Community

Many here may not care for the way you express your ideas, and even more may agree with the id10t error.

I think you would find a suprisingly small group that would think anyone that isn't out-right abusive should be removed or banned.

We believe everyone has freedom of speech, even id10t's.

I saw you as put your foot in your mouth, and then just kept digging deeper with each post. Hey, it happens.

Welcome to the real world. Not everyone will like you. That is their freedom. But don't look for marterdom from the masses.

You can learn the politics and rules of conduct anytime you enter a new group and try to "fit in".

You can ignore the politics and rules of conduct anytime you enter a new group and say "oh well".

You can take your ball and go home.

Your choice either way. No one will "BAN" you for any of your posts you have done to this point.

No, we won't "ban" you, but you can certainly leave if you don't like it.

I gotta admit that your "Asian guru" topic was a bit off-the-wall. It's generated a lot of discussion, however, so I guess it was a "good" topic. But if you've been a victim of racism and bigotry, why in the world would you start a discussion like that??

In my opinion, the only reason anyone should get banned would be for a few obvious reasoons: collecting email addresses for spamming, inciting violence, etc. But it would be hard to keep anyone away. You could just come back using a different registration. Regardless, I don't think it would be up to TR members to have someone banned. Maybe if we paid dues and were "owners" I could see that as a possibility.

Speaking one's mind certainly is not a reason to ban anyone, though. Your opinions may conflict with this clique you speak of or with the majority or with 99.9% of TR members. Whoopee-doo. jd said "welcome to the real world". This is far from the real world. Quite often an innocen comment can be taken the wrong way. It seems people often tend to be much more prone to speaking their mind, are more judgmental and are much, much more prone jump to conclusions here than in person. People tend to be much less respectful of others here, too. In the real world, if you pi$$ someone off or if someone doesn't like you, they'll typically ignore you. Online they feel compelled to blast the **** out of you. I've been guilty of it too. If we stoped to think how we'd react in the real world, there'd be much less petty arguing going on. You'd think, because we do have time to think while we write, that the responses would be much more measured than they often are. I'm sure psychologists are busy studying this behaviorial dichotomy.

Another thing to be mindful of, people here are very competitive and frequently try to one-up each other. Write something off-hand like "I finished reading a book yesterday" and I can guarantee that you'll have a response like "I finished reading TWO books yesterday." That's actually kind of a hysterical phenomena. It's hard not to get caught up in these kinds of one-upmanship games. So be prepared to get reamed for anything you write and don't wear your heart on your sleeve (or whatever the saying is).

So, long story short, be very, very careful how you word anything you write. I have yet to figure out if it's best to be general or specific in postings.

Well, that's my 2 cents.

P.S. I wonder if I will get blasted for saying it's a free world because it shows I'm insensitive to those people in oppressed countries?

will go out of their way to find something they can argue could be the least bit offensive. Then they amplify it by deliberately bringing it to the attention of someone they know will be offended by it. (I wonder "Who is the real offender here"?)

The result is a kind of self-imposed victimhood that some people apparently see as advantageous in their social circles.

Little do they realize that all they are accomplishing is the creation of a desensitization to the real and serious instances of bigotry and discrimination (the "Little Boy who Cried 'Wolf'" syndrome), thereby prolonging the sufferring of the very group they are claiming to represent.

Personally, I wouldn't dignify the ravings of such people with an acknowledgement, let alone a response.

out for beer.

Oh, sod it! I'm going for a beer anyway.

Neil

Memo to self: Add funta to list of posters who I can't be bothered to read. Ah, He's already on it.