Sometimes you can get lost in the woods when you post comments on the Internet. You get caught up in the back and forth and the joy of argument and scoring points and you loose sight of the fact that you are arguing with an actual person. It's great to score a point or prove someone wrong but what does it really matter? It's unlikely that you are going to change anybodies mind or even get them to think at all. Pretty much everyone who is involved enough in an issue to post on the net is just someone who is set in his position and will never change.
You can get carried away and start saying things and taking positions that you don't even really mean. You start to freak out and it is not attractive at all. I know myself that I can take it too far so I have made a conscious effort to dial it back a lot and not be so personal. I mean I love to bust balls but not in a really mean way. Cause if you think some of the shit I write is really mean, well you have no idea.
Sometimes it doesn't hurt to be the first one to dial it back. I tell my wife all the time when she has a beef with someone that it is not a contest. Or more correctly it's like a ballgame. I mean at any one inning one team might be ahead but you can get up and win in a walk off. At the end of the game you still win. Because the other guy is just a dick. Don't sweat it.
Go in the backyard with a beer and a cigar and put the game on the radio. It's summertime and the living is easy. Just sayn'
21 comments:
Sometimes I notice on the internet debates like this.
Person #1 You just took a big shit on the floor!
Person #2 Uh, no I didn't.
Person #1 Here are 15 links proving my case!
Person #3 Wow. Look at ALL those links!
Person #2 Those links don't prove anything. I wasn't even there to take that shit.
Person #1 Well here are 15 more links proving you were sticking up for that person that did take that shit.
Person #2 Again, those 15 links don't show anything of the kind.
What's in those links that prove I defended the guy that took the shit?
Person #1 I found 5 links of you laughing at a shit joke 4 years ago!
Person # 3 PWNED!
That true.
But what is most important is that I am never gonna let you live down that "six figure salary" crack.
Now that's fucking entertainment.
Hee.
Seriously. I think it is a good idea to not let people get under your skin. Bot Hooiser and I know that you are a good guy. You have nothing to prove. Who cares?
Shrug it off.
Relax in the stately Wayne manor until the Bat Signal goes off.
Now that's fucking entertainment.
Cocky perhaps. But true. Although just barely. I had a great year what can I say.
Just that the beers are on you when I come to Green Bay. Hee.
And that was a great comment Theo. Why did you delete it?
You should get your tail to Wisc for game Trooper. Badger games are a blast too.
But what is most important is that I am never gonna let you live down that "six figure salary" crack.
But with a name like Garage Mahal did you expect him to live in something less than palatial?
Can we have a palace cleanser please?
I just pinched a loaf-which really puts everything in perspective.
We all pinch.
Thank you.
Let's consider the things that we all have in common-like taking a dumper.
Thank you for my wise words.
No thank you.
Hey, I didn't know Garage was one of the evil rich!
I comment for two reasons, the first of which is to get my thoughts in order and clearly expressed.
But the second is to change minds, and it does happen, but not the way most people think of it.
Troop is right in the idea that there's a game going on. People get sucker-punched into thinking the game is about communicating ideas and making strong arguments about the right way to go.
But for a lot of people, maybe the majority, the game is politics. They're "conservatives" and "liberals", or Democrats and Republicans. And in that game, the goal is never to concede any point, ever. Communication is the foe, because it might cause you to lose team members. Etc.
But people do change their minds, they just don't switch teams often.
For example, I'm an open borders guy. I think people ought to be able to live where they want.
But during Bush's term, when people were going nuts at the thought of amnesty, they made great points. Open borders and gov't giveaways, for example, can't work. (I would end the giveaways.)
Open borders and multi-culti can't work. (I'm for a melting pot.)
Open borders and a byzantine, ineffective "legal" immigration system don't work. (End or vastly improve the legal machinery.)
Open borders and improving the lot of the current base of unskilled workers don't work. (Here I'd ask why we have so many freaking unskilled workers, what with "universal education" and all that. But I like this one because it points out the hypocrisy on the left. We're for the common man...having to fight it out with other common men for crap jobs.)
One-way open borders don't work. (My feeling is that you make all the borders open, and let people secede or join other countries as desired. THAT would go over well with TPTB.)
Anyway, the strongest advocates for immigrant control made great points.
My side? "If you disagree, it's because you're a racist."
Meh. Really? Even Penn & Teller pulled that weak crap.
"We're a nation of immigrants." Well, yeah, starting with the Indians. Didn't work out too well for them. (It was never going to; a nomadic stone-age society versus an advanced culture has never fared well for long. Still, there are plenty of examples where immigration resulted in destruction of the host country.)
"Also, uh...you're racist!"
Weak.
So, still an open borders guy at heart, but I recognize now that it will have negative consequences without a lot of other changes being made as well.
It changed my mind, and I see it happen elsewhere. But it only happens among the people who aren't playing baseball, as it were. Those people are playing a game where the other team needs to lose, while the rest of us really are trying to figure out how to win the bigger game: The response that creates the biggest positive change and the smallest negative one.
Well, hey, that sucked. Sorry about the multi-post. Blogger...is less than helpful here sometimes.
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