The influence of DU on a person is significant

[Kennah]

I frequent a couple of tech forums over on LinkedIn, and I am not exactly a shy wallflower. Many opinionated developers with oversized egos, so people sometimes abrade one another. Largely, no harm no foul.

However, this one asshole treated the forum like his personal blog, and he freely mixed his technical and political opinions together. He reeked of tea and was an all but admitted racist. "Foreign monkeys" was one of his favorite phrases.

For a while, I did not engage, but then I had my fill about a year or so back, and I started responding. I did not let his opinions go unchallenged, and I did not hide the fact that I am a democratic socialist. For the most part, he did not respond to me on a point-by-point basis--just a response of general blather. He has slowly faded away. Guess he got tired of me going behind him and pissing on the trees where he already pissed.

There are one or two others, and one more has recently joined the fray. This latest one is beyond asshole and steeped in tea. We have our exchanges, political and technical, but he is rather pathetic with mostly personal attacks. It dawned on me, yet again, that the Reich is little more than shallow, personal attacks.

On the plus side, I have gotten a number of private messages and LinkedIn requests from people who value my thinking--presumably technical but perhaps it is both technical and political.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. That's great!

Congratulations on your intelligent use of DU.

Personal attacks are what they do, since they have nothing else.

[canetoad]

2. It's only the internet Kennah

Treat it like a bar. Stand next to someone, have a drink or two and exchange some bs with them. When they annoy you too much, move on and start another conversation.

95% of the user content of the net is provided by 5% of the users. How long would you last next to a loudmouth, know-it-all in a bar?

Move on, don't EVER think your worth has anything to do with how you respond to fucking loudmouth bullies on the net.

Just sayin'

[socialindependocrat]

3. I used to submit to "Letters to the editor"..

When I looked at the responses on-line I would find that some people would write just to get your goat. You have to ignore these people. No matter what you say, they will try to take the opposite view. Write from your heart and put your opinions out there. Argue your points and sometimes you disagree and sometimes you learn something new. When someone gets majorly pissed at your post... it's "one of them". They are trying to get an argument but, they are doing it as a game. Good luck in your future postings!!

[canetoad]

4. Agree with most of your post

But never, ever, argue a point on the net past the point of lighthearted fun. The minute you take it seriously, can't walk away from the last word or the next post....you have lost.

[tavalon]

6. But, but, but,

SOMEONE ON THE INTERNET IS WRONG!!!!!!! Aargh!!!!!

:rofl:

[socialindependocrat]

8. The point I was making was...

that some people argue with you in order to argue and see how pissed you'll get.

So, no matter what you say they will argue just to be contrary and they will get personal, too.
There is no win because they are just making an effort to make you feel badly.

If you are arguing with a responsible person your data will help convince the other person
and they will concede on some points. On D/U though, you have to remember you are not arguing
scientific principles, you are arguing politics and your feelings and beliefs will not always
sway the other person. So, like canetoad said, know when to walk away from the argument
before you have a stroke.

[tavalon]

5. Oh, my God, you wanna talk about influence!

I came here as a groupie of a certain well known author and now I'm a huge political wonk. I know details that I would never have imagined knowing or caring to know. I'm a changed person. I feel like I took the blue pill and while it's hard sometimes, I'm not going back.

And funny thing. I came here as a solid Democrat and now I'm a Democratic Socialist and have been learning in the last few weeks about Cooperative Anarchy. And this place is where I start whenever I want to understand something political. This place is pure gold with a shit topping (sorry, couldn't resist - we can be insufferable pains in asses).

[nenagh]

7. During the oil spill I used to read quite a technical blog...

Because I read DU all the time, and never visit Fox News etc, I was very surprised by the anger towards Pres Obama and Michelle, the names they were called and the Fox News talking points written by some of the posters.

I nearly stopped reading the blog entirely.

But then some original members of the blog, like yourself, began to respond reasonably, intelligently and make plain that, at least, the rudeness and name calling was not going to be tolerated.

Rarely, some posts were removed entirely.

It was beautifully done, and I am sure many people reading from around the world, appreciated the posters who took the time to do what you are doing.

Well done.. :)

[MH1]

9. Interesting... on LinkedIn you use your real name, right?

Most of the tech forums I read there are pretty bland (but then I don't spend much time on LI actually). Mostly just job postings and tech fluff, sometimes really good articles. I occasionally see a political comment but usually write off the poster.

Since I don't work in politics or an NGO that leans strongly one way or the other, I try to keep politics out of the workplace as much as possible. I know who my 'friends' are at work that I can share a political joke or political news with, but I don't think I would EVER put it out there on Linked In, which I see as a site for professional networking.

Just surprised that you are seeing so many people who are so f***ing confident in their job security that they would brazenly spread their political opinions around in their professional network.

One more sign that people need to train for tech positions - apparently the demand is so high that people don't get canned just for pissing off the boss, which can and does happen in most jobs.

[Kennah]

10. Free group therapy is another plus of DU

Much thanks to all for the praise, critiques, and perspective. I think it was very much needed.

:grouphug: