o sung wu,

It’s very admirable of you (and unheard of on OLO) to engage in a bit of self-reflection like that. But rest assured, as nasty as you are I think it was more those who are consistently horrid people that were more of a turn-off for them (and a cause of too much stress for someone in Foxy’s condition).

OLO was more interesting 10 years ago when there seemed to be a fairly even ratio of people on both sides of the political spectrum. But now that it’s just a place filled with conservative, old, retired men, it's become little more than one big jerking circle that can result in bullying from the ol’ boys club with the power they wield in sheer numbers. Whenever I feel like leaving, I just remind myself of how many thoroughly vile people that would please.

If everyone were polite to each other then there would be no problem, regardless of how many there were on either side of the political spectrum.

Hi AJ,

Even as a consistently horrid and thoroughly vile person, I would certainly miss your contributions, as I miss those of our sisters-in-dialogue. Those of us who are prone to insult and abuse others for little reason, forget that politeness is often the mark of a reasonable argument while abuse and insults are sure signs that someone has little or nothing to contribute.

We all (except Foxy, of course) get angry and frustrated sometimes, especially when someone else is just too block-headed to see the sense of our position, but maybe instead, we should click off OLO, go away and do something else, then come back and reply or rebut in a calm and polite manner.

That's been my rule, anyway. [Yeah, right, says Poirot].

Cheers,

Joe

Joe,

You certainly weren't one of the ones I had in mind when I spoke of vile and horrid people. Far from it! No, I had chosen to use those adjectives after careful consideration to describe a small portion of contributors that I feel truly fit the description, not just anyone with whom I would usually disagree.

Joe, I'll second AJ Phillips' remarks. My only real issue with your approach is that you tend to rely too heavily on trying to twist others' words to suit your purposes when you're quite capable of holding a high quality conversation. It's frustrating for those who would like to engage with you on that level.

There is no shame in admitting when we've misspoken or made a mistake of judgement or have realised that an position being defended is ill-founded, but it can feel like there is, which is why we all sometimes go too far in defending our point of view; certainly I have done so at times. I would like to do better at sincerely trying to understand the other person's argument in good faith; it's the only possible road to a meeting of minds.

I will say O sung Wu that the views of the women you mention regarding Islam will not be missed. Our grandchildren will be very grateful if we can get people who will face truth and do something about it. The same people who deny the raping, child brides, subjection of women, knifing all in Western countries bang on about the gw fanstasy. The 3 ladies narratives are blasted in our faces every day on the abc/sbs. They might be lovely people however had very flawed narratives which they hated being exposed. They, like the abc preferred sarcasism and mocking of anyone exposing their narratives. Susie and Poirot were as nasty as any other posters.

Hi O sung. As one of the most gentlemanly & kind posters here I find your including yourself among the nasty as going a bit far.

I do miss FOXY. I never noticed any worthwhile contribution from SUSEONLINE, but she did only get nasty occasionally. I had stopped bothering to read the posts of POIROT quite some time back. I found they usually did not address the subject & were the most extremely personal & caustic of all.

I also find a number of those of the left persuasion can't help themselves adding a personal nasty jibe to their posts. [See it's contagious].

I have like many, tired of repeating the same thing over & over, each time a new left recruit starts with the same old argument.

Was it better years ago, or was it just new to me. I certainly felt I was learning something from the posters back then, [even if only how misguided some folk can be]. Sorry mate, I couldn't help myself there.

I do find myself spending a lot less time here, & have an increasing number of posters whose contribution I can not bother reading. Roll on Alzheimer's so I don't remember they said the same thing every month or 2 for years.

Many just won't learn from their betters will they.