considered the instigators?  Maybe you who compare some of us to the likes of spoiled brats...well, maybe that's being an instigato???  You posted that knowing it was going to ruffle feathers. YOU are the instigator and a hypocrite.  
   
 Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.  
   
 

I have been an active TER member since before MN had it's own discussion board starting in 2001, and so I have some perspective on the "ebb and flow" here.  Yeah, the ass-hattery has it's ups and downs, and sadly the last couple of years have seen a few "jackwad douche canoes" on the boards.  
   
 But most of you missed out on what it was like when things went really, really bad...  MCG imploding and the provider backstabbing that ensued...  Misty and Madison duking it out for who knows why...  Madison posting a guy's contact info on the boards one night effectively ending her career...  The whole MDL/9 Inch Nail/Misty thing that blew up in about 2004 or 2005 that turned into death threats, several people being outed to spouses, etc.  Then the fastpass debacle...  
   
 My point being no matter how bad the BS gets, it can still get a whole lot worse, and has--I mean like 50x worse.  
   
 The problem is just the endemic sociopathic nature of all internet interaction.  For all kinds of reasons...  some legitimate mood regulation disorders, and some just related to fractured self esteem, there's a lot of people in this world that believe by pushing others down, your are somehow elevating yourself.  Sometimes that's aimed at one person, in the form of bullying, and sometimes it's aimed at everyone in the form of antagonism.  No matter how much self-loathing you have going on in your head, it always seems at least possible that by insulting the dignity of others, you can push them down the totem pole, and by comparison, relatively push yourself up the totem pole.  So, where does one go about doing this?  
   
 Being a complete fuck nozzle at work will usually get you fired.  Being a complete fuck nozzle with your family will get your shit piled up in the driveway.  Everywhere else in life, there are consequences for antagonism, and those consequences can be unbearable.  
   
 Ah, but the internet...  The internet provides anonymity, and anonymity means freedom from consequence.  Yes!  Finally a place where I can come home after work and take my self-hatred out on others, clinging to the illusion that if I can just get myself one tiny little notch higher on the totem pole, FINALLY I will be worthy of my mother's love, my father's approval, a seat at the grown-up's table...  whatever the void, surely it will be filled if I can just climb up one more step, if I can just diminish one more person above me and push them below me.  
   
 Many of us know that life doesn't really work that way, but sadly, a lot of people think it does, and you can just scroll through a month of TER posts and quickly spot the few folks here that are held captive by their need to diminish...  to diminish people, diminish situations, diminish relationships.  Rather than hold it against them, I guess for me it just helps me count my blessings, and be grateful that I developed an ability to internally regulate my own behavior in ways that others have been much less fortunate.  
   
 For me, I simply choose to post only when I think what I am feeling ADDs, and never when I think it will subtract.  If I can make something better, clearer, safer...  If I can make it MORE by contributing to it, then I do.  And if what I am thinking subtracts... when it makes things less civil, less clear, less safe...  I keep it to myself.  There are a lot of others here in the same boat.  Try finding some disrespectful, diminishing, antagonizing post from Vorlon, for instance.  Good luck with that.  
 

-- Modified on 5/30/2016 3:36:36 AM