Originally posted by Ash Hard to know if someone will take it the wrong way or not, but I'd like to see if RML sees the lighter side of this too - if not, that's OK too. I'd not hesitate to take this all down.
Your diplomatic manner is quite regal in your desciptions of her posts, although I'm not sure they're never repetitive...
I wouldn't want us to all talk the same either - it would be nice though to comfortably get the gist of what's being said...
Oh, sure, Ash, I'm not too too worried. Though often I find that when people claim 'You're not making sense' they're also just plain claiming I'm saying the opposite of what at least should be clear from the very simplest sentences in what they're quoting.
I do get upset when this turns to people claiming, 'You're being hateful' when I'm simply pointing out that prejudices exist. Or claiming that, whenever I bring up my own experience *as* one of these minorities people like to bash and mischaracterize, I'm 'bringing my sex life into things' and therefore should 'shut up' when I say something like, 'Well, you do know that prejudice leads to real violence and hardship. I talk about *justice* and other people claim I'm talking about *sex.*'
When I *do* bring that up, it's usually in response to people who claim that bigotry (any bigotry on 'their' side') is some kind of mirage, 'PC confabulation' or merely the same thing as the 'reverse discrimination' majorities claim when questioned. I've been coping with a pretty serious case of PTSD, unfortunately, not to mention a body pretty damaged by past malnutrition, that say otherwise.
Certain posters like to use the 'RML is incomprehensible' meme someone kind of started, simply to claim I'm saying things which I am not, but which suit their preconceptions.
I find these posters are also often quite uncivil, and have been since before I just plain got tired of coming to the chatty room and hearing myself and countless others, (like all non-conservatives in the world) just defamed and abused on a constant basis.
I acknowledge that I can be the queen of the run-on-sentence, particularly when I'm having arthritis problems (this does not exactly aid concentration,) and am having several people heaping misconstruals of anything anyone they disagree with may say. It takes hardly a moment to write something disingenuous about someone or something, and may take pages to try and clear it up. If my posts get *repetitive,* it's often cause people didn't listen the first time and just keep on with the same accusations as before.
So, I do try to be as clear as possible, under given circumstances. I admit I really don't appreciate it much if people turn around and use the fact I sometimes have these challenges to concentration to try and claim, "Oh, you just hate God, America, and everything good: I can't understand you, so that must be what you're saying. You don't always type so clearly while I'm throwing all this at you, so that must make you wrong and me right about you."
Too often, the little meme that I'm incomprehensible is simply an excuse not to actually read. (I get PMs periodically which say some of these claims of incomprehensibility are at best overstated.)
Maybe the problem isn't just about me. Maybe, particularly in our country, we do a lot of arguing and not a whole lot of *communicating.*
I'm greatly distressed by certain tides of intolerance that some seem to be embracing in politics, these days. Particularly when it's a substitute for thinking, perceiving, and paying *attention.*
If someone who writes more clearly cares to stand up a little more, then, well. Maybe they can help. I know people share certain frustrations about trying to talk to some types, sometimes.
I have only one person on my ignore list, and that's just because of completely intolerable and indecent personal attacks.
I'm inclined to try and communicate and reconcile, probably to a fault. So I don't mind having this out, even if at first I was like, 'Ah, here'll be a thread for the ad hominem attacks on parade.'
Yes, I may think and see the world a fair bit differently. But communicating with those who think and see the world differently may be exactly the kind of thing we need to be practicing right now. Since we have this Internet and all.
The world's facing too many crises right now to spend any more time really thinking we're going to convince everyone in the world of our own point of view. Too much to fix, and not much time to do it in, if we want to keep certain things we're all fond of. As a 'global village,' who's out here now, (and isn't actually yearning for a big crash in global civilization,) is more or less the team we've got.
We're all dealing with... completely unprecedented information overload, here. (And few, I think, know it as well as those of us who are somewhat sidelined a lot of the time. A lot of the time all I can do is watch and, I think, try and help digest it all. ) One thing that's clear to me is that no one perspective will do to cope with it all.
Some will try to *force* it into a familiar mode of 'all or nothing, us vs them, good and evil, for me or against me.' Even if in the process they may actually be spending all day finding very *convoluted* ways to justify a sense that things are simple. I think I have an idea how to make it simpler.
I say that we're going to have to start learning to trust each other, wherever we can. Value and *use* our different perspectives, rather than pretend it's really a competition.
I think that will mean letting go of some of the cardboard bad guy masks and funhouse mirrors we may put on each other when we should be trying to see truly.
Respect and use our human differences. If humanity's powerful enough to make this mess, we're powerful enough to make something better.
We can't afford blind spots. Someone with different eyes might see something we miss.
(How's that for comprehensibility? Doing the best I can through some lower back pain today.
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