Why I quit posting on forums
Forums were once a place where it was possible to talk to interesting people about interesting things in an environment that was not only enjoyable but intelligent. Over the last few years I have been a major part of a few forums and a minor part for many others. Sadly I feel these forums are something I no longer wish to take part in. It saddens me that the subjects, the people and the level of conversation have reached a level to which I no longer wish to participate.
The net is the net and reality is reality as far as I am concerned, this stuff does not really bother me in the real world. At the same time though it does piss me off that all intelligent interaction has become diluted the point of pure pointlessness because of uneducated bigots and social parasites. You know the kind, they shout about their bias be it political, religious even sexual and expect everyone to be interested in this crap.
Over the last few weeks I have cut several ties with several forums, even to the point of not even going back there to read what has been happening. Mainly because they have been infiltrated by bigoted, racist, sexist or xenophobic individuals who derail, troll or openly hand out ad hominem responses to not only posts they disagree with but all posts. If I didn’t know any better I would say these people are being paid to fulfill some political agenda, I know nobody would be stupid enough to pay these morons though… Would they?
I guess my gripe is with the so called “conservative” Americans, most of these idiots could not tell you where Russia is on the map, yet they know Communism is the enemy. Oh and if you disagree with them you’re a communist, socialist or terrorist which ever suits their argument best. As somebody who considers themselves an anarchist these insults are lost on me, well in the context in which they use them anyway. Still I find on every forum, no matter how big or small there are these people willing to hand out these labels like they actually understand what they mean. Also being from the UK the propaganda against the Soviet union was practically none existent growing up, the difference between state communism and capitalism was none existent to me, either way you swing the poor man is screwed.
The second and less important but still quite annoying reason why I don’t want to even read forums, never mind post on them is spineless people who claim to have an opinion yet when challenged can’t stand up for it. I mean how stupid do you have to be to believe these people have a point? They spend their time mainly quoting openly racist sources and making absurd claims about things they know nothing about. At least stand up and tell them they are wrong, don’t just sit there and nod your head in agreement.
So yeah, with a couple of exceptions (specialist forums) I am done. I am sick of you people, I am sick of citing factual information, I am sick of looking at things from an unbiased perspective and having it thrown back in my face. Keep taking your government sponsored dose of reality, keep conversing and sympathizing with racists and bigots. Don’t expect me to listen or respond to your bullshit anymore.
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I feel your pain. There are only a few forums left that I check on regularly and a couple that I look at just because I’m bored. I try to avoid any discussions higher than small talk unless I feel that the person has the mental aptitude to do so. Sometimes that is difficult to see when their posts are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. Some people are excellent writers but do not necessarily have the ability to reason or argue effectively, just as there are those that cannot spell but have the intellect to make a point and defend it with facts and logic. In either case, it doesn’t take too many posts to determine what side of the fence they lay.
As the saying goes, you can’t argue with an idiot, and the internet has allowed these idiots to come together collectively to dumb-down every conversation they can stick their keyboard into.
This makes me think of just about any news story I see on the CNN site that allows comments. Every idiot with a computer has to make sure their presence is known by submitting some form of comment to a story, usually in that “conservative” form you spoke of. Comment like “that person was killed because what he was doing was a sin according to God” or “this is president Obama’s fault that my car got a flat tire.” Even as far as commenting on a young woman’s body that was found in a dumpster outside a club by saying “that’s what she gets for going to a club by herself.” Unbelievable.
All I can suggest is that you filter out the garbage and focus on some of the worthwhile posts. Although this may mean you will not find anything worth your time for days on end, your frustration level will go down.
Hang in there. There are a few decent people out there with higher than room-temperature IQs. You just have to deal with a few idiots along the way…and I’m not just talking about on the internet.
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Comment by JetMech72 — 15/03/2010 @ 12:05 AM
Yeah I know what you mean Jet, I have read many similar responses on news sites across the internet. Glad it is not just me who has noticed.
The forum we know each other from is actually fairly free of that kind of thing. One of the reasons I have been more active of late is it has become a haven where conversation can continue uninterrupted most of the time. For example the thread where we talked about the environment recently, I was expecting some comments there about “environmentalists” but none appeared. That was pretty nice to see for a change.
It seems the odds are stacked against the smarter people in the world, there are 1000 idiots per 1 intelligent person by my estimate. That is a lot of time wasted reading stupid posts.
Comment by Rich — 15/03/2010 @ 11:54 AM
I agree, our site is pretty decent. Especially compared to some of the larger sites that are more driven to quantity of members rather than quality of content. I was thinking about that topic as well and you’re right, on many sites that would have fallen into a death-spiral from all the know-nothing-know-it-alls adding their opinions.
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Comment by JetMech72 — 15/03/2010 @ 2:05 PM