A humble apology
Offline A few weeks ago, I had a bad experience in the "rationalsquad" stickam chatroom and I posted a message saying that I was sick of the RRS, called this "group" names and basically took out my frustrations on the entired comunity that Brian Sapient has formed out of nothing. This was stupid, imature, and indefensible, and I'm embarrassed that I did it.
While I attempted to maintain a modicum of respectibility, in retrospect, I was clearly in the wrong.
I would like to note, however, that my apology was delayed because of what I saw as a reactionary and immature response to my post. I still think that many of the reactions to my post were completely counter-productive. Saying that "I suck", that I should go "kill myself", and other insults did not help me understand the error of my ways.
In contrast to all of this, however, Brian's comments were mature, well thought-out, and are the main cause of this apology. I was in a bad mental state at that time, was royally pissed off, and was not in the frame of mind to listen to reason. I hope that anyone that I offended can forgive this as just "one of those things"-- something that everyone can related to, as our brains are constantly shifting into different states, some of them more "fuck you, asshole" than others.
For all the people out there are reall ARE immature, and really DO think I should "go kill myself", and really do think that "I suck", then I respectfully say to you "fuck you, asshole". To everyone else, I hope that you can accept my sincerest apologies.
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful"
-- Seneca
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Well me god never forgets but understands. I read that other thread, and it was a bit of a bummer. So anyway, thanks for coming back to explain and apologize. Gawed feels better now. Peace.
Atheism Books.
Apology accepted. Thanks for saying all that... consider it water under the bridge. That was big of you to come back and be able to say all that.
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Since I was one of the people who responded in that thread, and since your "apology" now comes with the proviso that those who told you "you suck" or "to kill yourself" are excluded from that apology (but instead should consider themselves assholes to be fucked) I felt it necessary to revisit the thread, read and search through the posts and see just what you're talking about and if I should start protecting my rear end.
Here is what I found when it comes to "suck".
" ... don't be suckered into "defending" a fellow atheist ..." That was my friendlily expressed advice to you regarding being drawn into silly squabbles which escalate into melodrama. But is "being suckered into something" the same as "you suck"? Think not.
" ... Good, coz you suck at it ..." That was Todangst's response to this comment from you "I am sick of defending ignorant fucks who make up a great number of people in RRS". Now for one thing, he's criticising your ability in one respect, not you as a person. And for another - just which of these comments do you think is most designed to be offensive to the most number of people? You dismiss the majority of contributors on this site as "ignorant fucks" and he says that your ability to defend these people is inferior. Can you not see even a little disparity in intent and meaning between the two comments, or for that matter, that Todangst is quite right?
And that was it for "suck" (out of 41 responses).
So then I got searching for the "kill yourself" reference and I found this:
" ... pour yourself a nice tall frosty mug of shut the fuck up juice, and play the Hank Williams Jr anthology until you blow your brains out." This is Rich Woods finale to a point he made quite well, I thought, which basically implies that if you find yourself over-reacting negatively (and with not a little self pity) every time you meet trivial opposition in an internet chat room then you have issues to address within yourself. Such over-reaction is typical of the caricature of suicidal tendencies which melodramatic and immature people often profess having met a trivial obstacle. I thought Rich's use of caricature in response to your immature rant was perfect when he suggested sardonically that you should bring it to its logical conclusion (or wise up - the bit you seemed to miss).
And that was it - every other response was either good advice fairly presented or (towards the end) trivial itself and nothing to do with you at all, especially after we all started playing wth the website that writes virtual suicide notes (same humour as Rich, don't you see).
So sorry, SocratesOne - but for my part I can only say that your apology is not accepted. It is equally melodramatic and immature as the rant it pretends to atone for, and (almost unbelievably) is even MORE insulting to the people on RRS who took time and effort to put you straight (in response to your own plea - no one asked you to post what you did). It is therefore not even an apology.
You blew it - again. You need to grow a sense of humour man, and fucking fast. A few extra brain cells (or a redeployment of those currently committed to the self-pity agenda) are also overdue it seems.
See? That's how to insult a person!
Bloody amateurs ...
I would rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy
I would like to apologize to Hank Williams Jr.
www.RichWoodsBlog.com
People make mistakes, and this is unavoidable. Those who own up to them earn my respect. Those who don't, don't. You have earned mine. I am not entitled to the apology, as I didn't participate in or even see the thread in question, but if I were entitled to it then I would accept it.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Yes, people make mistakes.
However, those mistakes are still subject to scrutiny.
After all, if we are not responsible for our mistakes, then what is anyone responsible for? To acknoledge that anyone makes mistakes is to accept that we make them ourselves.
Even with my applogy, I have attempted to withhold judgement against myself, and I have projected my faults onto the predictable faults of others.
The fact is, I have a drinking problem. Every now and again, I drink too much. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. I have the embarrassing habbit of posting bullshit on discussion boards such as this when I HAVE had too much to drink.
This, of course, doesn't excuse the behavior, but my candor about it (hopefully) allows others to understand it.
