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Salamander
Fire Walking

I had to go and do it again.
Fri Oct 12 2001

The board I co-administer has one person on it who is very intelligent, articulate, funny, caring, active socially and politically, and who can push my buttons faster than Weird Al Yankowitz can push the buttons on an accordion. He believes the US should be negotiating with Afghan, and that the answer to America's problems is to tell the nations of the world we're sorry, and ask them how we can change so that they'll like us. He sincerely believes this.

I've been avoiding his posts to the board, because I know that he's only going to piss me off and because arguing with him is about as useless as teaching a pig to sing. (Anyone not familiar with the phrase should do a web search to see how it ends.) Anyhow, today this gentleman posts all about how he's heard from reliable sources that the clips CNN played of Palestinians celebrating after the WTC was destroyed were misrepresented and were actually tapes of something else entirely. Yes, there was a rumor to that effect a few days after September 11th, but it was thoroughly debunked. I and two others on the board rushed to tell him he was full of the end products of mammalian digestion, and gave him links to the various debunking sites that showed this was false.

I took it one step further, and blasted him for his continued biased nonsense that he compulsively spit out on the forum without bothering to check his facts. I blasted him for his presumption that we weren't getting fair media coverage nor doing our homework (pot calling the kettle black here, except here the only kitchen implement that was black is the pot). And I'm still fuming. I'd managed to avoid opening his posts for days, and only recently started reading his stuff again. And now I'm shaking again.

When the hell is this going to be over? I want to be able to debate again, and not argue.

4 Comments
  • From:
    Moonman (Legacy)
    On:
    Fri Oct 12 2001
    Reason...that's what seperates debate from arguing. i enjoy healthy debate. When people start to lose their cool, get emotional, and become irrate...it stops being fun.

    i can totally understand your reaction, but to avoid causing a blood vessel to explode, you should try to distance yourself, or try to detach your reactions from your emotions (as far as this individual goes). Your stressing does no one any good.

    Be well!
  • From:
    Franny (Legacy)
    On:
    Fri Oct 12 2001
    i loved your description of fecal matter...priceless! blow him off! (i personally know that sometimes it's difficult to, but you're buddy sounds like he's turned into a brick wall)
  • From:
    Shay40 (Legacy)
    On:
    Fri Oct 12 2001
    I think that the annoying poster in question realizes he's wrong, but keeps pushing the same statement to annoy us. If it's working on you, I guess you can just manually ignore him.
  • From:
    MoonriddenGirl (Legacy)
    On:
    Sat Oct 13 2001
    I haven't had a good debate in a long time. So few people seem to know the difference. :/ Sorry that he frustrates you so. Sandspurs under saddles--such small things can really work their way in deep.