Re: Before my time

And the more vociferous the complaint, the more the complainant is likely to be a political thread starter who criticizes others in the harshest terms.

That's your bias. I rarely start political threads (the recent one being an exception--99% of the time I'm replying to something you, Baldur or LGs started, sooooo . . . yeah.

Its not that they refrain, they'd just like those who don't share their own politics to refrain from chiming in after being slurred.

I urge you to actually examine the posts I've started since I've been a member of GC, and then look at those started by you, Baldur, LGs and even Dissident. You'll notice the difference right away. My thread-starters are overwhelmingly something related to girls, usually media-related but not always.

Folks, join in, or don't. But please don't spend 7 posts arguing politics and your 8th complaining about political argument.

If by "folks" you mean me (and obviously you do), read the post I just made again. I'm not really complaining about political threads per se; what I am complaining about is the vicious nature that these threads tend to devolve into (and you'll note I included myself in that group). There's a lot of finger-pointing and scapegoating, as well as simplistic, high-contrast thinking, all wrapped up in a moldy tortilla of bitterness and resentment. I know where it's coming from: frustration at our own ineffectualness, and too many people are in denial about it. No one here but me seems inclined to do such self-diagnostics when it comes to our community, but they have to be done from time to time and we have to be reminded of what this community is supposed to be about.

Sheepy, who is not only a GLer but a cancer survivor, manages to keep upbeat and focused on the goal we all should be focused on rather than constantly bitching about our enemies and screaming "They're coming to get us, man! The black helicopters are circling!" but even she has to be growing weary of constantly trying to keep this community in line and focused in the right direction. She's fighting a war on two fronts and I am frankly awed by her stamina, but if we don't get our shit together we're going to lose her and that would be a bigger tragedy than Joe Pedo getting arrested for screwing his boy puppet or whatever, because it would affect us all directly.

In other words, I'm saying we need to think about why we're here and what we're doing because we're clearly not helping ourselves at all. And yet we keep going round in circles and pointing fingers. Isn't it LGs who is fond of saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? Well, the Cheshire Cat was right: we're all mad here. And why? We really are our own worst enemies. Sheepy has a point: it seems like we're intent on alienating pretty much everyone who disagrees with us. Why?