Naw, ya know what?

[Saurian Tail]

I'm still here
I'm just not going back to the Misogyny thread. It's a tarbaby.

PS I'm not here to negotiate sexual politics. I'm quite successful at that in life. I'm here to talk and learn about things I can't discuss in 'polite company' - UFOs, holistic medicine, transhumanism, international mystery and intrigue.

oh that's a sneaky little edit you put in there, Cricket. I'm sure you are very successful and 'negotiating sexual politics' in life. All the chicks who play along have a great time of it.. on the surface.

And if you're so good at it I wonder why you aren't lending your expertise to the sisters who are clearly failing?

Crikkett in the Crosshairs ...

I'm sorry, do you have a dog in this fight?
What is the purpose of what you have just written? Is it to facilitate discussion?

The purpose for my post was to point out that even the simple choice to forgo participation in an internet flame war is apparently sufficient cause to be labeled a "play along" chick.

I interpreted the label "play along" chick to be an insult directed towards Crikkett. I was objecting to what I saw as a casual and unwarranted dismissal by you CW.

If I misunderstood your intent, I apologize.

[Burnt Hill]

The clickish part bothered me recently with the "DogTooth" thread.

What does that have to do with this discussion? There was a game in one thread, and either you didn't like it or didn't get it or didn't care. So?

Maddie referred to RI as a club. Clubs are essentially clicquish. Clicquishness was manifest by the "Dogtooth" thread. So?

[crikkett]

I interpreted the label "play along" chick to be an insult directed towards Crikkett.

It was, in my opinion, a troll.

Hey Mods, over here!

[Jeff]

Do we really need to do this? I'm not keeping a thread open if all it's good for is incitement and flaming that could burn the house down. So please, good souls of RI, make it good for something else.

[JackRiddler]

The clickish part bothered me recently with the "DogTooth" thread.

What does that have to do with this discussion? There was a game in one thread, and either you didn't like it or didn't get it or didn't care. So?

Maddie referred to RI as a club. Clubs are essentially clicquish. Clicquishness was manifest by the "Dogtooth" thread. So?

RI is and should be a club, and is thoroughly unremarkable for being so. The question is, what kind of club? To what end, with what atmosphere, with what social set up and agendas, what rules, what conditions of newcomer acceptance by old-timers, etc.? All these grow organically, usually, and it tends to work out well.

.

[Canadian_watcher]

I'm still here
I'm just not going back to the Misogyny thread. It's a tarbaby.

PS I'm not here to negotiate sexual politics. I'm quite successful at that in life. I'm here to talk and learn about things I can't discuss in 'polite company' - UFOs, holistic medicine, transhumanism, international mystery and intrigue.

oh that's a sneaky little edit you put in there, Cricket. I'm sure you are very successful and 'negotiating sexual politics' in life. All the chicks who play along have a great time of it.. on the surface.

And if you're so good at it I wonder why you aren't lending your expertise to the sisters who are clearly failing?

Crikkett in the Crosshairs ...

I'm sorry, do you have a dog in this fight?
What is the purpose of what you have just written? Is it to facilitate discussion?

The purpose for my post was to point out that even the simple choice to forgo participation in an internet flame war is apparently sufficient cause to be labeled a "play along" chick.

I interpreted the label "play along" chick to be an insult directed towards Crikkett. I was objecting to what I saw as a casual and unwarranted dismissal by you CW.

If I misunderstood your intent, I apologize.

IOW, you just wanted to make everything worse.
ignored.

[freemason9]

yes, you're right. me and every other guy on here "runs the world".

Oh here, we got another one, a poor, male victim of misogyny.

Yeah, I think I'm getting ready to be done with this backwater too.

It does get a bit strident in here at times, no? I know what you mean, willow, and that is exactly why I restrict my contributions to terse statements these days. It increasingly seems as if I don't swing with the monkeys.

Look at it this way; our lumps are well-earned, and our bruises are badges of reason. Nevertheless, Rigorous Intuition is always a great source of entertainment, much like the Art Bell radio show of the old days. Lord, I miss that guy.

[freemason9]

And Maddy--if I can hang out here, then so can you. Only do it for the entertainment value, though, and if it has truly ceased to be entertaining, then I certainly understand your point in leaving.

But you have been an understanding soul, and I have appreciated your gestures in the past.

May God bless you and keep you safe.

[Burnt Hill]

The question is, what kind of club?

The kind where one doesnt get offended if their thread is mentioned by another in an attempt to share discomfort.
I was simply empathizing. I mentioned your thread, but its not about you Jack, sorry if I tweaked you.
That "Dogtooth" thread alienated me, and I felt like relating that to Maddie.

