Annoying personality trait?

[Tigger]

On that note, people who rush to share things on social media without knowing the facts annoy me. When people try to weaponize social media to "out" someone (I think they call it doxxing them these days) all it does is create more problems.

There was a discussion elsewhere about that kid from Covington Catholic school and the people who were trying to "name and shame" him, presumably knowing that some nutjob out there is going to use the information to harm him or his family. I saw a few posts from friends where they shared information including the name, except the name was wrong. And one day that could be their kids in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. I'd ask anyone - before sharing a post like that ask yourself how you would respond if you saw your kid, your niece or nephew, being named and shamed like that, especially if it wasn't even them. But by then it's too late because some idiot has posted their name and home address for the world to see. Good luck funding the move you're going to have to make soon when the nutjobs come calling, except that even if you move the chances are some idiot with nothing better to do will track you down and post your new address.

I had the same experience but have seen the same response from both extreme elements.

 

[Tigger]

That would be ME! I am pretty opinionated ... but not all the time, though. Just when I have an opinion.

I actually remember a time you could have friends with opposing ideas, occasionally have conversations about them and still remain friends.

 

[tango]

I actually remember a time you could have friends with opposing ideas, occasionally have conversations about them and still remain friends.

You still can, as long as everybody discusses issues rather than personalities.

The trouble these days is that so many people won't discuss the issues because so many seem to have been taught what to think rather than how to think. If you've never been taught how to think, what are you supposed to conclude about someone with a different viewpoint other than that they are wrong? And if they are wrong, what merit is there in discussing with them because, well, they are wrong. You might as well just find some reason that proves they are wrong, and if they have a different political outlook to your own then that just proves that they must be wrong on just about everything else too.

Discussion by meme is a major problem, and frankly I think social networks as a whole are, overall, a bad thing for society. Many contentious issues are, well, contentious and if it really were as simple as condensing it into a single soundbite there would be no disagreement. Much of the time it seems that people are trying to say "look, it really is this simple, why can't you see the reasoning?" when much of the time it is anything but that simple.

Another problem is the increasing tendency to assume that if I disagree with your method I must disagree with your goal. But maybe I agree with your goal but don't think your method is an effective way (or the most effective way) to achieve the goal. If your immediate response is to assume that I must be OK with children starving to death because I don't agree with your method for feeding children that feeds into the previous point because obviously I'm utterly heartless and therefore there's no point discussing it with me because I'm so obviously wrong. And if I'm so callous as to be OK with children starving it's unlikely I'll have anything useful to say on anything else so you can just marginalise me.

 

[tango]

I had the same experience but have seen the same response from both extreme elements.

I've seen some pretty silly stuff from the fringes of both political sides but to be honest I've never seen the right looking to "name and shame" random people on social media. I've certainly seen a lot of very thin and frankly very silly arguments presented (usually in the form of memes and one-liners) from the right but to be honest the hatred I see spewing from the left far exceeds anything I see coming from the right.

 

[Tigger]

I've seen some pretty silly stuff from the fringes of both political sides but to be honest I've never seen the right looking to "name and shame" random people on social media. I've certainly seen a lot of very thin and frankly very silly arguments presented (usually in the form of memes and one-liners) from the right but to be honest the hatred I see spewing from the left far exceeds anything I see coming from the right.

Bombing abortion clinics and driving cars into crowds of protesters in N. Carolina to name a few off the top of my head, hardly falls into the category of ‘silly’.

 

[ValleyGal]

I actually remember a time you could have friends with opposing ideas, occasionally have conversations about them and still remain friends.

Yes, and for the most part, I still can. I have a lot of people I talk to at work, both clients and colleagues, and I have friends - we can discuss rationally and still feel good about the conversation and each other. Unfortunately, I see online - and I am guilty of this myself - that people become emotionally invested in the outcome because usually we respond only to the things we know we can talk about with any amount of passion and/or knowledge. I will usually only engage in a deep conversation if I am confident in my opinion and can back it up with scripture, science, whatever... or if it's something that I consider a moral or social injustice and then I will assert my "it's just plain wrong" voice as loudly as I can without using all caps. lol

In person, we have the advantage of togetherness, microexpressions, tone of voice, body language, etc, which help in coming across as simply statement and discussion rather than bold statements.

Interestingly, I met my ex on forums. I was the same then as I am now, and when we met and he heard me in person discuss some of the things we'd talked about online, he actually said that now he has a totally different understanding of who I am, and how my posts would sound, had we been talking about them in person.

 

[tango]

Bombing abortion clinics and driving cars into crowds of protesters in N. Carolina to name a few off the top of my head, hardly falls into the category of ‘silly’.

Bombing abortion clinics certainly isn't even remotely sensible.

As far as driving cars into crowds in NC, if you're thinking of the same event I'm thinking of my recollection is hazy but I recall seeing enough different videos that cast doubts on just about every version of events there. That said, driving cars into crowds of people is obviously a very different thing to a silly argument.

 

[MeowsePad]

I feel that a strong sense of superiority is annoying. Let's all just be equals. Nobody is better than anybody else. Everyone can be good without someone having to be the best all the time.

 

[Lamb]

I feel that a strong sense of superiority is annoying. Let's all just be equals. Nobody is better than anybody else. Everyone can be good without someone having to be the best all the time.

But some people ARE better at some things than others, right?

 

[tango]

But some people ARE better at some things than others, right?

True, although there's a difference between "I'm better than you at (whatever)" and "I'm better than you, period".

Too much equality fails to recognise individual skills and abilities, too little equality results in unhealthy superiority.

When I was maybe 8 or 9 there was a kid in my class who, academically speaking, was thick. There's really no other way to put it. He was at the bottom of the class in just about everything, and got held back to repeat one year (which, back then at least, was virtually unheard of in England). He struggled through the education system because academically he just wasn't very bright. And he got teased and mocked a lot for it. But when he got the chance to do a woodworking class he aced everything. Then he found he had the kind of green thumb that could probably grow food in the Sahara. If you want someone to figure your taxes for you, you'd be better off talking to me than to him. If you want your garden to come to life and thrive then don't bother talking to me because I could probably kill every plant in the Garden of Eden, go talk to this guy because he can take a barren mass and turn it into a thriving garden. Am I better than him, or is he better than me? In an outright sense, neither is inherently better than the other. I'm better at academic things and he's better at practical things.

 

[NewCreation435]

when people act like they know everything that is annoying

 

[tango]

when people act like they know everything that is annoying

The people who think they know everything are truly annoying to those of us who do