Forum Staff/Threads, What The Frog?!

[BlakeConor14]

@jvcarroll Old Thunder kept on correcting my grammar and spelling which I politely asked him not to.
He carried on so I sent him a PM which also politely asked him not to.
Then later in the evening he got nasty towards me. So I had to defend myself.


I class it as an act of bullying and so does @dwayne1115 and @Any Del

 

[LittleJerry92]

The staff had enough with the fighting, and two threads got axed (your State of the World thread and the 100,000 replies thread after only one argument).

 

[jvcarroll]

Honestly I don't have the patience to be a staff member, and yeah, I'm guilty of getting into fights with some members, but most of it is me putting them in their place (only once do I think I just trolled them, giving a taste of their own medicine).

I dunno. To be honest, some of my expectations for this site have gone down for me last night after what happened.

But yeah, overall I was really angry last night. Yeah, sure, it sucks I lost alot of messages and likes, but, eh, they're whatever, but I was mostly angry on the fact of two things.

1) a stupid argument happened on a thread that was very theraputic for me. I had alot of fun goofing around with friends ( *cough* tagging @muppetgem *cough) and once the arguing came in, it felt like just another Steve/you can't blame the left for anything thread. And it's still sad that I was able to predict that the state of the world thread would go to **** because I knew it would.

2) that only one simple argument ended up getting the thread go bye bye, whereas we had to wait MONTHS for the state of the world to dissapear, and in a few hours or days, the state of us and our things will be bumped up (probably by a certain LGBT member; and I don't mean this in any disrespect to him, mind you, I'm just predicting it might be him since I know he likes talking about how much Trump is destroying the country and our community) and just go right back to square one.

I've just never felt so upset/dissapointed in my life. I honestly wanted to smash my head through the wall last night.

Dude, Trump is destroying our country, particularly the Environmental Protection Agency, in ways that we're going to regret for decades to come. That's damage that will never be able to be repaired in the future; only curbed and dealt with. That'll mean lives lost and ruined and probably cancer to many. Waste dumping has been largely deregulated! That was a huge cause of Jim Henson! No matter what your party, that's plain and scary fact. One should never bury their head in the sand about that. Imagine the water in Flint, Michigan, but on a national scale! This is a direct reality from the poor and greedy policies of Trump. But the reality that I'm LGBTQ should have nothing to do with anything. It confuses and troubles me much that your post dings some negativity about that. The truth is, we should be able to discuss the issues of the day without personalizing them and we've all had break throughs. It's unfortunate that you've singled me out here because I've made a point of upping my game of being respectful to ALL and will continue to do so. I'm not planning to personalize this. Just a little disappointed here, not upset. I have no idea what happened last night so emotions seem to be high. I'll attribute this post to that.

 

[LittleJerry92]

@jvcarroll I'm sorry if my post came off the wrong way. I only mentioned the LGBT thing cause I didn't feel like just straight up mentioning your name, but again, I'm sorry if that rubbed you off the wrong way.

You are right though; he is destroying the country and I do like to talk about it. Honestly, muppet central is the only site that I like to talk about politics on (forget about talking about them on Facebook or YouTube), and I appreciate the threads you make in regards to them; it's also just been frustratating because it's felt like I've also been painted a picture on of me being a white supremacist/extreme right conservative from another member that I won't bring up because it should be obvious who I'm referencing.

 

[jvcarroll]

@jvcarroll Old Thunder kept on correcting my grammar and spelling which I politely asked him not to.
He carried on so I sent him a PM which also politely asked him not to.
Then later in the evening he got nasty towards me. So I had to defend myself.


I class it as an act of bullying and so does @dwayne1115 and @Any Del

The staff had enough with the fighting, and two threads got axed (your State of the World thread and the 100,000 replies thread after only one argument).

Well, that's just stupid. Censored's politics are largely on point and he's really funny sometimes, but his tone and snark often annoyed me and I pointed that out. What annoys me more was how easily people took the bait. I've been on that boat with others members before, but ultimately figured out how to deal with that sort of thing with a little help from Frozen's Elsa! LOL! We're in charge of how we feel about ourselves. The thing is, there are members on this site who will try to paint us in an unfair and negative light, but what we do after that is what really defines us. Never forget that, people. It was a hard lesson for me to learn and I'd like to help people to avoid my mistakes of the past. To be clear, I'm not mad at him or any of y'all. Working retail for 39 hours a week and working another 20-40 hours a week in my other job, has reminded me much about conflict resolution. Be the conduit for mindful solution or be the silent one. That's basically it. Frog bless us, everyone!

 

[LittleJerry92]

I dunno. At this point though, I think I am just done with getting into fights on politics. Most of us have settled peace except for one, and I'm done wasting my energy on the guy.

