Words can be Worse than Weapons

[stop the bleeding]

from a conversation I had the other day....

one thing I remember as a kid is that people used to have picnics and such together and they'd be left and right wingers and those in between, and for some reason back then at least they all got along, didn't have to agree on Everything, could still have a beer together and bullshit about anything else..

Seems like those are the good old days in some ways, folks are really defensive these days and even if you come back with a joke to "make up" it seems like you get one shot to make any impression and that's about it - nature of instant communications, pushing that damn ENTER button before you realize there's another HUMAN BEING on the other end, not just a bunch of text that you disagree with, and there might be a lot of points where you'd get along just fine with them, etc.. - symbolman May-19-06 09:16 AM

Just my humble opinion but I think if we all took a moment to realize that there are HUMAN BEINGS on the other end of the internets then maybe people wouldn't feel so hurt and cut up with some of the discourse that they encounter on DU.

Just thought I should pass this along, don't know how many people will notice or agree, but advice like this can't really hurt.

Peace!

[realisticphish]

1. I agree

if you were face to face with a person, you wouldn't say a LOT of the hateful things that get said here

[Mythsaje]

2. I remember trying to convince people of this

back in my AOL days. (Feels like centuries ago). Some people seem to think because people use pseodonyms (screen names, handles, etc) they're not dealing with real people at all. Like everyone is just some sort of false persona on the other end. I heard a lot of "it's not real life" from various folks.

I'll be damned if I can understand why some people just don't get it.

[Me.]

3. Nice Post

*shadow governemnt*

[kpete]

4. excellant post SBL

One of my best friends is from Mississippi, small, small town.

We have managed to stay friends, in spite of our differences.

Wonderful thing is...

I believe she is about to cross over to our side

and without any hard feelings at that...

5. I not so sure about the good old days

I remember visits to our fundamentalist cousins as a kid, and it was tension city.

I think people that are rude generally know it and enjoy being that way. Sometimes people get overly emotional but that is the nature of human beings.

As for trying to win arguments, you can see when people are engaged in beating a dead horse, I tune out of those, except to find some of the really good zingers.