Dear Paul,

Imagine how boring this forum would be without us?

mhaze,

You provoke me until I react and then you get kudos.
I'm so jealous.

Hi Yuyutsu,

I haven’t responded to yourself or Armchair Critic yet, but I will do so with both as soon as possible, yourself first. As for your comment, I do empathise if you feel others' comments were prioritised over yours - it was random, not intentional.

There is reason though for this being the case and my approach being different to others here. I'll probably go over my word limit, so please be patient in that regard.

Regarding myself, I’ve volunteered with a volunteer run social support organisation for over 10 years, helping people in various life and challenging situations. My time is limited to certain things, and I have to decide what is more meaningful - to assist people in real life or engage on this site, which in recent times is seeing subject content put out by the same few.

Being directly involved in social support I care deeply for other people and have a responsibility in my volunteer work to providing help without being invasive or overstepping the mark. Some may not fully grasp or understand this, as they lack experience in social support and where to draw the line.

So a story like this one, where those setting the agenda follow a strict dogma, don't always or won't take these things and other principles into account. Responsibility is key, and it applies to both those offering help and those receiving it, even if they don’t always admit fault, which is often the case.

In terms of my contributions here, they often don’t fully reflect my views due to word limitations and the need to simplify my language to provide broader understanding to others. It's not the best approach and somewhat anti-intellectual (which I oppose), but I feel there needs to be a balance. I see this site as more for general discussion more than anything else.

Yuyutsu (continued),

My perspective on responsibility is shaped by attending a strict, conservative religious school and having conservative parents. As a result I try to encourage younger and other people to be independent, free from dogmatic systems, which still persist in many religious and other institutions today, with my opinion piece here one that could be easily applied to institutions across the board in terms of responsibility.

As pointed out by me to others here, to those who don't have as much power as others (like the person in the article) and people like myself on seven medications a day, we have to make tough choices and work around things we don't want or like and are pushed into corners and have to make tough decisions every day. Our freedoms are limited. We do though push on and try to be good examples to others.

It's not always easy and we need people at the other end to see things from the perspective of the individual. They shouldn't lump us into one mass or basket or think a one size fits all approach works. It won't resonate with institutions, including government, schools or religious ones, but we need some people to speak out against the continued damage from these controlling bodies.

I will continue my social work as a volunteer when so many others don't, only think about themselves or a what do I get from it approach.

So, a story like this one resonates deeply with me. I spoke to one woman one day who said no-one ever talks to her and I was the first. I certainly do not worry about those I assist though as my system won't allow it, it would also be detrimental to my personal health and I feel people at the other end I assist wouldn't like it either.

Dear Nathan,

No doubt, assisting people in real life is by far superior to engaging on the internet.

Thank you for your response, I will be patient.