before we solve the world’s problems, maybe we all need to work on our communication skills a bit? either that or develop thicker skins of whatever color and let it roll off like water off a duck’s mixed metaphor?
personal attacks = bad. generalizations = bad. condescension = bad. namecalling = ok, fine, i’ll let that one slide. maybe we can be like that cracker skits‘s kid and use the names to break down the discomfort, because apparently, being completely sober, earnest, and serious about this will drive us all mad. Jason made a good point about using humor to diffuse any number of racial situations in his life, perhaps to keep from going mad. Aaron used neon pink and animated hello kitty gif’s because he’s apparently already quite mad to lighten the mood at his place. oh god do you realize how i just agonized over using the word ‘lighten’ like light’s better? jeez, what a minefield this is. madness.
because apparently the deep feelings we all have are a little too raw to engage in a perfectly proper discussion, and we need a little comic relief even if it is wrong to do it that way. and we probably need to let go of right and wrong in the either/or sense and accept that each and every one of us has a completely unique individual perspective that we’ve developed through all our lives, and that relating this to each other is bound to offend. and if nobody got offended, that would be a sure sign that we were doing something wrong here. moving beyond the offense taken is the only way that this discussion will accomplish anything.
cracker cracker cracker. the pants i’m wearing are technically khaki, but that’s only because it’s damn hard to find fat pants at goodwill, so you go with what you can get. so i’m a khaki-wearing cracker bitch. or something. and yeah, it’s ok to hate me on that account. i’m surprisingly ok with that, a fact i discovered, just now, writing that.
i’d like to keep talking about this, but maybe to drop the few threads in which we’ve been attacking each other for having the wrong outlook on this? ’cause, nobody wins? and we do more harm than good that way? and maybe next topic should be: what now? how do we change what’s wrong?
now, Lilly, that is an excellent example of using a little gentle humor to acknowledge the differences and feel more comfortable with them.
Hi people, I just happened to be passing and looked in….
This board is actually quite tame compared to some. Good idea for a thread topic though. Communication Breakdown…..
Wow there’s some thunder….IRL.
Communication problems are the biggest cause of flames. Somebody says something and before you know it, its been mis-communicated and there is a flame generated by somebody taking offence. so they introduced emoticons which go someway to giving a better ability to communicate meaning.
Still even with the use of emoticons, your meaning may be mis-communicated. Shit happens. BBs will always have this problem, its in the nature of the medium. People spend a lot of thread time on these sorts of threads.
Now if you really want to see the worst bashing and flaming on the internet, you would have to visit my BB.
Astalavista friends.