 

[jvcarroll]

@jvcarroll I'm sorry if my post came off the wrong way. I only mentioned the LGBT thing cause I didn't feel like just straight up mentioning your name, but again, I'm sorry if that rubbed you off the wrong way.

You are right though; he is destroying the country and I do like to talk about it. Honestly, Muppet Central is the only site that I like to talk about politics on (forget about talking about them on Facebook or YouTube), and I appreciate the threads you make in regards to them; it's also just been frustrating because it's felt like I've also been painted a picture on of me being a white supremacist/extreme right conservative from another member that I won't bring up because it should be obvious who I'm referencing.

Thanks for that. I don't think you're racist. I really hate that term because we ALL have racial blind spots. That's the best term for it. People usually use the racist label in order to show compassion to minorities who need that compassion. In doing that, however, compassion is not shown the people exhibiting racially insensitive behavior (something we ALL have due to our limited experiences). That's the golden rule right there. Unless someone is totally racist, like White Nationalists, I try to stay away from assigning that label. I've, at times, incorrectly labeled Trump as a racist. He definitely harnessed the racial fears of others and rode that into the Oval Office, but he's a narcissist, a megalomaniac and an opportunist. He doesn't even see those as weaknesses. Ha! Ultimately, those crying racism can really hurt the cause against it more than any white supremacist. Integrity only means something when it's difficult to employ. The same goes for compassion. That's how I am in my normal life that doesn't read so well on the forum. That, more than anything, frustrates me the most. It's also opened my eyes that other people come off that same way to me on certain topics. A little bit of the Golden Rule goes a long way. As stated (in the now deleted thread) earlier, instead of making rules and guidelines for the behavior of other people here, I've decided to focus on my own and try to inspire that in others. We start with ourselves. If someone offends me, I'll speak respectfully and directly to it as dispassionately as possible. That's what deescalates things. That's often what's most needed and doing what's needed is, like, my favorite thing in the world! That and writing hella long posts. Merpaderp

 

[The Count]

This is one of those times when I feel just like Kenny/Mysterion at the end of the South Park trilogy Coon & Friends 2: The Rise of Cthulhu. Look it up on youtube or whatever and you'll get the reference.

 

[LittleJerry92]

I also want to mention this week has been super frustrating because I recently cut ties with a friend that I've known since middle school (8th grade), which was basically 10 years I had him as a friend. I cut ties because he has the mindset of a 10 year old (23) and yet likes to think he's sooooo mature because he has his own business (car salesman). Ha! ********. The way you treat others is what makes you mature, and he was known for having a very big mouth: **** talking others, saying whatever is on his mind in spite of how others may react, etc. He left my school in 11th grade in 2011 and I should have just took him off as a friend on Facebook and ended it there, because it wasn't until 2015 I started talking to the guy again when he came in to get togethers and whatnot. By 2016/17, many of us stopped talking to the guy and I don't blame him at all. He tries to act like the innocent guy by only telling his side of the story and painting a picture on the other, and honestly, I'm 25 and don't have the patience to deal with childish, kindergarten level behavior.

Seeing the 100,000 thread go bye bye really made me mad and hate this entire week because honestly that thread was theraputic for me. Goofing around, having fun with friends, etc. And to an extent, **** talking about our stupid racist orange president could feel theraputic from time to time too.

For what it's worth mentioning, I am looking forward ******* on our president some more if we do get another thread. What I'm not looking forward to is other members taking the bait of others trying to be a troll on said threads.

 

[jvcarroll]

I dunno. At this point though, I think I am just done with getting into fights on politics. Most of us have settled peace except for one, and I'm done wasting my energy on the guy.

That's the thing, though. A respectful debate doesn't have to be a fight. It doesn't even have to have winners. The only way we can strengthen our points of view is to test them. That means speaking with someone with different opinions. That sometimes means we'll end up altering our own in some way. That's a good thing. That's something that has been lost lately. Don't get me wrong. I hate almost nobody, but I absolutely hate Trump. That is known. But Trump doesn't just stand for so many things that I don't like in the world. He stands for unrest of the ignored, discarded and voiceless in Middle America. He's a terrible representative for them, in rhetoric and actual policy, but when you feel like you've got no advocates, some people will take whomever shows up. That's what's going on here. At the end of four years, I think most will be disappointed. My heart hurts for them. That's a strange thing to say about people I vilified right after the election, but this world is not an US vs THEM proposition. WE ARE THEM AND THEY ARE US. Coming to terms with that has been cathartic. When talking to someone wildly different than we are, try to see the innocence and humanity first. That's been a value of mine for years that I must have discarded when it comes to Trumpists. As said before, values only mean something when acting on them is most challenging.