My opinion of assholes

[suckseed]

And, no, not the body part.

I had to work a double today. Took a fairly hard spill last night and my back feels like shit right now. At times during the day, i found myself thinking about bullies, assholes, jerks and people with nothing better to do than fuck with others.
I thought about the time two kids nearly managed to smash a frog i brought to school.
I thought about the kid that caught a pet rabbit of mine that escaped her pen and slashed her throat and left her on my back doorstep (my parents caught him dropping the body off.)
I thought about the stories you read where someone burns a puppy or throws a cat out a car window.
And I thought about this asshole who said what he did to Peggy out of the blue.

I'm not an internet tough guy, or particularly proud of myself for what I'm about to say, and I know it's hardly enlightened.

But these people create a desire in me to beat the complete shit out of them. I probably couldn't. But the emotion is there.

Is this unusual?

I don't tend to 'blame God' for bad things that happen, because I think that our anthropomorphized image of a God that spares some and strikes down others makes no sense. It's absurd, yet I retain the belief that there is more to life than what is readily apparent, and I believe in trying to do good and not bad things to others.

Now one can argue that bullies and sadists were abused or raised without loving parents, etc., yet the exceptions to this are many. Not all who are abused grow up to be abusive, and some bullies are raised by normal people.

So do we just chalk it up to whatever, and turn the page?

All I know is I fucking hate whatever it is that drives humans to do fucked up things. And it's ironic that someone like myself, who's never physically hurt anyone, should be able to graphically imagine taking someone out who would hurt an innocent human being or animal. It's admittedly disturbing to me, and it doesn't feel good when it's happening. Ironically, I think I had just said something here about not losing my temper while making some point about the latest kellygate thing, and then Boom! I read what Numbnuts had to say to Peggy, who's never been anything but nice to everyone, and I just lost it.

Am I the only one around here who feels this way?

Sometimes I wonder if Heaven and Hell are constructs by which we imagine some ultimate justice for all the countless shitty things which happen all the time, largely unpunished or even known about.

My higher self simply thinks, "Every problem has a solution..why would anyone choose not to try to be a part of that? How can I help this simple idea to catch on?"

P.S. I find it incredible that religious types that reject the theory of evolution never consider that evolution could be the mechanism by which
Whatever's-out-There's creations are realized. Or that the only alternative to free will is an elaborate puppet show, predetermined and pointless.

Good night.

[TJ347]

You're definitely not alone in the way you feel, as I feel the same way. I have frequently been infuriated by "internet tough guys" as you call them, who I suspect wouldn't be anywhere near as courageous in a face-to-face setting as they are from behind a monitor, and in the past, have dared more than one to meet me in order to settle things mano y mano. I've since realized the pointlessness of that, and have managed for the most part to keep my temper under control. I've also realized that the internet often doesn't allow sarcasm to translate well, so that I've at times been upset by what I thought people were saying, rather than what they actually meant. Anyway, as far as the comments made to Peggy... that guy was an asshole, period. I must admit that I felt momentarily like I could pound the shit out of him for being such a dick, but really, even if I did, another dick would inevitably make another dumb ass comment, so what would be the point? You can't fight the truth, and the truth is that assholes abound. Peggy is a class act, that's why she's kept herself above all of this. Someone said that the girls here could learn a lot from her, and they were certainly right. But positive role models aren't much in vogue these days, now are they?

[MacShreach]

My opinion of assholes-- without them we'd ALL be full of shit!

[Balcanoid]

Suckseed,hey, there`s always be a general population majority, 99% of them are headless/brainwashed..easy to manipulate with etc) with common problems as envy, shallowness...
That`s a world wide situation more or less...
get use to it, I`ve trying to apart myself of that kind of people, trying not to deal with their problems or their nature/habits...
I must say I do NOT want to place myself in a higher social position but just don`t want to waste my life on it...

[MacShreach]

But seriously, Suckseed, and joking apart, I think what you're saying is pretty normal. I have had to deal with quite a few nasty situations in life, some in my professional career and some in private. I pretty quickly learned that there are some really evil bastards out there and you can't rid the world of them. Sometimes you can do something, sometimes you can change things, sometimes you can confront someone like the idiot that had a go at Peggy. But sometimes, for example when confronted with insurmountable force, you have to turn the heel and walk away and sometimes you just have to say "This is simply not worth getting roused about, nothing I can do or say will make a blind bit of difference," and move on. This last is typical of internet rows.

Having said that I think in general, most people, approached politely, will respond in kind. Most people, approached with aggression, will also respond in kind. So whether someone comes across as an asshole may well have a lot to do with how that person is approached.

There is a tendency on internet discussion boards such as this, which are very loosely moderated, for posters to make their feelings very clear; thus someone hijacking a thread with an off-topic post that has been done to death elsewhere will probably elicit a snub, or at least told to go and do some homework, or someone mouthing off inappropriately may get a load back. Newbies get slapped for doing things that they simply don't realise, because of inexperience, are not appropriate. It may not be perfect but people have to get used to this, it's just the prevailing atmosphere.

HA has a pretty robust atmosphere, Tgilrtalk, for example, is pretty relaxed and polite, some might even say tame. The edginess of the scene here and the routine and often very entertaining drama is part of the mix that attracts members, and since the board needs members to raise advertising revenue, the mods very reasonably let it go until it becomes a real problem, as happened last week.

Remember too, that although the guy who slagged Peggy (I honestly can't remember his name though I remember flaming him for it) did indeed behave like an asshole, in fact the overall response was a reaffirmation of the community's love and respect for Peggy.

So maybe assholes do have a function.

[wendy48088]

* Deleted *

[ezed]

Suckseed, peggy can take care of herself better than anyone on this site. I understand your rage at the shithead who was banned. Have launched similar tirades myself. Don't worry about it. If something sets you off again, let loose with the adjectives. On these boards there are more real people than most all in the internet.

Granted there are so many, "I'm not sure of myself, but have to be heard" they come and they go after their first am I gay post. But the core of this group is one fine group of people, they've been here for a long time, they're the cream of the crop.

Don't rethink your posts, they come from the heart. Once said they're in the past and can only be used to learn for the future. Relax buddy, you were right to go for the throat.