Thinking about leaving the DU?

[JDPriestly]

82. Avoid the accusatory and very personal "you."

The word you in English, as I have been pointing out a lot lately on DU has two meanings. It encompasses the meaning "one," "on" in French and "Mann" in German which is a general way of saying "a person" and "you" which has different forms, plural, singular in German and French. We could use "one" but somehow that has gone out of style. It would make our lives less confrontational. Oh, well. Sigh.

You said:

"You dont act or talk like any liberal I know...you are constantly on the wrong side of race issues and Gay issues, and your overall attitude is very rightwing and very familiar to me from my experience on rightwing message boards"

You can use the passive voice and say the same thing without personally insulting someone, without engaging their defenses. Here goes a try:

"Liberals I know don't act or talk that way . . .that kind of view is on the wrong side of race issues and Gay issues. That attitude is very rightwing and very familiar to me from my experience on rightwing message boards."

Just a suggestion. It often is not WHAT a person says but HOW THEY SAY IT that makes an idea personally insulting.

Plus, I think that when we get on a message board, we have to put on a sort of raincoat that lets all the nasty drops of whatever just run off to the ground. We have to put on our spiritual and psychological protection.

There are a few posters on DU who, I sense, do not have very much in the way of spiritual or psychological protection. They are very vulnerable and take everything personally. I am sorry about that. I try to watch out for a couple of them. And I really like many of them. But they tend to have bad days or lose it easily. I try to let them alone and not respond to ugly posts. Strong people have to help the weak and vulnerable. That goes for our conduct on DU as well as our conduct off DU.

In the end, my personal religious belief is that we are all one, each of us a different part of "life," and that we are more bound together than separate so we have to help each other.

Thanks.