What the heck...?

[merimask]

I feel like everyone took their crazy pills this weekend.

 

Aside from the weather being perfectly shitty, I'm trying to stay busy & productive & keep making pretty things.  Being an emotional, feeling critter, it's been increasingly difficult to do this weekend because I feel beset by irrationality at every turn.

I can barely watch the news anymore because fully half of what I hear makes no sense to me at all.   Between Rush Limbaugh spewing hate & getting applause for it, Proposition 8 continuing to be the most evil little bit of legislation I can think of that's been passed in this country in a long time, and President Obama being blamed for the mess the economy is in by the very same people who happily supported deregulation & the trickle-down free market economy run by greedy shortsighted thieves...it just makes my head hurt.

LJ remains a quiet refuge for me to share my art & my thoughts, & even here I am blindsided by idiocy.  In a friend's journal, responding to a political entry (where I basically said no more than "yes, this." because politically we are similarly-minded) I got dogpiled by a raging right wing dittohead who's opinions were as infuriating as his inability to figure out how Spellcheck works, exactly.  So I did something I've never done before and banned the SOB.

Unfortunately I can't stop him in my friend's LJ where he continues to rage unchecked, attacking everyone in her journal who responded favorably to her entry (while not exactly attacking her or her entry).  It leads me to wonder what I would do if such a flame war broke out in my own journal.   It's not my business to tell other people how to conduct matters in their journals, but this is a social networking community.  If people start flinging sand, I see no reason why they shouldn't be kicked out of the sandbox.  I think this is why I'm so careful & selective about who I actually have on my f-list.  Everyone here behaves civilly towards each other...everyone is rational.  I know for a fact that there are people on my f-list who have opinions both religious & political that differ from my own, but we have too much mutual respect to pick fights in each other's journals (or with the people who reply there...which seems incredibly rude to me).

I resented the attack so much that I almost de-friended her...not because I was upset with her but because I feel that if her LJ is stalked by close-minded ScaryPerson, I'd rather not make myself available as a punching bag to said idiot.  In the end I didn't de-friend because I hate doing that, & frankly I like her.  However, I dislike drama.  I'm not here for drama.  So after banning Rush Jr. I decided that if I don't comment in her LJ anymore, he can't "get" to me anymore.  Why open myself up to unlooked-for and unsolicited attacks?  It seems foolish on my part to do so.

So, there's a new addendum to my own personal "no drama" policy.  If I get bitchslapped in your journal, that's the last time I'm ever going to comment there.  It seems fair enough to me.  Furthermore, if people who comment in my LJ get attacked by someone on my f-list, that person is off my f-list.  I'm not saying we all have to agree all the time about everything; I'm just saying it's rude and uncalled-for and there are other ways to debate an issue than to start a flame war in someone else's journal. 

 

Anyway, these are of course only my opinions.  Your mileage may vary. 

 

Comments

[merimask.livejournal.com]

I don't understand how it's anti-patriotic to question a war that was started for dubious reasons (seriously...they sent poor Colin Powell to the UN with drawings of what a truck full of WMDs might look like...a drawing), & yet it's perfectly fine & patriotic to say that you hope the President fails in his attempts to repair a flagging economy & stop the bleeding. Ummm...WTF?? And I'm the crazy one?

Honestly, I understand that this is a public networking forum...but we DO list our "interests" for a reason. So it upsets me when I have a run in with a person I'd normally never cross paths with. I'm not saying I won't debate with folks who are respectful & yet have differing opinions from mine...that's how we learn & grow. I'm just not getting into a shouting match with unreasonable people who've already been told what they think. It's a battle I won't fight.