I'm tired of politics, you guise! I think I'm gonna retire

This place has gotten boring. Rational discussion is a lost cause, and it's not even that much fun to troll anymore. I think I might just hang out here in the non-political sections for awhile. There's just nothing in the other sections that truly piques my interest anymore. Plus it's all just so (*)(*)(*)(*)ing negative! Good grief, Charlie Brown! I can't take it anymore. Gives me a headache. Not enough smiles. Too much anger. When I log in, sometimes I just want to goof off and laugh. I don't want to get sucked into a soul-draining argument about some stupid crap that's not going to get resolved anyway no matter how eloquently a position gets laid out. Because everybody needs to be right. And nobody's willing to listen to anybody. Which makes it completely useless to try to debate anything at all. It all just turns into petty bickering. Yuck!

So yeah, perhaps I'll try to liven up some of these other sections a bit and increase traffic here with more fun, upbeat, and non-political stuff. But if I'm unsuccessful with that, I guess I just won't post that much anymore. I'm just tired of all the fighting. It's not fun.

 

I've read many of your post Unifier, and like them. Good mix of realistic/practical opinion, and humor as well.

I know, it does seem overwhelming at times, but just take a little break (as you've indicated), post to some other sections for a while, then get back in there.

.... the forum needs a balance, seriousness/humor, you're one of the posters that has the ability to bring that.


Good luck to you

 

...who opened the cage?!

 

I can certainly understand your point. Been there myself before even though my posts are never as informed as yours.
I agree with Angredas. You may not realize it but the forum is better with you here.
Take care, have fun whatever you decide.

 

I like your posts, your often correct in many ways.

Your trouble is that like many others here you really just want to speak and be heard, youre not really interested in other people's heads. Therefore you along with many others all talk past each other.

Listen, and you will be heard.

 

Well that is a shame.

We don't agree on much but at least you are atypical and not part of any incessant self congratulatory clique, left or right, running around high fiving each other, and you do make interesting points with evidence of intelligence behind them.

 

Well, I expect the guns will keep you occupied!

 

What about a dictionary of politically correct terminology?

 

There is no 'civility' in today's anonymous public discussions! It's become a playground for rude cowards....

 

Well, people who sneak around with guns are hardly models of good behaviour, surely? And we all know why bully-boys hate anonymity. It used to be the same with secret voting - Massuh needs to know what we are up to, huh?

 

That reminds me of when I first began lurking/reading and posting in political chat rooms.

A couple of memories stick out.

I hadn't explored any info on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict yet and in the beginning stages everything I found by Googling was skewed toward the Palestinians. I knew I wasn't seeing BOTH sides of the story but wading tnrough all the propaganda and lies and BS was discouraging and at one point I briefly succumbed to the temptaion to cast a pox on BOTH sides! Soon afterwards I came to some information from another poster who pointed me to something or another that convinced me that the Palestinians are big fat liars.

And I have yet to read anything since then to dissuade me from my current orientation.

The other memory is that of a poster who was incredulous that after reading a book I would discover information in it which would cause me to change my entire political philosophy, or party affiliation. He thought it improbable at best that anything in a book would or could cause me to change my mind.

Marvelous.

Both memories born in the POLITICAL section of an online forum.

 

Isn't it terrible how one-sided the treatment of Hitler is! Political correctness gone mad!

 

I disagree with you often, but you seem like a decent guy. I tend to stay out of arguments that don't interest me and I try not to post when I can tell the dialogue has gotten off track. (I don't post much) But its good to hang around for the opportunities this forum provides.

You and a couple of other conservatives here seem like real people, you have my respect and I will be sorry if you disappear.

Peace

 

See, Unifier?

You're never gonna find in the 'soft' areas of a PF anything as enjoyable as posts like Iolo's here.

 

Wow, thank you guys. I wasn't expecting this much feedback. Perhaps I'll reconsider.

I think the Boston thing has just kind of put some things in perspective. What am I spending my leisure time doing? Am I contributing more positivity or negativity to the world? I know I can kind of come off confrontational on here sometimes, but my online personality is really quite a bit different from my real life personality. In real life, I'm just a light-hearted, fun guy. I like to make people laugh and put smiles on people's faces. I enjoy being silly and making the world a better place. It feels good, you know? I don't like to be serious all the time. If I walk past a woman on the way out of the grocery store carrying two jugs of milk, I like to say, "Hey lady, nice jugs!"

Even though I'm just standing up for what I believe in on here, I often times feel that because of the nature of the things we usually discuss, I don't really get to access that best part of my personality very often. And it sucks.

But I've gotten into some really cool music discussions lately that I've really enjoyed because it's given me a chance to be passionate about something else that I can actually bond with somebody over instead of arguing. It's been nice. It's also interesting to see where the lines between friend and foe get redrawn when you're not talking about politics. I've noticed a lot of lefty folks that I'm often at odds with will tend to have the best taste in music.

You guys made some good points about people reading that might not be posting. I never thought about that. So I guess maybe my words are reaching more eyes/ears than I realized. And I think creation is half-right about wanting to be heard but not listening. I think the difference is that I go through cycles. Sometimes I'll be in a really open-minded place and I'll be really interested in having a real discussion with somebody, and we can trade points and really have a pretty interesting dialogue. But other times, yeah, I'll admit it, I just want to rant.

Anyway, thank you all for the kind words. You've given me a lot to think about.

 

Frankly the Boston attack- and the response here really irritated me. And your point- what am I doing spending my leisure time here? Am I contributing?

I find myself just confronting people who say things that really, really irritate me, rather than having dialogues much at all. Even in the middle of a fairly rational thread one of the usual suspects will pop in and try to derail it with one of their specific pet peeves.

I may sign off- I am thinking that my reading these boards is not a good thing.

 

That sounds like a good idea Unifier. I'll keep you company here because I have also been growing tired of the old forums and rehashing the same stuff over and over again.

 

You may find that those swings are triggered in some part by frustration. I have seen some very good discussions and debates just slaughtered by a small cabal people hell bent on quietening anyone who does not subscribe to their point of view, no matter how of the edge it might be.

 

I'm glad to hear that you're just taking a break, rather than leaving altogether. I've enjoyed your posts for the last... 3 years now? You certainly add to the quality of discussion here.

I understand though. I sometimes avoid the forum for a week or more at a time, due to burnout, disinterest, cynicism... etc.

 

I swear Unifier, sometimes there is nothing left to post after you post!!...LOL Hope you hang around.

 

Dude, you signed up for a politics forum

Did you expect reasoned discussion in a polite environment?

Take a break, this happens to me from time to time.

 

Too many people are skirting logical discussion and just rant, rave, and attack. It's common. It's getting worse.

I'm honestly starting to think that we get more strict on content of discussion. I'm pretty tired of having an honest discussion, asking someone to explain an opinion they somehow think is obvious and goes without saying, and having them get so nasty every other post they make in the discussion is deleted by a mod. I'm also annoyed of people like Johnny C essentially saying 10+ times over in a thread, "well things will eventually change" without ever offering up any rationale or logic. I've seriously given him likes and reputation every single time I've seen him offer serious logic/rationale, but that's a total of about 3 times.

You'll come back eventually.

 

You'll be back. The good ones never stop trying. But they do find better ways to do it...

 

So true. Sometimes you're left tempted to quote Unifier and say, "^^what he said"