3 ms·

Everything you say here is extremely condescending and assumes that you are more mature and experienced than the reader. I'm not going to toot my own horn, but

Everything you say here is extremely condescending and assumes that you are more mature and experienced than the reader. I'm not going to toot my own horn, but I will say this about the aged elders I have met who were fantastic and respectable people, and from whom I learned the most: their main feature was humility, and knowing that they did not in fact know everything. Not everyone likes paper books. Some people like trees, but also using a laptop under one. Some people are growing up gay or trans in a hard-right reactionary community and their only outlet is the Internet. Others simply prefer the company of they know online to those they happen to meet on the street. I'm glad you have experienced personal growth in your own life. You think the views you used to hold were underdeveloped - fine! But don't pattern match other people you meet to those views and assume they just need to get past them and think like you do now. That's rude and presumptuous.

williamcotton 11y ago
> Everything you say here is extremely condescending and assumes that you are more mature and experienced than the reader. That's just your interpretation. Other people are entitled to their own interpretation of what I'm saying. I don't feel like I'm being condescending, I feel like I am being patronizing. Those are related concepts but they're not the same thing. Also, if you didn't notice, and this could just be my fault, but I was trying to be comical! I was playing the patronizing character who shouts "NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!" > I'm not going to toot my own horn, but I will say this about the aged elders I have met who were fantastic and respectable people, and from whom I learned the most: their main feature was humility, and knowing that they did not in fact know everything. You have no idea who I am nor what I'm like. How about you offer up some of your personal opinions and you let me take a crack at judging you? I'm willing to have a very open and honest talk about some very real instances of paranoid delusions that seem to dominate the conversation in our forums. I think these are destructive and unnecessary fixations. This is what makes me patronizing. I'm telling you that if you think that "the government is watching everything that we all do, all the time" and that if this makes you unhappy, well, there's a reason for that. It's a matter of perspective. I'm offering a paternal perspective. I've been there, I've done that, and I'm here to tell you that you're being a bunch of doofuses. NOW GET OFF MY LAWN! > Not everyone likes paper books. Some people like trees, but also using a laptop under one. Ok, but that doesn't change the political and legal realities of what it means to have a paper book and what it means to use a laptop connected to the Internet. > Some people are growing up gay or trans in a hard-right reactionary community and their only outlet is the Internet. They have many more outlets than the Internet! I would argue that there are much more productive and healthy outlets than those found on Internet forums. It is at least unhealthy to think of the Internet as being someone's only outlet. Growing up and being a teenager is difficult anywhere and I definitely found a lot of support on the Internet when I was a teenager in the mid 90s but shying away from the real world was never a long term solution. If there are hard-right reactionary communities that are oppressing teenagers then we need to figure out how to fix the root cause of those issues, and not just paper over them by avoiding the confrontation! > Others simply prefer the company of they know online to those they happen to meet on the street. And just like conversations on the street, you should expect people to be able to hear your conversations when you're publicly broadcasting information from your physical location! NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!
- EdSharkey 11y ago
  You're not so clever. You read like a book.

williamcotton 11y ago

> Everything you say here is extremely condescending and assumes that you are more mature and experienced than the reader. That's just your interpretation. Other people are entitled to their own interpretation of what I'm saying. I don't feel like I'm being condescending, I feel like I am being patronizing. Those are related concepts but they're not the same thing. Also, if you didn't notice, and this could just be my fault, but I was trying to be comical! I was playing the patronizing character who shouts "NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!" > I'm not going to toot my own horn, but I will say this about the aged elders I have met who were fantastic and respectable people, and from whom I learned the most: their main feature was humility, and knowing that they did not in fact know everything. You have no idea who I am nor what I'm like. How about you offer up some of your personal opinions and you let me take a crack at judging you? I'm willing to have a very open and honest talk about some very real instances of paranoid delusions that seem to dominate the conversation in our forums. I think these are destructive and unnecessary fixations. This is what makes me patronizing. I'm telling you that if you think that "the government is watching everything that we all do, all the time" and that if this makes you unhappy, well, there's a reason for that. It's a matter of perspective. I'm offering a paternal perspective. I've been there, I've done that, and I'm here to tell you that you're being a bunch of doofuses. NOW GET OFF MY LAWN! > Not everyone likes paper books. Some people like trees, but also using a laptop under one. Ok, but that doesn't change the political and legal realities of what it means to have a paper book and what it means to use a laptop connected to the Internet. > Some people are growing up gay or trans in a hard-right reactionary community and their only outlet is the Internet. They have many more outlets than the Internet! I would argue that there are much more productive and healthy outlets than those found on Internet forums. It is at least unhealthy to think of the Internet as being someone's only outlet. Growing up and being a teenager is difficult anywhere and I definitely found a lot of support on the Internet when I was a teenager in the mid 90s but shying away from the real world was never a long term solution. If there are hard-right reactionary communities that are oppressing teenagers then we need to figure out how to fix the root cause of those issues, and not just paper over them by avoiding the confrontation! > Others simply prefer the company of they know online to those they happen to meet on the street. And just like conversations on the street, you should expect people to be able to hear your conversations when you're publicly broadcasting information from your physical location! NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!

EdSharkey 11y ago
You're not so clever. You read like a book.