One More TIme WIth Feeling

Ok folks, here's the scoop AGAIN. I started this blog to expose abuse on the internet in whatever form I found it. I started with the kind of abuse I know the best - what happens on Mylot. Anyone who has been a member of that site for more than a month has seen it, been a victim of it or party to it. It's disgraceful and I make NO apologies for feeling the way I do about it or the things I have posted about it. Not a member reader? Check it out and see for yourself, especially threads by the people whose names are posted in my first blog entry. Then come back and tell me that I'm childish and full of it to feel the way I do.



Because the abuse on mylot continues unabated, and because some of that abuse is directed at me, of course I'm going to write about it - if only to counteract the lies, accusations, and insinuations being posted there. It's called - ready for it? - keeping the record straight, defending oneself, defending one's friends.



Ooops - sorry - that's not allowed, as people are told in various nasty ways over and over. It is ok for SOME people to demand their rights to freedom of speech, defense of their friends, defense of themselves - but make no mistake folks - if you are not 'one of them' - you DO NOT have the same rights. What a crazy world we live in eh?



Frankly I am sick to death of being told by people with the mind set, of what in my day, was called 'low life thinking', that I don't have any rights at all. And fyi - my gran defined low life thinking as people who found their personal power in the supression of others, be they right or wrong. Actually, it was my gran who first likened the kind of abuse that goes on in public forums as a kind of cancer. Mind you she was talking about the kind of public forums that were truly public - political debates, speeches, etc. Well gran - there is a new kind of public forum now but you're still on the money in your assessment!



It is the nature of man to judge, to assume, to speak before he/she thinks, to NEED to twist in order to be heard, accepted, be effective. Look around you - look at advertising!, look at the way some of your neighbours behave, look at the relationship you have with your mother-in-law! lol You get my drift? People use words to manipulate all the time - just ask the media!

It's a fact of life. Everyone want to be right, everyone wants to be accepted, everyone wants - no needs, to have a sense of personal power and control over their lives. It is the exercising of that control and power over others that is NOT acceptable or there would be no wars of ANY kind.



This need - this instinct to 'come out on top' is dangerous and it is incumbent upon all of us to practice restraint in our words, to remain civil and courteous when making a point that reflects a different point of view or opinion in answer to someone else. Sadly, humanity is losing the art of conversation and restraint means - what again? The result is conversation full of foul language, and insulting comments. Just because our tempers flare at something we read or hear, does it necessarly follow that we MUST respond with ugly words? Of course not. But people do - they go right off the deep end and reply without thinking. Later, some regret it and make amends. Too many today do not. And the trend to say whatever, whenever, damn the torpedos, continues to spread and grow - there's your cancer at work gran!



Hand in hand with what my Dad called "Niagara Mouth" is what is contained within the torrent of words. The insistence that the person has rights you MUST give them. Just because we live in a democracy where 'free speech' is such a buzz word because it appears on an old piece of paper somewhere, does NOT mean that free speech means it's ok to abuse, libel, falsely accuse or that it's socially acceptable. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and the freedom to express it. That is what free speech means. Nowhere in any 'old document' setting out that right does it say free speech includes foul languagge, libel, abuse, false accusations. The last I checked, there were laws against ALL of those things - even the use of foul language in some places! lol

So to those of you who stand behind the right to freedom of speech. Check the 'old documents'.
Nowhere does it say that that free speech includes the use of abusive language, libel, slander, false accusations etc. To indulge in this kind of speech speaks to the intelligent of 'low life thinking', it speaks to the vulnerable of hate and a lack of tolerance. It speaks to society in general of the cancer that is eating away at it's morals and values and becoming reflective more and more in the behaviour of people in general. It causes wars of all kinds, and that is not, and never will be socially acceptable.

So before you make demands for personal rights - before you 'bash' others for exercising their own personal rights - think about the cancer you don't need to be a part of, that is destroying everyone's right to freedom of speech, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Open your minds and clear out the garbage that makes you jump on someone simply because you don't agree with them, using words intended only to inflame, to hurt, to demean. Don't assume that you know all about a person from the expression of a few words. Don't assume you know the whole story either. Stories are as complex as the people involved. So until you have ALL the facts, no one has the right to rush to judgement and inflict 'punishment'.

Voice your opinion all you want - but do it with class, with consideration and with logic. Help stamp out the cancer of self-serving demands for rights not afforded to others without ugly backlashes. In other words - CLEAN UP YOUR ACT. If you don't, you will never really find your way out of the company of like minded people and before you know it - 'low life thinking' becomes a habit of self-expression and your personal values and standards suffer in EVERY aspect of your life - not just on the net. Sheesh - whatever happened to simple kindness and understanding? Whatever happened to tolerance and faith and freedoms for all? -- Don't tell me! They got cancer!

Well here on the net people, you have an opportunity to reach literally thousands of people in one go. Is sending a message of abuse the message you really want to send? Is behaving like a schoolyard bully the image of yourself and your country that you really want the world to see?
You have the opportunity to show the finer side of human nature. To bring diverse cultures together in a spirit of understanding. You have the opportunity to change the world and you are wasting it. Some physical cancers are not curable. Internet cancers are. Why not "make your mark' curing the ones you can instead of spreading them? The choice is yours. Make it wisely.

NOTE: This post - are you listening - IS NOT ALL ABOUT MYLOT! The 'you' is collective and applies in a general/all embracing application for whomever reads this, not just mylot users.
Is that clear enough? So no more comments or discussions bashing me for STATING MY OPINION! Thank you.