- Joined
- Jan 21, 2007
- Sythe Gold
- 1,234
- Messages
- 14,211
I am most certainly not free. The major issue that is relevant in this discussion is that of society. I generally wish to be left alone and not interact with people I do not know. I enjoy feeling comfortable so I strive for that as well as striving to be not uncomfortable. Unfortunately for me, most people in the world are not like me and so society and institutions are not structured in the way I would prefer them. Thus I must change my behavior in order to exist within the society that exists. I must be pragmatic in what I do and thus I can not be an idealist and I must prioritize what I deem to be most important to me.
My grandfather died last week after his cancer came back maybe six months ago. I have not cried about it and I haven't really felt sad about it except for a few moments. When my mom was having a bad minute and started crying when I was with her is one of the times I felt like I should cry but I hesitate to say that it was because I legitimately wanted to cry. I think that it is a combination of peer pressure, societal norms, and a desire to actually feel something. I'm actually very good at making myself extremely sad and depressed to the point of crying when I want to and thus during these tense moments this might have been happening.
However I would never want to show emotion in those situations. Its awkward and would most likely cause someone to try to comfort me, which I do not want. It might have the whole Christianity thing come up and I'd have to listen to them talk about shit I don't believe in. I'd rather "bottle up" my feelings than put up with all the things that come along with not doing so. Other times I'll openly express my feelings. I cried like a baby when my dog died, along with my entire family. That's a lot less awkward since everyone is bursting into tears and there is none of that annoying crap I don't want to deal with. Again. The girlfriend is an exception to basically all of this. I'd happily cry like a baby if I was just with her. Knowing Jesus isn't going to come up does help with that.
I would say that "bottling" up feelings does not generally apply to me as much as it does to others. I do bottle them up when I can not make them just go away but I am generally quite good at making them go away when I want them to. This might be considered "bottling" since they are most likely still in my subconsciousness but if they are not effecting my mind or behaviors they are as good as non-existent. If there were not so many societal quirks that I had to deal with I would most likely not hide or destroy my emotions so much but I have come to the conclusion that in many cases doing so is better for my overall happiness so I do it. If I feel it isn't better then I don't. I believe that gives me the greatest freedom.
But on to you again.
I will accept that the site's reputation and your reputation are tightly joined. Talk of corruption plagues many other similar sites and commercial ones like our lovely banner advertisers. People are stupid. The average person isn't very bright and half of people are less bright than they are. They are easily manipulated if you sink to their level. Advertising is so widespread because it works wonders for the majority of people, even if it doesn't affect you or me at all. There are definitely ways to connect to the user base without giving trolls their satisfaction. The trolls also are not nearly as sophisticated as you are. They work at a level that the common person would understand and manipulate the user base to their side. Take the whole tinychat drama. I found it extremely easy to get a large amount of hate thrown right at the staff after that.
Why? Because the user base feels like it doesn't get listened to. They don't accept logical arguments since their logical arguments go nowhere. If we think of the staff as a legislative body with politics (which there is obviously politics involved) it's clear that influence and emotion is more important than logic. So the user base is essentially a influence-less body that tries to logic and gets nowhere. This fuels anti-staff sentiment (except for the dick suckers, of course) and causes people to reject logic as valid. I would argue that this sort of thinking is very prevalent within the community especially when they see what they believe is pro-staff bias in terms of scam reports or whatnot.
So when you are being slandered, logic will not work. Any troll worth his weight in troll-gold is going to know how to use the community (aka sheep) to his (or her) advantage. I should say that I am really not using the word logic as it should be. I really should be saying logical argument. To deal with the trolls you need to manipulate the community for their own good. It's just like advertising (which is just veiled and socially accepted manipulation by affluent people and organizations). I'm not going to go into how one should go about doing that here, mostly because I'm too lazy.
I will end by saying you really wouldn't make for a very good politician. They have to put up with national trolling by other politicians while manipulating the public better than the next guy without regard for any moral compass. It's not something I would want to do.
