut-up for some imagined "grace period").

We are all human. We all come from different places, different upbringings and therefore have different perspectives. From my perspective DU used to be a place where like minded people came to chat, debate(sometimes heatedly), share knowledge and laugh at Swampy's photoshops. I used to leave here with a sense of relief that there were others like me, that I wasn't alone. Now, I'm usually annoyed when I leave. I find myself making almost no useful posts, just pointlessly ripping on people I perceive to be ripping on me. It's become a waste of time(except for LBN and the Top 10). I keep popping in in hopes of a shift for the better but I just don't see it. From my perspective DU and FR have just switched places. Now that the balance of power has shifted DU is the site that says "my President right or wrong" and FR is the site where everyone is freaking out that they are going to be put in FEMA camps. From my perspective it's actually pretty funny.


I love this place I really do but it seems like a bad relationship that I need to get out of and can't. So this is another stupid attempt at reconciliation I guess. I have at least promised myself that I will make a valiant attempt not to be an asshole when I'm here, because it pretty much boils down to this, if you have 2 people in a room they are always going to disagree about something. Which means if you keep telling people you disagree with to get lost, eventually you will be the last person in the room.

[EFerrari]

1. I blame Hugo Chavez, myself.

[wroberts189]

16. Took me a while to get that.. yes start a thread with that name and...

You will see everything the OP describes.

[BlooInBloo]

2. If your interaction with people on the internet is like your romantic relationships...

you need to get out more.


EDIT: And bullshit of the form "I get to criticize Obama all I want, but nobody should criticize ME" is fucking stupid. Undiscriminating critics should expect pushback. Dissent is patriotic - REMEMBER???

[walldude]

5. That's not what I said, you can criticize whatever the fuck you want

I don't control you, what I said was being told to shut up or to leave is no way to debate someone. The attitude in this place lately, again from my perspective, is "don't let the door hit you" That is not what I'd call pushback. It's just being an asshole. Makes me not want to come here. Isn't the idea to draw people into the party not push them away?



And I'm married with teenage kids, I was just sayin....

[wroberts189]

17. Where does the OP say anything about "romantic relationships" ?

You just proved the OP's point. "get out more" ? ..not a helpful comment at all.

[Mithreal]

22. How can I say nicely, I think he may have a malfunction. nt

[Tangerine LaBamba]

3. I haven't seen anyone tell anyone else

to "stop criticizing Obama."

What I have seen are people griping about what Obama has either done or not done since he took office, and others pointing out that he's only been in office for a bit over two months and there are HUGH problems to be dealt with. They're just offering another reasonable perspective, as I see it.

It does seem, though, that some people need to take the notion of someone having an opinion different from theirs very personally and that, I've noticed, often turns ugly.

Why?

I suspect the anonymity offered by an online message board brings out the worst in people and they lose a certain amount of control when posting. Or, maybe the frustrations in their real lives are so pent-up, they just explode when they encounter the least bit of what they perceive as dissension.

Or something else.

But, when I run into that sort of thing, if I get whacked, and I think it's unfair, I whack back. Same as in real life.

There does, though, seem to be an awful lot of Obama-bashing and an awful lot of nastiness. Differing opinions are seen as challenges or threats. I don't get it. Although, without Chimpy Fucknuts to scream about, some people seem adrift, so they land, maybe, on the first glimmer of a misstep that they perceive in the President we wanted so much.

Maybe they're just bad winners. We've already discovered that the rightwingnuts are very bad losers. And, yes, I can see how you would find great similarities between this place and freeperland, which is unfortunate.

But, it's only a message board. Don't forget that. And none of it matters....................

[EFerrari]

4. People tell other posters to shut up all the time here.

And I disagree that none of what we do here matters. We've had some very successful community projects here at DU.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

13. It doesn't matter

to me. Good for those community projects.

But, I speak only for me, and for me it's only a message board. A fun message board with lots of really interesting people, good for some information, especially in the C&B group - a grand bunch of regulars there - and good for entertainment.