[justdrew]

"What Song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, though puzzling Questions[,] are not beyond all conjecture."
- Sir Thomas Browne

[freemason9]

I do not know what that even means.

[justdrew]

I do not know what that even means.

it's from this
not sure why it seemed apropos either
yet, there it is...

[82_28]

I take it, FM9, as there are always questions (conjecture) and yet we are all one with differences among the whole.

Here's what I dig about here, is that there are friends. Period. Friends among us. Every group online or off is going to have a condescending asshole or two. This is what bothers me most about here, is because I do take it personally, yet do not feel that from some members I have been granted in various ways, demands of some kind requiring obsequiousness because I am a male. I won't stand down on this. I am not sexist, a misogynist, a racist, a hater, any of that, but just a garden variety American male who is into the shit we do around here and adds conventional quips and insight into his life experience (as any of anything I say matters). I do not need to be told that because I am a man, I do not understand. Be this the case, then fine, tell the forum what it is that is missing. You people who personalize the fuck out of shit need to lay off and think about this place as an Internet forum and not a place where you can simply vent unaddressed issues in your personal lives, male or female. I really don't give too much of a fuck, but I got in trouble in Misogyny for relaying stupid personal stories, meant to lighten the mood, because my stories were actually, at the time, mood lightening.

No matter how many assholes who have told me that I am set to "ignore" or threaten to put me on ignore or whatever or call other member's "twits" with obliqueness set to stun, we're still populating a place that is pretty fucking rad and is still my number one destination every morning when I wake up and evening when I am winding down and I have met some damned fine people here. But, if all this place is attracting are twits and male chauvinists because some have deemed it so, then that is what has happened and RI, for me, the forum, has run its course in my life. It's become a tulpa. Say, what the fuck happened to Posting Tulpa?

I wanna talk about the issues with my peers here, not be perpetually condescended to/at because I am who I happen to be. There is not a misogyny "problem" at RI, there is a problem of people just letting shit roll like water off a duck's back. I have no fucking idea what has happened on that misogyny thread after my haranguing early on, so I don't know what the fuck has happened because I WILL NOT even click that shit. Way too painful. And not for any of the right reasons.

I would put a Rush link to "Different Strings" here, were it not that I have had multiple people make fun of me and insult me for just about anything I do. So search for it, dicks.

Anyways, I'll be around. I have modified, somewhat, my behavior in interest of this dust-up, which I think has very little to do with me. But, I do not like that there are places and conversations on RI that I am unwelcome. Overall, all good lessons learned, by just staying away.

I really don't think people grok how ultimately cruel they really are deep down around here.

[justdrew]

I take it, FM9, as there are always questions (conjecture) and yet we are all one with differences among the whole.

well I for one always am glad to see your posts 82_28, AND I like what you're doing with your tumblr

and I hear what you're saying, for example, that silly short, "the s from hell" is making another pass on the internet's attentional treadmill, and I thought to note it by bumping the old thread, only to be reminded the three page thread was one page of stuff about the OP, and two pages of pointless bickering about is it or isn't it a waste of time, and if so, was it intentionally so, and if so, by who and for what purpose; but mostly just needlessly nasty back and forth; and sadly, between high quality folks too. So, not minimizing anyone's (or any gender's) just complaints... a simple call to chill.

---

ps - the life story of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Browne does feel somewhat indicative of how complex people can be, and built of both light and dark. (there must be a good Shakespeare phrase about that... anyone?)

[slomo]

I've been lurking a number of months since my last post. I've decided that RI has run its course. I'll still probably lurk and read, but I have no motivation to post here anymore. I have asked Jeff to deactivate my account.

This thread, as well as the misogyny thread, helped with the decision. I'm surprised that a number of readers can't see how charges of "misogyny" and the obsession with making places emotionally "safe" for women actually facilitates totalitarianism more than any reptile/UFO/HAARP conspiracy ever could. Because it always needs to be stated, even though it should be obvious: I am of course distinguishing perceived emotional threat from actual physical threat.

If harassment can be inferred for the smallest inconvenience and perception of hostility, than freedom is effectively dead.

There are other issues: mostly, I've come to the conclusion that posting comments to forums and blogs is a dead end. In my experience, it does not lead to real-world connections, which are the ones that really matter as far as making the world a better place.

So long.... I am grateful for the space Jeff has created over the years for people to converse and explore their beliefs in a place that had almost no enforced boundaries. Sadly, that seems to be changing.