isn't it amazing how easily offended some people are?

[leftofthedial]

Are you ever simply flabbergasted by this?

Or does it seem about right to you?

On a daily basis, I'm confronted with someone or another who is so personally insecure that they are guaranteed to take offense at a word, or a picture, or an idea they don't agree with.

They can't just let it go, or state their contrary opinion. No. They aren't happy until they've told whomever they disagree with to shut up and made a big noisy stink in doing so.

These are usually the people who complain and whine so incessantly and so loudly that the authorities (teachers, bosses, cops, moderators) simply cave in and become accomplices in the ensuing intolerance, just to make the whiners be quiet.

Seriously, don't these people have time to do anything in their lives other than whine and cry over perceived and imagined insults?

[Maddy McCall]

1. Yeah, you just had to throw "moderators" into the list.

Not a smart move.

[leftofthedial]

8. I just meant that they are an example of an authority figure

not that our moderators would do anything like that.

I meant freeper moderators or maybe hall monitors at some other site.

Did I really say "moderators"?

[Swede]

2. I try to avoid negative people.

If I can't,I let it wash off me like water off a duck. To do otherwise is pointless,and it will make you unhappy.

[leftofthedial]

9. if you avoid negative people,

why are you posting on one of MY threads?

:-) ;-)
:-) ;-)
:-) ;-)
:-) ;-)
:-) ;-)

[Swede]

11. I TRY to avoid them.

Sometimes them buggers just intrude on you.

[bridgit]

3. omg what a dumbass question...

:rofl:

[leftofthedial]

14. so, chalk one up for "just about right"

I'm the world's orignal dumbass

[Cannikin]

4. I cant believe you said that. GOSH

[leftofthedial]

15. offended?

seriously, not you Cannikin. You are the rockingest mod in the history of the Internet!

[tammywammy]

5. One time at work

it was a coffee shop, and Jena was behind the espresso machine making the drinks. A regular customer came in, and Jena goes "Oh my goodness" just like Sir Mix Alot's Baby Got Back.

The customer laughed, Jena laughed, it was good times by all. Except this other customer (non-regular) a couple of people back. She came up and complained to the Manager, Mike.

Mike listened to how she was offended by Jena, blah blah blah. Mike just said "Was she talking to you?" "no" "Then you can't be offended, because it didn't involve you in the first place, and the woman she was talking to wasn't offended." Bam, put right in her place.

I hate hearing "well, so and so, told me and someone said this, and I'm offended."

[patrice]

6. They are intolerant because they are weak.

They are weak because they have not examined, AND QUESTIONED, their ideas enough to make them their own. Their ideas/values are full of holes and they know it. They can't defend them, so they have to oppress anything that is different.

Huge sign of weakness. Sets off alarms in my soul everytime someone says "One Nation Under God" - I hear "Or else!!!"

[CO Liberal]

7. What Do You MEAN By That????

:mad:

[leftofthedial]

10. Don't turn me in!!

It just seems like you have to walk on eggshells anytime you are not alone anymore.

[saltpoint]

12. Yeah, but if it weren't for people like that, who would Jack --

-- Nicholson play in the movies?

I mean, sheesh.

[leftofthedial]

13. good point

good


point

[saltpoint]

19. Thanks, but I did not mean it in support of your post.

It feels to me as if you wanted to incite negative feeling.

Since all members of DU encounter those they disagree with, your gripe seems to ask for special consideration.

I'm not more sympathetic toward you if some have disagreed with you than you are with me or any other DUer when the've been disagreed with.

Seems to me we are all in the same boat, aren't we?

[leftofthedial]

22. that's me

always trying to incite negative feeling. That's why I say hurtful things like "good point."

special consideration? No comprende.

we're all in the same boat. That I can agree with.

[saltpoint]

24. That's you tonight, anyway.

Martin Luther must have been one of those insecure people you describe. He just wouldn't stop bitching until the Church caved in.

Dr. King? Same thing. What a whiner. Civil rights this, civil rights that. Jesus, what a nag.

Margaret Sanger. It took death itself to shut her up. She just went on and on and on about equality. Talk about insecure.

_____

DUers join the same boards every day. Because one disagrees with another doesn't make either of them insecure, does it?

[leftofthedial]

26. denigrating those amazing progressives

by calling them whiners is offensive. Who do you think you are?


Moderator! Moderator! Make them stop. Delete their posts. I'm offended.

See the difference?

Probably not.

[saltpoint]

29. Can you post a response without taunting?

If so, do it.

If not, my point stands.

[leftofthedial]

30. I agree with you

I'm an asshole

a negative jerk of an "inciteful," taunting idiot.

We agree totally. I don't see how you could possibly be any more correct in your assessment of my shortcomings and the pure evil that is this thread. God! I regret ever having started it.

