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tpsbmam (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-29-08 08:27 AMOriginal message Why are we so nasty? I'm not pointing fingers -- I've been guilty myself. I've snapped at people lately both online and in "real life." While I've been known to do it OCCASIONALLY in the past, I'm typically a nice person who tries to make sure I don't make someone feel worse about themselves or add to their stress. I've felt really crappy a couple of times lately when I've snapped at people for little reason (I've gone back and apologized when I felt I was wrong).I'm reading this board and I'm seeing some pretty nasty comments toward other people. I've been at DU for a long time but only got active lately so I don't have a gauge -- has this always been the case or are people getting nastier with the stress of everything that's gone on for the last 8 years and with the stress of what could happen in the coming days and years?Everyone is stressed these days. People are wary of the future and what it holds for each of us.For the most part, we don't know what people at the other ends of our posts are going through. For the most part, we don't know what kinds of pressures they're under. For the most part we don't know what their histories are and what we're doing to pile onto tough histories with our nasty remarks. We don't know what we're doing to the other person when we belittle them. I'd like to think that everyone (except disruptive freepers) is welcome at DU and they don't have to have rock solid high self-esteem to post here. I'd like to think that we progressives can understand that we might be damaging another person when we belittle them and that we care about that. I'd like to think we can disagree without putting other people down.This makes me sad.
ShortnFiery (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-29-08 08:29 AMResponse to Original message 1. We are about to allow Corporate Congress to give away our children's future. Dammit, it's our tax dollars. Congress has NO RIGHT to act contrary to the desires of their constituents.
tpsbmam (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-29-08 08:30 AMResponse to Reply #1 3. So does that mean that we have to be nasty to each other? I don't get your response. I'm not saying I don't understand why people are angry, I'm saying I'm sad to see that anger is associated with people being nasty to others in the same boat. Is that helping?
gateley (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-29-08 08:40 AMResponse to Reply #3 7. I'm going through one of the most stressful times in my life. And although I come here for strength and companionship (no, really!) I'm at such a fragile emotional point that the least little thing that I might possibly construe as negative pushes me over the edge. Thank you for your post - I will keep it in mind next time I knee-jerk react to something.
ShortnFiery (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-29-08 08:40 AMResponse to Reply #3 8. I find the behavior of "playing DU nanny" equally distasteful. And not productive in moving the discussion into a more mature frame of reference.
IAmJacksSmirkingRevenge (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-29-08 08:46 AMResponse to Reply #8 13. And your posts are? I didn't realize flaming those who disagreed with you was very "mature."
ShortnFiery (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-29-08 09:46 AMResponse to Reply #13 32. I didn't start the thread ... starting an entire thread on "being nice" is just, IMO, destructive as Hell. It serves no purpose - set the example, or don't - but complaining just leads to ... more complaining? We're all guilty
TahitiNut (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-29-08 11:48 AMResponse to Reply #1 48. We've been mortgaging our children's future for 30 years and the mortgage is FORECLOSED! ... but nobody cares about the people victimized by the foreclosures ... only about selling out the "toxic waste" (those futures) for whatever the debtholder can get.Wow ... talk about derivatives! Our grandchildren are TOAST.
hatrack (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-29-08 08:50 AMResponse to Original message 15. Because we've been receiving nothing but nasty for the past eight years If you opposed Bush, you "hated 'Murica".If you were against invading Iraq on fabricated evidence, you "wanted the terrorists to win".If you didn't believe that taking repeated big smelly dumps on the Constitution in putative pursuit of "security" was the right thing to do, you were naive, delusional, weak and stupid.We've been called everything from anti-American to liberal fascists, politically correct to puppets of al Qaeda, and we've had enough, and we're throwing roundhouse punches, and some of them are missing their intended targets.Regrettable, yes, but hardly surprising."I and the public know what all schoolchildren learnThose to whom evil is done do evil in return." - W.H. Auden
pitohui (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-29-08 09:50 AMResponse to Original message 35. because suffering doesn't enoble, suffering spoils the personality Edited on Mon Sep-29-08 09:51 AM by pitohuithis is one of the difficulties people find in the helping professions, for the most part, terrible suffering takes a terrible toll on one's personality AND character and makes the victim of the tragedy actually a difficult person to deal withexample: it is easy to be courteous when you are in strong health, it is not so easy when, say, you are suffering from chronic pain and your doctor has just informed you that the DEA is investigating him and he will not be able to prescribe any more of the medicines that you need to functionthis country is in terrible pain and people have been victimized by repeated crimes and outragesso grouchy and nasty is going to happen, in an ideal world, no, it wouldn't but in the ideal world there would be no need for politics to begin with because everyone would be decent without need for a world of laws
If you were against invading Iraq on fabricated evidence, you "wanted the terrorists to win".If you didn't believe that taking repeated big smelly dumps on the Constitution in putative pursuit of "security" was the right thing to do, you were naive, delusional, weak and stupid.We've been called everything from anti-American to liberal fascists, politically correct to puppets of al Qaeda, and we've had enough
