To be honest, I cannot believe that I'm the ONLY person that +1'd his essay. It was well-written, lucid, eloquent, and brought up many good fucking points. I'm not trying to suck the man's willy here. I don't even particularly LIKE him. In real life, I can't stand rude people. There's absolutely no reason to be verbally hostile to another human being. I mean sure, if someone COMES AT YOU BRO, you have full right to kick the shit out of him. I digress.
Now, I've got this opinion and I've had it for a while. I'm not going to get many people to agree with me on it, but here it is.
It is a person's CHOICE to get offended.
There, I said it. Now, please notice I did not use the phrase "conscious choice" I would love to use it, but I am afraid I am unable to in good faith. This is because people simply do not think about things as much as would benefit them. However, back to the point. If you are offended by a word, you are LETTING that word have CONTROL over you. You are a PRISONER to that word. You have CHOSEN to fill your mind, conscience, your soul with bad emotions. Bad vibes.
Why is the blame ALWAYS, and I can say this in good faith, ALWAYS lain upon the one who uttered the word that offended someone? This fucking BAFFLES me. Would it not help a person grow mentally and spiritually if the responsibility for their emotions were put upon themselves? A person that chooses to NOT be offended is, in my sight, a much more mature person than one who is offended by anything. In fact, many of the people that have a big problem with spook ACTIVELY SEEK to be offended. If someone says the word "friend" in chat, you will be met with 20 cries of "BAN HE!" Why is this? Are these people of African descent? Demographics would say no, but perhaps they are. That word has been used in the past, and the present, and will be used in the future to demean people with dark skin. However, the problem is not with the letters n, i, a couple g's, e, and r put together. The fuck is that anyway? It's a collection of non-tangible concepts arranged in a certain way. It is fucking OBVIOUS most of the time when someone is being openly hostile to another person. I could say "You are a disgusting dark sub-human piece of garbage that deserves nothing more than to be wiped off the face of the earth." I could also say "Wow, you're being a friend bro." I would be banned for both extremely quickly. What is fundamentally different from the first and the second statements is that the first is charged with hostile energy. It is obvious from the context of the sentence that I am stating my wish for the eradication of a human being simply for the colour of his skin. That's fucked up. The second is not obviously charged with hostile energy and intent. It is POSSIBLE that I meant it to insult and evoke negative emotions in another person. It is also very possible that I meant it in a joking manner, in fact, with the intent to evoke POSITIVE emotions. It was intended for GOOD, not EVIL.
Here is what I am getting at. I do disagree with spook quite heavily on one point. I do think that there is negligible difference in results when you speak to people as he does when attempting to organize them. I do not think it is considerably more effective to be abrasive as he thinks. However, it is obvious to me that he intends his statements to create a POSITIVE outcome. He intends for his team to be more effective. To win. To get more gold and xp. To evoke positive emotions in his teammates because they just bent the other team over and fucked them with a cactus. It feels good to own and win, and it feels bad to suck and lose.
Now, finally, I must say that I cannot defend spook in his actions when they are something like "lol bundle of sticks get owned". That is intended to evoke negative emotions in the other party. I have seen him do this many times. However, it is worth noting that he almost ALWAYS says this in retaliation. He's not the kind of person to take shit without giving it back. I've only been around this mod for less than a year. I don't know how he started out. Maybe he started out being a scumbag and people are simply retaliating for the initial spookish insult. I don't know that shit, and frankly, I wouldn't trust many folks around here to give an objective view on how it all started. Opinions are absolutely SET one way or another. I see very little chance for anyone's mind to change. And that's a damn shame is what it is.
As a footnote, I have to say something to spook. Please do consider the point of view of a pedophile. I don't know what you personally believe about sexuality, but I'm of the opinion that much of it is not choice. I had a buddy that really liked feet in a sexual manner. Great, normal guy. He didn't know why he felt that way about feet, but he sure as hell did. Now, that is not a very controversial fetish. However, consider the position of an actual pedophile. He has inside of him a sexual desire for children. It's obvious that society does NOT accept the action of him having any sort of sexual relations with a child. I mean, that's a good thing too. I don't want folks being able to fuck toddlers and get away with it. I am not attempting to defend a predator in any way. But please, consider your words more carefully on the subject, spook. A pedophile is NOT an inherently evil or depraved person. There are many outlets for pedophilic sexuality that do NOT harm children. Lolicon and animated child-sex and shit. Nobody's getting hurt there. In fact, this is preventing children from coming to physical and emotional harm. I bet life has a tendency to fucking SUCK for pedophiles. I don't have much of a sex drive myself, I don't really enjoy it that much. But for someone with a high sex drive that happens to unfortunately be a pedophile, how do you think that must feel? That person has children on his mind in a sexual manner for much of the day, but he or she can do NOTHING about it lest they commit a frankly heinous act that likely conflicts with their own personal morals as well as the laws of his or her nation. That has to fucking blow. Poor fucking bastards. So please, have some sympathy on these things.
Alright, so there's another wall of text regarding spook. And a moderate sized piece on why we shouldn't hate pedophiles. Didn't see that coming.
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