I suck to a degree heretofore unseen not only at DU, but on the entire Internet.

I can't apologize abjectly enough to make it up to you, Old Crusoe. Please don't hold it against me. Please.

Man, I am more purely negative than an electron.

[saltpoint]

31. Well, that answers the question about whether you can --

-- handle a question without taunting.

Your OP mentioned "some people." Below you indicate your soon-not-to-be-spouse. Is this about your marriage? Who is "some people?"

Why should other DUers consider your circumstances more grievous than theirs? Lots of people have to deal with irate bosses or co-workers, maybe strangers if you like -- every day.

Your OP doesn't give a handle for locating examples, it only suggests that insecurity is a source of the offense. All readers here are left with is that you apparently feel that people who take issue with something are insecure.

I don't think that's true.

[leftofthedial]

35. Of course, my circumstances are more grievous than anyone else's!

didn't you read my previous post? I am the worst. Bottom of the barrel. I don't mean to be a negative taunter who incites ill will. I really don't. But I do.

How'd you choose your handle. "Old Crusoe" is cool!

[saltpoint]

36. Public discourse "out there" and away from these boards --

-- is not where many of us are writing. There's a sharp drop-off in what people read, listen to, consider, and so forth from the edge of DU and the beginning of redstate USA.

My neighbor to the north believes Bush is a Christian. I don't. She believes it in the way she believes concrete and stone and thunderstorms -- for her it is a true thing, unswervable, unchallengeable.

I'm frankly at a loss with what to say to her, because she won't have ever heard Bill Moyers, or Noam Chomsky, or Julian Bond, or even Barbara Boxer. She knows she doesn't LIKE Barbara Boxer, but isn't sure exactly why. Probably it's because Rush Limbaugh said Boxer was a bad person.

I'm on DU because there are very good minds -- wide-rangers and detail people -- who broaden the picture for me. I often write down a recommendation of a film or a novel -- whatever it is. I have a keepers file with some of the points DUers have made on Bush. On both Poppy and Junior, actually. By the time I get to the voting booth, I know why I'm voting progressive, but it's mostly the contribution of the things I've read, heard, and found out on the blogs -- the beneficiary of others' accomplished information-gathering and perspective-sharing.

I am sorry your marriage is ending, and I hope you will find another person as soon as you want. If the divorce can happen with a minimum of stress for you both, then I wish that as well. If what you can do with language and politics is any indication, you probably know the nature of time spent well and need no instruction, but all the same I wish you as much of that good time as the hours permit.

If I misunderstood your intent tonight, then my response was clumsy and the words poorly-chosen. I'm sorry for that, and please accept my good wishes on and off DU, leftofothedial.

[hickman1937]

16. I used to be a very nice low key person.

The older I get, the more inclined I get to smack the big noisy stink makers. I won't, but I'm seriously considering flipping them off. With intent. I was in Barnes and Noble last year, late at night, and this rude woman came in, with hubby, and demanded to see the manager. The girl at the front counter told her that the mgr was covering the Starbucks counter and would be right over. The rude bitch stood there and griped loudly, and bitched the whole time I was being rung up. I was ready to explode, but just left. Never again. "You're wrecking my bookstore experience. Shut up, and wait your turn!" Next time!
edit for bad spelling

[derbstyron]

17. I used to work for a B&N. That brings back memories.

That happened far too frequently.

[hickman1937]

25. Did you ever notice how many people in the place

would have(if it were legal) smacked the person? I'm pretty sure that the guy behind me, at least would have backed me up. Bookstores are like churches. Best behavior is required. I've watched as parents teach their children where it is allowed to talk, laugh, and play. But if they want to come into mommy or dad's area, they have to be quiet, and look at their book. I did it with my kids. Adult bad behavior needs to be dealt with. I didn't at the time because I thought I might be making the situation worse for the manager. Next time I won't care.

[SarahB]

18. I hate this.

Typical conversation with my ex-husband in the past few years:

Sarah: "J__, can you get milk on the way home?"
J__: "What, do you think I'm stupid and don't realize we need milk?"

:banghead:

[leftofthedial]

21. Man!

Just like my soon-to-be-over marriage the last 9 years.

Me: "Can I help you with the dishes?"

Her: "I am perfectly capable of doing dishes! Do you think I'm stupid?"

Maddening. Oh well. Not for much longer . . .

[SarahB]

23. I'm moving out tomorrow!

:bounce:
Good luck to you too!

[leftofthedial]

27. good luck!

[Redstone]

34. Congrats, kiddo.

Redstone

[Robeson]

20. Of course, sometimes it depends on how much someone has had to ....

...drink.

[leftofthedial]

32. or how much someone

has NOT had to drink . . .

[Robeson]

33. True.

[datasuspect]

28. dolts

yep.

[EstimatedProphet]

37. Locking

Calling out moderators