Men's Group

like the guy who felt compelled the other day to call me a misogynist, a racist AND someone who apparently has it in for disabled people- all because I would not offer some ridiculous pre-approved blank check of condemnation against all possible jokes that supposedly met some arbitrary criteria, before the fact and without context.


Never mind that I have a family member with CP. Does DU know that? Probably not. Why would they? I don't really talk about it here, because I'm generally not on DU to work through my personal shit, certainly not to use total strangers as proxy enemies for whatever it is I've got bugging me in my own life.

So some dude is a hero, "bravely speaking truth" because he flies off the rails and can't keep himself from insulting people in a thread? He's a victim of totalitarianism a la Martin Niemöller? REALLY? "First, they came for the thread hijackers"... Give me a break.

No, honestly, here I will toot my own horn: what was heroic there was my keeping my friggin' patience when told to my face I don't give a shit about disabled people.

Someone is not a hero for getting a timeout on a message board, because they can't keep from dragging personal insults into a conversation. That's not "heroism".

And I look at all the wailing, the gnashing of teeth over the "silencing"- and I look at the transparency pages of the silenced- and I have to wonder, what is the important speech which is being "unfairly" silenced? Judging by the transparency pages, it seems what some are angry about, is that they and their pals don't have the freedom to freely toss out the worst, nastiest, most personal insults at the people they've deemed their "enemies"-

...I don't just mean the name calling directed at me, I'm talking the lapdog comments, the shit about B's family member... these are things which they would never in a million years think they should put up with, if they were directed at people on their "side".

So.... it's bullshit.

Here's another example. A while back someone on DU posted a personal attack against someone I've disagreed with, vociferously, over the years. The person doing the posting was someone I have some stuff in common with, someone whom I have had pleasant exchanges with over the years. Someone I would consider a friend. The person on the other end of the attack has certainly done more than enough in the time I've been here, to alienate a large chunk of the board.

Nevertheless, when I saw what the person on my "side" said about the person on the other "side", I sent my friend a PM. I said that while I understood being frustrated, the particular comment was, in my mind, over the top. I told him that, in my opinion, he probably owed that poster- the one he insulted, my "enemy"- an apology.

Did I do this to get points on DU? Head pats? As part of some devious master plan? No. I did it because it was the decent fucking thing to do. And I never would have brought it up again, except that it provides a glaring contrast to recent events. Because in addition to what I did do, here's what I did NOT do- since that person had their account, at least temporarily, suspended. I did NOT rush over to ATA to complain about the 'unfairness' of their account lock, the hides, some improbably goofy 'conspiracy' to silence them.

I did NOT start a thread lauding their wonderful contributions and "needed commentary" or whatever-the-fuck, making the clear implication that said needed commentary was the totally uncalled for shit they just flinged at the person I don't, personally, get along with.