RANT:
I am considering dropping off the face of the Internet for any other than business purposes.
Rule #1 of any online posting.
Any post at all is indicative of strong emotion on the part of the poster, and the sillier and more irrational, the better. You cannot post facts, figures, or dry ideas. It is simply not possible.
You feel strongly and
irrationally about the subject at hand, even if you do not believe you do, and even if what you have said makes no reference to your internal state at all, and even if, in fact, you are unaware of any reaction or personal feelings in the matter to begin with.
Rule #2. Once you have been identified as someone who has
ever made an irrational post, any further posting on your part is simply a continuing effort to start drama and get some unfathomable thing known as "attention". In combination with Rule #1, you will note that Rule #2 kicks in at your second post.
Rule #3.
Others never do this. Only you do. The other guy is never crazy. Only you are.
I must clarify that the series of materials that has led me to this conclusion has nothing whatever to do with politics, religion, sexuality, mental illness, or real estate agents and that the posts that have led me to this conclusion did not feature these issues.
Can you tell I'm just
sick to death of others telling
me what I am thinking and feeling? In short, I've had it with about 90% of the Internet. About ready to pull the plug on the whole thing, in fact. I seem to remember a thing called "real life" in which people actually responded to a neutral statement, with a neutral facial expression and a neutral tone of voice, well, neutrally. I want to go back to that. There I had a hope in hell of being treated like a normal, rational person. It seems in the absence of cues as to what people are really feeling the norm is to assume the worst. Hence they see not a bland screen but a raving maniac, whether one is there or not.
In the last 24 hours I have been accused of: (a) thinking that the police are monsters who are out to get me; (b) thinking that the number of dreams I have about natural disasters is indicative of their severity; (c) assuming I am going to be banned from a forum for having expressed no particular interest in its "adult" section; (d) being a "drama llama" because I don't see the utility of having an "ignore user's posts" feature
1; and (e) attacking a poster (who has since left the relevant forum) for being French...all in separate issues. At no point in any of these threads did I lose my temper. (No, I waited until I got here, you
lucky dogs! ) In all of my posts I stated what I
thought at the time were bland opinions. And in these cases I got the responses you see above. In at least two of them, the response to me had
nothing whatever to do with what I had said.
It
could be that I have found a Genuine Band of Crazies, but, refer to Rule #3...the other guy is never crazy, only you are. Plus, this kind of thing seems to happen everywhere on the damn Net, and when I visit forums and lurk - without even registering - I can see the same stupid sh*t unfold between other people.
Gawdz I need a vacation. A long one. On some island. Only I fear I would never come back.
Hope this has been an amusing rant.
I needed it, anyway, and I must assume I am not alone.
ADDITIONAL CLARIFICATION. This post, Reply #64 to the Rants and Raves topic on The Pagan Grove forum/In the Clearing/The Lobby, entered by Denethor on July 24, 2009 at sometime just ahead of seven o'clock Eastern U.S. Daylight Time, plus or minus any time necessary for the inevitable editing and typo correction,
is in fact intended to express a strong emotion. The emotion in question is frustration. It is
not terror, mania, mortification, or homicidal rage. It is in no way suicidal, and I am not under the influence of any recreational chemical enhancement. Thank you for reading.
1 For purposes of
this forum, though, in the interests of pleasing our peeps if the members want one I will look into it. Assuming I'm still on the Net!