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In Reply to: Pls do have your own personality and opinion! posted by WC on July 25, 2002 at 07:27:38:
I appreciate the welcome, and I'm sorry that my point has not been clear to some people. From where I sit it looks like fish in a bowl saying, "Water? what water?".
I feel like I've over explained it.
Part of it is that I'm always welcome when I'm saying things that people want to hear. For example, my comments about Activated looking like a Ponzi scheme drew zero fire from the folks here. I guess that was smart Joseph speaking.
Smart Joseph says negative things about the family, and stupid Joseph says negative things about ex-members.
Having Family members say negative things behind my back is kind of like a tree falling in the forest with nobody to hear it situation. I can't really react to something I don't hear, and I pretty much have to operate as if it doesn't happen, because I have no evidence that it has.
So, in my world, Family people are always nice to me, and ex-members are often rude and insulting. The water in my fishbowl looks a little yellow from time to time.
Our opinions are formed by our experience. I have no problem debating issues long into the night, but in this neighborhood (I include NDN), the argument so quickly turns personal. Review some of my threads over there and you'll see me go from answering a question regarding NDN finance to being told I have a tiny penis so fast it could make your head spin.
In this community, diversity is not encoraged. Being different is frowned upon. Look at Micron's post to me this morning. It is presented in the spirit of giving me advice. The advice is to quit being different than everyone else. If I insist on being different, then I basically get what is coming to me.
How cultlike is that?
I really am different than anyone most of you have ever met. I can't help that. At 1:30pm today, I will be negotiating a union contract on behalf of a $300 million dollar industry. Tomorrow, I am under subpoena to testify in a matter involving the Teamsters union (you guys think you are intimidating?). That's not bragging, that's just my life. But, because it is different, it is considered bad, wrong, evil, (plug in your favorite negative word). I am considered by some to be less valid, less human, etc.
I'm not the only one subjected to this. I'm just the one with the biggest mouth. Most people just go away, and don't come back when they face something like this.
It is the same place bigotry comes from, and if you can't see it, I guess I can't help you.
