From: mattm@apple.com (Matthew Melmon)
Subject: Re: Why you people alienate so many...
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 18:22:29 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Followup-To: soc.motss

In article <1bk456INN8pl@stanley.cis.Brown.EDU>, ST402341@brownvm.brown.edu
(Gary Byma) wrote:

> I disagreed with Jess Anderson, and again, was not blasted. I believe
> it is possible to enter the net discussion without ruffling feathers
> or getting one's own feathers singed. I want to thank both Jeff
> and Jess for their part in my ongoing participation on soc.motss.

It's true that one can enter soc.motss without ruffling feathers, though
to do so one may run the risk of having to kiss to many asses (now,
where *is* my teen-rag centerfold of Mr. Priestly in a tight fitting
Speed-O?  There's an ass to kiss...)  But as many will likely
point out, in my particular case, no attempt was made to enter
gracefully.  I quite deliberately picked out Adolphson as the most
arrogant bastard since Louis XIV - and quite deliberately said 
anything that came to mind to piss him off.  And have quite deliberately
antagonized 'The Cabal' since.  And probably (hell, not probably) will
continue to do so (again, the mercury blob does come to mind).

However, it is true that 'The Cabal' is not all of soc.motss, and a
couple (or a few - I suppose only two is a couple - and I WANT JASON
PRIESTLY to make a couple with, but I digress) people have pointed out
that perhaps being a little less caustic with anyone and everyone
would make all our lives a little more pleasant.

But enough of me, for I have only crawled out of the toxic sludge with
the express intent of being equally toxic - the sludge itself has
existed long before my mercury blob popped.

There is an obnoxious tendency here to be beyond snide.  And there
is an equally obnoxious tendency to blubber about it not being
the fault of the 'regulars.'  It behoofs (sic) new arrivals, they
say, to get with the program.  As to what the program is, the
Cabal itself hasn't a clue.  Anything that can be seized in a 
moment of self-righteous furry is 'the program.'  Very quick
indeed are bitchy minds ready and able to seize on pretty much
anything as homophobia.  A tad more difficult is sexism (girlfriends,
gay males have been using female pronouns to refer to each other
long before I was born - just ask Arne - and their use is
*not* sexism...)  Basically any 'ism' can, and will, be raised
at the drop of a hair pin.

And then there is the matter of intellectual capacity.

All too frequently, a pack of *tired* intellectuals is ready to 
level claims of stupidity, and more often than not such claims
are in gross contrast to the reality of the moment.  I am quite
able to take such attacks in stride, not having met anyone here
I would consider an intellectual superior (no, not even Arne,
though he *does* know a hell of a lot more 'facts').  I am
also a well-paid professional (though I do *not* drive a BMW -
yet...).  I can deal with it.  But many, many people who post
to this group are college students, and it serves no purpose
to blast into them as stupid twits.  It does not make Anderson
or Dyer or hell, even Jason, somehow *more* brilliant than 
they are to constantly call these students clueless idiots.
If they are serious in their assertions, and are not just blowing
farts out of their mouths, then the true negative reflection
is on them, *not* the targets of their pink wrath.

Soc.motss is not an isolated, comfy little community - though
it's regulars at times act with all the pig-headed abrassiveness
often attributed to residents of small towns.  As BBC pointed
out - the frequency of 'intrusions' has been increasing.  But
until you stop seeing these 'intrusions' as such - and not as
the natural movement of people through the Internet - you
will continue to get bogged down in bickering, petty little
exchanges of bitchiness.

Melmothra, ACC
Newsgroups: soc.motss