However, the accusations that I have made are not vain, and are accurate wheter I have drank too much, smoked too much weed, snorted coke, smoked crack, injected heroin, or read the Bible (which is arguably much worse than all of the above).
There is a mentality that exists on the internet. This mentality is that of the worst kind of sheepish bandwagonism. Take a stance, defend it, and attack those that don't fit into the narrow definitions contained within the marginalization of this group-think.
I guess I attempt to break free of that whenever I can. Of course, it ends up "hurting" me, because, as Billy Joel so elequently put it, "honesty is such a lonely word". However, it is honesty itself that forces me to ask "What about me?"..."Am I being honest?".
I'm trying. However, some people, who cling to the shackles of group think, and have an irresitable urge to react to assholes such as myself, refuse to accept people for who they are.
I only hope that I don't succumb to this kind of idiocy, even thought it is all around me.
I sincerely hope that I am viewed, not as somebody who "isn't" an asshole, but for somebody who, to those that are honest, sincere, rational, and open-minded, see me as "thier kind of asshole".
If so, I have the confidences to say "Welcome to the club".
-- If not, I have the confidence to say "You can go fuck yourself".
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful"
-- Seneca
Let me explain. I was not applogizing for my rant "against" a specific group of people, but was applogizing for writing something that was beneath my standards. Some people see immature rantings, such as what I admitted that my post was, as an opportunity to "own" someone. They saw this as an opportunity, and said to themselves "Hey, look, this guy is overy emotional, and is posting something that is ignorant and easy to attack", so they took the liberty to attack it. They did so in order to feel superior.
In fact, I believe that YOUR motivations for posting this respons amounts to nothing more than "Fuck you, this isn't a real apology" and is not morally, ethically, or intellectually superior to the original, drunken rant of bullshit that I appologized for, in so doing admitting that this level of idiocy is beneath me, and in your response, you are claiming that it is not beneath you.
So you're saying I'm stupid and humorless. How very 4chan of you.
You got me! You're right. That IS how you insult someone. I wasn't looking for tips, but if I even wanted to ruthlessly and needlessly make somebody feel bad about themselves, I will take your comments into consideration. Based on this comment, you obviously think that it was my intent to insult. I appologize, once again, for giving anyone this impression. However, since my appology is laced with honesty, I sincerly doubt you will accept this one, either. Hopefully, I am wrong. Hopefully, you're not an idiot. Hopefully, you'll understand that being a decent person makes you accept other's attempts at admitting wrong while still allowing them to keep some degree of basic human dignity, but it appears that you don't feel I deserve that.
Maybe you're not interested in decency. Maybe you're just interesting in the same bullshit that a 10 year old is interesting in. Maybe you just want me to feel bad. Maybe you want to enforce your dominance on the internets. Maybe you can go fuck yourself. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you should at least attempt to see me as a human being rather than as a bunch of digits on a screen. Maybe I'm delusional, and I should realize that NOBODY sees anyone else like that except me. Maybe I should accept the fact that I'm the only one who knows what the hell I'm talking about and just shut the fuck up, say "I'm sorry, people, I'm an asshole and all of you are right about me", and give up trying to have any kind of independence of thought at all.
After all, that's not what these forums are for, are they?
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful"
-- Seneca
SocratesOne
Hey dude, you are as me , no worrys .... we all fuck up ... even we atheists , I do get stupid drunk too .... I talk some shit , hey, we all do it .... we react emotionally , and so we cuss and such, I do it alot ... I can argue with most anyone about anything, and so we do, we that care about details. I forgive myself every other word I speak.
I AM an understanding GOD. All is one, all is caring on some level ....
Atheism Books.
Cheery little bugger, aren't you?
Can't help but get the feeling the original Socrates - what with all his doom, gloom and hemlock - was a barrel of laughs in comparison.
Lighten up. Enjoy life. After all, you only get one chance to screw it up on this planet. If you succeed too early in life then it leads to years of boredom for you. Spread the angst, self-pity and egotism a bit thinner, mate. Or else do what Socrates did ...
I would rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy
I'm new on here so can't say I'm offended, but it takes a better person to apologise and learn from their mistake that to blindly carry on like nothing happened...respect \m/.
Anger's built into your genes, you acted on natural impulse, but your brain gave you rationality to then correct the error; don't get yourself hung up about it because you did the decent thing.
I might believe in a god/goddess if he/she grows an amputee's limb back via prayer or faith healing etc...now that would be a miracle, temporary fixes are no good to us god...we want results.
www.myspace.com/thejackglass
I'm back at school, and I don't drink because I'm not 18 anymore, and I can't recover from drinking as well as I used to. As a result, I just don't drink, because I can't afford to lose all that time. But a funny thing happened: it's no longer a big deal to not drink. You may find that you, too, can stop drinking entirely, and it won't be a big deal at all. Just don't buy alcohol. That's a good start. If that's a problem, there are more people around who are also trying to stop drinking than you'd think.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence