Proof of the PPOT anomaly
 

Interesting experience tonight, especially given the recent discussions about people's behavior on this forum and the overall decorum of PPOT.

A friend of my wife invited us over for dinner to meet her husband and a few other couples. One of the men is a civil liberties lawyer here in Texas and a card carrying member of the ACLU. He apparently litigates cases for the ACLU against the government all the time. I spent most of the night talking with him and the other guys about various topics, everything from football to kids to politics. Myself and one of the other guys were conservative, another guy who was a civil lawyer was middle-left and the ACLU lawyer was pretty hard left. Anyhow, we had a very polite and interesting discussion for over 4 hours over beers, dinner, football and whatnot. Although I disagreed with some of his views, I listened to his positions and then responded with my own, which he also listened to. We found that many of our ideas were similar, we simply differed on how to put those ideas into practice. Not once were the words commie, pinko, neocon, mouthbreather, Bush'ist, asshat or nazi used. Contrast that to the discussion that occurs on this forum and you begin to see just how far from reality PPOT is.

:D

Re: Re: Proof of the PPOT anomaly
 

Sometimes it is both good and bad. I think it can be good to have an anonymous place to express your thoughts without fear of social or life consequences. However, often that anonymity leads to complete disregard for the value of the person you are speaking to. That's when you get the amazing flame wars that occur on the net.

When used properly the term "asshat" can carry a conversation all on its' own.:D

He was lying to you the whole time, probably a better actor than lawyer. You should have never let him in your house or even in your neighborhood. He is worse than cancer. He is the lowest of the low, a scumbag amongst lawyers. But that's just my opinion. ;)

Believe me, real life or internet I would have asked him to leave the second I found out he was associated with the ACLU.
I'm surprised he didn't trip over your sprinklers and sue you for a million dollars.

EDIT, LEGAL DISCLAIMER: the above is a hypothetical opinion based on hypothetical people I haven't met and in no was should be twisted or warped or perverted into meaning anything other than what i meant, even if it means some scumsucking civil lawyer has to be honest for the first time in his life.
But I mean that in the nicest way.....................

I wear my asshat with pride.

Re: Proof of the PPOT anomaly
 

Sounds like a dull party...;)

I believe the anonymous nature of the internet encourages people to act out behavior that they would not normally display. Example is people placing naked pics of themselves or others on a website.

Civil people in open conversation will normally listen to someone's ideas but not immedaitely call them an a$$hat, as opposed to here, we immediatley launch into a rant, dumping our bucket with complete disregard for others. Not everyone does this but some are more experienced than others.

I was thinking that it would be interesting if when someone posted an idea, they had to defend their position at the start, not be free to respond to gabs by the audience. This would cause some folks to give more thought to their posts and actually give some thought as to how others might respond. It might also eliminate some of the endless posting of other author's ideas.

Personally, I have good friends that do not agree with my thinking but we do not come to blows when we get together. We tend to have more logical discussions and try to develop a better understanding of what the other is thinking, I don't immediately tell them to fuch off.

Some people here have no interest in developing friendships with others because they believe they will never meet. As a result they would just as soon piss the other person off and then move on to the next victim.

Another problem with the internet is that print is one-dimensional. Without body language and visual queues, text could easily be taken the wrong way. Also, one can't fully explore feelings and provide dialog re: same in a forum. Additionally, forums don't allow body language, which IMO is probably contributes at least 50% to communication.....

What you describe is the norm. It's not the people here, it's the nature of the venue that will always lead to misunderstanding.

OK CC, let's see a little of your body language. ;)

Jigglin' my jiggly butt....

:)

now i remember why i stopped in.

Personally, I have a rule (acutally, its more of a guideline) that I won't say anything here that I wouldn't say to someone's face. But most of you are right, without the face-to-face, you tend to get carried away. Case in point, I had dinner with Rodeo and had a great evening. We didn't even discuss politics.

I call commies, commies in person, as well as on the internet. A commie is a commie, period. An ahole is an ahole. Am I more civil in person, absolutely not.

As an example I told the daughter of Steve Saleen that she could not park her FORD car in front of my house, or for that matter anywhere on my block. NO FORDS IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD!

Call a spade a spade. Fords are one step below a VOLVO, a commie car if ever.

Now there's a reasonable man.

Snow

WTF do you drink in the morning. Ford owns Aston Martin, Volvo, etc. They are a struggling american company.

Eh! Leave him alone. He's probably just ashamed to know Porsche once worked with Hitler.

An american company thats SINKING fast.

And so Saleen's daughter is supposed to have something to do with that? Good gawd, man! What are you handing out for Halloween? Rocks? :p

Jack may revell in that fact...who knows? ;)