Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Provoking Thoughts

Being a middle child, I will fight if provoked. Toby says that this written on my forehead. My mom says that I am her easiest-going child, but I will fight,if provoked. Having a brother who is just one year older than me taught me early on that I should weigh my fights carefully. We may have been much the same size, but he was definitely stronger than I. Often times, we would be having a fairly normal sibling argument with our voices escalating, when my brother would switch back to a normal tone and say, "You're resorting to raising your voice. You are so immature." To which I usually replied, "You think this is immature? Wait to you see me resort to physical violence." It never failed to provoke me. And the fight was on.

Now my little brother was a different matter. I could take him on and with just a few words cut him up and make him mad. He would then resort to name calling, "You're a...a...rabbit, horse, donkey...plbbbth (spitting with tongue stuck out)."  It never failed to amuse me, which made my little brother all the crazier.

Such was life as a kid! I've mellowed much since then. I do pick my fights carefully. Laughing is much better for me.  Sometimes, though, someone says something that I just can't let it slide. I have to point out alternative thoughts.

The other day, I entered into what I thought was an intellectual conversation on a blog comment. The other commenter had made a disparaging comment to the blogger and Christians. In doing so, he made a generalization about Christianity (as if as an agnostic he was an expert on all religion). So, I just wanted to point out that not all Christians believed/lived his idea. Truly, I was not trying to fight. I just wanted to explain that there were other thoughts out there. He resorted in ugliness. Really? Why? So, I told him that I was not arguing, but just giving info - setting the record straight. He got really ugly then. It amused me much like my little brother when we were kids. If you resort to name calling, obviously it is because you are losing the fight.

  Now here is my thoughts: This guy does not know me. He does not know that I am a little old lady from Oklahoma. If we were face to face, in person, would he have said the same things. Would he call me names and say how stupid he thought I was? Does the internet give people a sense of power - that they can be rude and vulgar because they are hidden from real life/people? Or are people really so uncouth? Is the internet causing people to become unmannerly and boorish?

Anyway, I will not continue to converse with such a person. One funny thing was that at least three times the guy referred to John 14:6 (he did not quote the scripture, but only referred to it ambiguously). It reminded me of Princess Bride. I wanted to say, "Why do you keep saying that? I do not think you know what it means."  But I refrained from quoting Princess Bride thinking it might send him over the edge. My sense of humor would have been lost on such a person. See, I have mellowed.

12 comments:

Stefan said...

One blog I commented on recently concerned the Bundy ranch fisco down in Nevada. I see the problem merely as a legal one, but many people are treating this as the next Waco or Ruby Ridge.

I simply asked the question: does he have a title or lease to the land? Has he paid his permits?

Whoosh! That got everyone to call me a government troll. That his family had been on the land before BLM. To which I asked if he was an Indian :-)

Anyway, they are all stirred-up like an inferno of gasoline, and I slipped away and went to Dairy Queen and got me a dilly bar. I feel like an arsonist...

I think you're right though, the Internet is not the place to have an intelligent debate, when you don't know if you're talking to a 10 year old kid in his tree fort or an 89 year old man in a mental institution...

Bag Blog said...

Oh Stefan, you made my day with your 10 year old in a tree fort...

I have not kept up with the BLM rancher story very well. When I first read about it, I had the thought that the guy did not own the land; it was government land - so how was that a "land grab"? I did not read any further. In NM there is lots of BLM land. I always wondered why certain families had rights to use it - how do they get those rights, how do they lose their rights, why doesn't it change, etc.

John said...

"You're resorting to raising your voice. You are so immature."

Lou...sounds just like Craig!!! I can see that "debate face of his" saying that...hee-hee.

Bag Blog said...

Craig was a tuff fight for sure. You know that, John.

Jo Castillo said...

Debating on the internet is so weird. On wetcanvas they were debating George Bush's new portraits and how they were so bad and he was using is presidency to get famous as an artist, etc. I said I thought he had been painting about a year and he does better than I did in a year or will ever do with portraits. Then it went downhill with about 10 of the commenters/debaters about his politics, etc. Not worth the effort, so I left after my one comment.

I like Stephan's comment about the 10 year old, too. Ha. I would be like your little brother in an argument with you. Heh.

Moogie P said...

I think the internet may be causing people to be more boorish and uncouth. And rude. And . . .

I'm an only child. It took me a loooooong time to learn how to fight properly.

Stefan said...

A singer I like, wrote that she doesn't read anything about herself in the press. Her logic is that she knows herself when she has missed the mark, so doesn't need a critic for advice, and that reading praise or fluff pieces embarrasses her. She has no publicist.

I think that's the best way to go for an artist. You don't want to be influenced by anything (positive or negative) people say about your art.

My best piece of art was a salt and pepper shaker I made on a lathe in woodshop, using 5 different pieces of wood glued together. My mom never said if she liked them or not, but they were still being used the day she died 20 years later. No critique, no praise, but I enjoyed seeing them on her hand embroidered tablecloth at dinner.

Bag Blog said...

Jo,
My brother would love for you to take his place.

Bag Blog said...

Stefan,
You know we women are gluttons for punishment. We have to ask what others think - does this dress make my butt look big....

Bag Blog said...

Back when we were kids, we took one of my girl friends, who was an only child, to Dallas with my family (two hour trip.) To this day she says that is where she learned to fight.

Stefan said...

I never like those kinds of questions, because I have a very awkward pause, that convicts me way before my answer. Hem, stammer, ah, Darling! you look great in anything!

The other side of that is, when she says "what are *you* going to wear?" and I suddenly realize that what I'm wearing now is probably not going to be acceptable :-)

Magus said...

Lou, I'm assuming you're referring to the conversation on my blog; that person has since been banned. He also trolls on a blog that I visit often, and I told the blog owner that I'm boycotting the blog until that same person is banned.

Anyway, hope to see you back.

Magus