The End of Civility?

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

OTTOHAUSEN

The problem with your thesis is: Most people who post here are genuine assholes.

There really needs to be an application test for admission. Maybe an IQ test and a personality test that identifies posters as PSYCHOTIC MORONS or ASS-HATS.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, you do, you really do. (stealing rose)

So's your face.

 

[ottohauser1977]

I think the exposure is a key point. When homosexuals go from being mysterious other to neighbor or coworker, you realize that they really aren't that different from you. Safe_Bet wrote about that on another thread recently. She and her wife live in California with their twin girls. Some of her neighbors belong to a conservative church that is stridently in favor of Prop 8 (taking away legal marriage for homosexuals in California). She overheard the husband in that marriage say that he didn't care what the pastor of their church said, she and Amy were good people with adorable children and he wouldn't be part of anything that hurt them. I would point out that sociologists estimate that 10% of the population is homosexual. I'm sure you know some.

I would say that part of the motivation in the US is the legal protection it provides you. When you're married, you become next-of-kin. It affects health insurance, benefits, custody of the children, hospital visitation. The list is long and varied. Suppose for a moment that you're in a long term relationship with another man. His family stridently disapproves of you and his lifestyle and cut off contact with him ten years ago because of it. Suppose further that he was married to a woman who died and that you and he are raising his children. Now suppose that he's seriously injured in a car accident. His family comes sweeping in and automatically are able to make all of the decisions regarding his care. You aren't allowed to see him even though he's the love of your life. They can fight for custody of the children and maybe even the house where you live. This couple's ability to protect themselves with powers of attorney etc. vary from state to state. Even if they had one valid for their own state, it might not protect them on vacation. As a woman, I can get all of those rights and benefits automatically if I marry a man. Why shouldn't a man be able to say the same thing? To me it's a simple matter of fairness.

Having been to both Berlin and East Texas, I have to ask why on earth you chose East Texas?

In answer to your question, I got stuck in East Texas (long story). My original destination was Colorado. I may yet move there. But for now, I have a steady job and I'm loathe to give that up. As for Berlin, it's a lot harder for an East Berliner than for a West, though it's improving (so my sister tells me). And I emigrated for political reasons at the time (my politics were considerably right of where they are now). Also, I got married to an American woman and then divorced her (another long story). That tends to affect one's plans, too.

The legal protection part makes sense, true. That's a factor that doesn't occur to one who has access to it. Again, part of my isolation from the gay community, I suppose. Haven't experienced their heartache in that respect.

 

[Le Jacquelope]

Wow. Maybe if people just stopped pigeon holing people here altogether, we'd probably have a little more civility.

I love the switch-on, switch-off rules thing that passes for morality on Lit.

Well spoken, sir.[/QUOTE]
You'll also notice a whole lot of "Do as I say do, not as I do" mentality.

Such as, if you call someone names, the crowd will balk at you, but if someone in the crowd starts calling you names over a disagreement over an issue, suddenly it's justified. Then when you prove your point they all take their toys and go home in an angry sulk, flinging poo behind their backs.

AHers are complaining about the "end of civility" but like any forum so stricken, they really need to look inside themselves for the cause of that - and the answer.

 

[cloudy]

I'm not always civil, but then, I've never complained about others not being civil.

At least I'm always honest.

 

[Guest]

Well spoken, sir.
You'll also notice a whole lot of "Do as I say do, not as I do" mentality.

Such as, if you call someone names, the crowd will balk at you, but if someone in the crowd starts calling you names over a disagreement over an issue, suddenly it's justified. Then when you prove your point they all take their toys and go home in an angry sulk, flinging poo behind their backs.

AHers are complaining about the "end of civility" but like any forum so stricken, they really need to look inside themselves for the cause of that - and the answer.

As the OP for this thread, Jacque, I take the above as an attempt to tar me with the same brush... and I reject it.

I wouldn't be surprised if, somewhere in the 1300+ posts I've made, I've on rare occasions been less than civil, but such posts would indeed be the rare exception.

 

[Le Jacquelope]

As the OP for this thread, Jacque, I take the above as an attempt to tar me with the same brush... and I reject it.

I wouldn't be surprised if, somewhere in the 1300+ posts I've made, I've on rare occasions been less than civil, but such posts would indeed be the rare exception.

It wasn't about you.

It was about a certain crowd of people who contribute to the incivility here.

I'm talking in particular about people like sr71plt who went on a flaming, namecalling rampage when I spoke in the defense of people who were losing their money in bank failures. I was speaking of people like him who took their ball and simply left like angry little kids after I was proven right by the actions of Governments around the world.

But that's alright - people like sr71plt don't hold jobs. They can't. They open their mouths and get fired just like that.

In any case I would love to have people like him working for my opposition. He'd drive customers out like the Jews leaving Egypt, lol!

 

[freshface]

It wasn't about you.

It was about a certain crowd of people who contribute to the incivility here.

I'm talking in particular about people like sr71plt who went on a flaming, namecalling rampage when I spoke in the defense of people who were losing their money in bank failures. I was speaking of people like him who took their ball and simply left like angry little kids after I was proven right by the actions of Governments around the world.

But that's alright - people like sr71plt don't hold jobs. They can't. They open their mouths and get fired just like that.

In any case I would love to have people like him working for my opposition. He'd drive customers out like the Jews leaving Egypt, lol!

Speaking of incivility...

 

[Le Jacquelope]

You know, it's one thing for Stella Omega and Voluptuary Manque to go absolutely postal as soon as someone dares to disagree with their dogma:

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=686746

But it becomes utterly hilarious when the person they are rabidly defending, backs down from his own cause...

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I'm reading a fascinating book about American foreign policy. The author claims that our policy is to disrupt and sow the seeds of discord everywhere. And to this end we bring our girlz and their swollen bellies with us to fanatical Muslim countries where that sort of thing makes them nutz and fight each other. Our goal is to keep the moderates and fanatics shooting at each other rather than unifying.

 

[vrosej10]

I'm reading a fascinating book about American foreign policy. The author claims that our policy is to disrupt and sow the seeds of discord everywhere. And to this end we bring our girlz and their swollen bellies with us to fanatical Muslim countries where that sort of thing makes them nutz and fight each other. Our goal is to keep the moderates and fanatics shooting at each other rather than unifying.

I would agree with that. I was talking with my husband and we both noticed that the US seems to function best as a unified nation when it has a clear enemy. If you don't have one, you seem to try and drum on up. When you couldn't get Osama, you went after Saddam Hussien. Peace times just don't seem to work for you guys. I am wondering whether it's because you started with a civil war. Aussies have a real distaste for authority as a nation and I think that's cause we arose from convicts. Same thing.

 

[Le Jacquelope]

I would agree with that. I was talking with my husband and we both noticed that the US seems to function best as a unified nation when it has a clear enemy.

That depends on how you define 'function'.

For certain, we did seem fairly united after 9/11. We also seemed united in supporting the invasion of Iraq, although I do recall, as the last gesture I ever made before I turned Democrat, that I supported the protestors' rights to free speech, because of the protests that started to happen.

The problem with America's "unity" in the Iraq War is that we all went together into hell in a handbasket. Over a pack of lies.

I would not define that as 'functioning best'.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

According to the book America has spent much of its history at war, and the number of incidents increases as time passes. And he predicts we'll do more of it in the future....not to conquer, but to keep everyone else in turmoil. We're an adolescent nation.