posted on Jan, 16 2010 @ 06:38 AM
I starred and flagged, and for a lot of reasons.
The utterly most important one is, the re-occurrence of the "hit squad" mentality that we are seeing over and over again on ATS.
Now, there have been multiple attempts by the same people to launch a character assassination against the O.P. In doing so, they have forced him from
the board. Whether the O.P. states this or not is irrelevant, because it is obvious. If he *did* make another avatar, do you blame him?!
This is the hard to peg "forum gang" that people have been speaking of. It does not have to be "organized", as it flows so much the same way as
riots do. You get one person that launches an attack, and the rest follow suit, as if almost on cue. The O.P.'s predictions were dead on. He was
right about you before he called you out by name, and he was right about you after. Fact.
It has been an event occurring along all forums, on a board that people are supposed to feel free to come to to express ideas, thoughts, emotions, and
ideas. Instead, people are frontally attacked, berated, insulted, and shamed.
If you are not in the status quo, then you are irrelevant. This is shameful behaviour, and always the same participants. The attackers may vary from
topic to topic, but the motives are alike. It is a very hard concept to grasp, but it is a very real one that many people have been subjected to.
It goes way beyond "people having the same opinions making posts in a thread that they may not agree with." You see, this is not opions about the
post, but about the poster. So clearly against the T&C, yet it continues, unabated, across the forums.
You are free to disagree with people, you are free to have a different outlook and opinion, but to openly and willfully attack a persons' character
should not be allowed.
A reasonable debate can be done on a level where insults and biting remarks are not used as leverage in a post, however, this seems to be the new
trend on ATS. This thread is a perfect example of it.
What happened to being humane, to having compassion, to treating people with respect and decorum? Showing these traits do not make you compliant with
the O.P., in fact, they can make you more respectable.
All you do with the nastiness is elevate him, and come accross as being jealous and back biting. That is, of course, *my* opinion, to which I am
allowed, but judging by the responses I am seeing, a lot of people are sharing that opinion. I get the feeling a lot more are not speaking up because
they are afraid of the forum bullies.
Then, to launch into tirades about the O.P. being a cultist? Recruiting? Using multiple handles? All unsubstantiated claims. I have seen claims made
that "this has been reported", yet, I have not seen a mod step in and say yay or nay.
IMO, you should not be filling the thread with all that *if and until* a mod gives creedence to your suspicions. What *if*, what IF* you are wrong?
Did you once stop to consider that you could be? But, you see, the damage is done, you have trounced the O.P.'s reputation and credibility, and it's
too late to change the effect you have already had.
Too late to change the "forum gang" mentality bond you have going with the people you see in this thread. NO, they do not have to be "organizing"
on or offline, they do it with the "group think", the very thing they accuse the O.P. of attempting to do.
Thing is, their "group think" is okay because it is done in the name of "denying ignorance". How many times do you now see this term being used
and waved like a weapon to attack people, used as a justification that it makes it ok. "Oh, I can say what I want, because, hey! I AM DENYING
IGNORANCE!"
Well, I have some news for you, you are brandishing ignorance, wearing it like a heart on your sleeve, baring your insecurities and nastiness, and
hate, and the need to be right, on your sleeves.
You are wrong, no matter how you try to justify your speeches in the name of denying ignorance, you are wrong to attack people because they are
different from you.
Why is it so hard to make ONE post, nicely stated, without the venom and spittle and hate, that you disagree with the O.P., and why? Because you
cannot, you can run about harried and almost in a panic, reporting threads because you don't like the message.
I have news for you, you outted yourselves in this thread, and his others. You followed him, continuing to post the same accusations, assassinating
his character, and have been allowed to do it.
I thank the mods for this, because it gives those who can see the ability to know you, and avoid you. Thank you for that.
Another huge derailment has been allowed to happen. GO ATS.
I do not have to agree or disagree with the O.P., but one thing I can do is allow him to have an opinion, and have one of my own. I also have the
discipline to allow people to have the right to make choices from themselves, without having to feel at every turn I have to "teach" them how wrong
someone might be. Who made you the ATS Forum Saviours, anyway?
This is something your forum gangs cannot take away from me, or the O.P., our opinons. Hope you enjoyed a handful of mine, since I seem to have to
tolerate having yours with all your vile nastiness shoved down my throat.
[edit on 16-1-2010 by Libertygal]