I've won some DUzys, but my contributions pale in light of some of the incredibly witty, clever, and creative posts I read there.

There are some wonderfully bright folks who post here, and I surely do enjoy them .................

[wroberts189]

18. I agree and I would add this board gets watched by other blogs and other news media.

I truly believe we have pushed many issues into the MSM here.

[MercutioATC]

6. I've been told numerous times that I have an "agenda" and an "anti-Obama bias"

when I take issue with his economic programs.


They're a minority, but there are people here who are essentially telling people to "shut up".

[notesdev]

8. On the economy

there are two types... those who have the slightest clue as to what is going on, and people acting like chickens with their heads cut off, responding however their internal programming can best cope with unknowns of such immense scope. Quite amusing, actually.

[MercutioATC]

9. I'd like to add a third category...

Those who haven't the slightest clue, but are content to simply trust the powers that be and not ask questions.....and even go so far as to criticize those who do ask questions.

[walldude]

7. I've been told much worse than that...

Now I can see from your perspective that it seems like people are hammering Obama. What it is is different groups of people pissed about different things. My only public bitch about Obama (besides one stupid mistake on my part awhile ago) has been on how he handled the legalization issue. Yet when I posted about it I got attacked for "hammering Obama". From my perspective it was "for fucks sake it was only this one thing!" from others it was another person bitching about something else about Obama. For some I was a stupid whiny pothead.

[Fire1]

10. I know exactly what you mean. There are a 'few' who appear

to linger on the side lines waiting to pounce with some asinine, non-sense reaction to ANYBODY'S post. Fortunately, these reactionaries are ignored by most, as their contributions are minimal, at best. Perhaps a more diplomatic approach to expressing your thoughts, concerns or ideas may yield more civilized responses. Funny, now that I think about it, I've tried that too, to no avail. But I've become more selective in responding to threads, lately.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

12. Someone told me,

in another thread that was contentious about Obama - pro and con, of course - that there were a lot of trolls throwing kerosene on the fire.

I spotted one troll and I was very proud of myself, but it was someone trying to introduce that gossip about Ashley Biden.

So, I never know who's a troll and who isn't. And sometimes it seems like everybody's a troll.

It's best just to watch and sometimes participate and enjoy the process. It's pixels on a message board, and surely doesn't touch my real life.

It's fun.

[wroberts189]

15. yes .. very good point to remember .. there be trolls here. nt

[Tangerine LaBamba]

11. Agendae - everybody's got one, it seems,

but I do think my theories about why people react that way have a whole lot more to do with their personal frustrations/neuroses/psychoses/shortcomings/ignorance than your issue, whatever it might be, you filthy pothead.

OK, that last phrase - I couldn't resist.

Some people can't separate taking issue with one thing from "attacking Obama." Maybe it's loyalty gone mad, but the fact remains - he's brand new in office, and, in this age of instant gratification, there's bound to be some frustration, especially among people not familiar with how the federal legislative process works.

For me, he did the stem cell thing, and that was plenty for me - given that he's not even in office three months. But, that's just me. I know everyone has an agenda, and, I hope, in the coming almost-four years, everyone will be gratified.

Of course, that won't happen, but, my god, when you consider what we endured for the past eight years, Obama's a day at the beach, in the bright and beautiful sunlight...........

[wroberts189]

14. Excellent post ..I would ponder many here would agree. knr nt

[Starry Messenger]

19. I don't know what they want either.

I once had a poster tell me I should disagree "silently" while on DU about issues I care about. :crazy:

[Starry Messenger]

20. I don't know what they want either.

I once had a poster tell me I should disagree "silently" while on DU about issues I care about. :crazy:

[jmondine]

21. I tried being a three toed sloth for a while... it's even harder

Stuck in the tropics, can't move fast enough to get away from the giant cockroaches...

Seriously, the best thing we can do for Obama is let him know when we think he's screwing up.
We also need to let him know when the bullshit the right throws at him doesn't faze us.