Ximmy

OMG! You are so right! Please accept my apologies, I would NEVER intentionally trivialize such an enormous tragedy, and it was certainly not my intention to do so by comparing the two. My intention was merely to underscore my point that we are responsible to each other for our actions and to protect each other from tyranny of any sort. I am going to edit my post right now!

Also, I believe you make a valid point that we are responsible for our own well-being. One of my favorite quotes is "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent" (Eleanor Roosevelt). Thank you for your dose of reality check, I think maybe I needed that *shy smile*

Ok, so I have to say something else now.

Firstly, thank you all so much for caring to continue to post in this thread. Clearly, you all have opinions on this matter.

Secondly, I think the salient points I have read so far are: (1) Report inappropriate content in accordance with the rules, and (2) Ignore those who choose to be inflammatory and move on

All good points.

The thing is, since I was all raw and parental when I started this thread, I failed to make my MAIN point, the one I mostly intended, which is this:

Although the Interwebs grants a certain level of anonymity, and although we are just here "playing a game", and although virtual does not equal real... PLEASE remember that there is a human being at the other end of the keyboard. And extend courtesy to that person. Being the meanest and the loudest does not make you better, it makes you...well, loud and obnoxious. Starting a flame war or being an **** does not make you cool...it merely illustrates that you are lacking in social skills. And common decency? Can that please become commonplace once more? Seriously.

If someone said to me, in my real life, "Hey. I understand that you have the legal right to sing in public, but your off-key warblings are giving me a headache, would you please desist?" My response would be a very embarassed, but very heartfelt, "of course. Sorry to have put you off." It would not be "I HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE A HORRIBLE SINGER AND TO SPEW MY OFF-KEY AURAL OFFENSES TO THE WORLD! and you are a poo-poo head for not liking it!"

I am coming from a different time and a different place from most of the people I interact with in CoX. This is my first MMO. I have been rping online, in free-form chat rooms, for over 10 years. I met my amazingly wonderful husband in an RP chat room, as a matter of fact, 7 yrs ago. And so I am astounded that apparently, in an MMO, people are allowed to be, well.....chowderheads. Yes, I understand we all have the freedom of speech, here in the states, and I salute that. But.... The two things that I carried forth with me from my required civics class in high school were: (1) Hitchhiking on interstates is illegal due to "limited access" of emergency vehicles, and (2) My right to swing my fist ends at your nose.

I guess what I am trying to say, at a greatly exhausting length, is that...

It is not about your legal right to be an arsehole. It is about my HUMAN right to be treated with respect. It would be a wonderful world if we could meet in the middle with dignity.

I hear what you are all saying, that freedom of speech means people can say whatever they want to say, within legal limits...I just wish that the responsibility for being a decent human being fell on those who perpetrate indignities....and not on those who are victims of them.

All I am trying to say is...just because a person has the legally-protected right to be a jerk......that shoudn't mean I should have to leave an otherwise lovely party to avoid his jerky-ness. Why am -I- the person who has to leave if I am not the only one who has taken offense? Shouldn't the onus be on the public at large to eject the offending person from our ranks? I mean, if I get my knickers in a twist because someone said my dress was ugly, then yes, I should be the one who leaves.... But if someone proclaims, at the top of their lungs, that all (insert a group of people) should be (insert a verb that is violent), shouldn't the host(ess) ask him/her to leave?

Ok, I have said my piece, at great length, and I imagine not many of you have read all the way to the end of this... So, for those of you that have....

PUNCH an' PIE! And cookies! And all manner of confectionaries with zero calories! *grins*

~fin~

Thank you all for your responses, and your very valid points. I probably should have waited until I had calmed down before posting this thread, but I was still stinging a bit from the LAST go-round. My husband agrees with all of you, by the way *chuckles*. He said I should have reported the first guy, and quit the team, and that I should have just ignored the chatter in the CC.
I think you are all right. And I appreciate the support, as well as the rather gentle suggestions on which points I really should just "let go".
And next time, I promise not to "feed the trolls" *grins*

Apparently, I just need to get over it...

I just need to get over being a decent human being....

A few days ago, I am on a team where a member says "Statement indicating he is a pedophile?"

So I say, "umm, ok, can we please not talk about this? This is inappropriate, and as I have children, I am uncomfortable with this line of conversation."

And I get "you need to lighten up. I don't care about your children, and I don't even know where you live, so I couldn't possibly come to your house and do things to your children"

So I go, "ok, yes, I see your point, but what you are talking about is unsettling, and I politely request that you stop talking about it, not to mention the fact that what you are talking about is illegal and against the rules for CoX."

And he says "Having sexual desire for children is not illegal, only acting on it is"

And I say "Ok, but I would really appreciate it if you didn't discuss this kind of atrocities against children in this forum."

And he proceeds to tell me how anyone who says "think about the children" makes his head explode, and how anyone who takes offense at comments made by people on the internet are idiots.

This conversation went on for way longer than it should have, but I was really trying to understand how he thought it was ok to make those kind of comments and he was only too happy to continue to tell me I was an *****.

I took screen shots of the convo, but didn't keep them, since most of the other people on the team kept telling me to "lighten up".


Fast forward a bit...


So, I am in a costume contest in Atlas tonight, and the people are talking about some video game where they get lots of points for killing children. Again, I politely request that they stop talking about killing children, since I am a parent and the subject matter is disturbing to me. AGAIN I get that I need to "lighten up", and that somehow, in their minds, slaughtering children is fine as long as it is in a video game. Like, somehow, as long as it is "virtual", it is totally ok to slaughter and maim and **** children. I don't get this.

But, apparently, I am in the minority.

Apparently, it is perfectly fine to do horrible, depraved, tortuous things to people, since this is a "game", and if anyone takes offense at the discussion of said atrocities, they just need to "lighten up".

Seriously.

I don't understand how most people can agree that it is not ok to commit hate crimes against alternative sexualities and persons of color and the like, but somehow, it is perfectly ok to talk about atrocities towards children. I, for one, do NOT find it acceptable chatter to talk about
violence against ANY person for reasons of race, creed, gender, sexuality, age, religion, or any of the other 'isms......But I find it particularly atrocious when hate and filth is directed towards the sweet, innocent babies. But, apparently, I just need to "get over it", since people are allowed to say whatever they want when on the interwebs.

I totally expect this thread to get axed, since it is inflammatory and contains some bad words, but I would really like to get some feedback on it before it does.

Am I being too sensitive? Do I really and truly need to "get over it"?

Please respond.

Portions in italics were edited to remove details inappropriate for the CoH forums -Mod08