Quote:
|
Originally Posted by highthief
Funny, my reaction was "guy asks advice about running, some TFPers respond calmly and politely, while others tell him he is a fucking moron, so he rightly gets a little defensive".
Seriously, some people on the thread gave the guy good advice, and some just showed up to make fun of him.
What's really frustrating about this pattern is that it happens all the freakin' time.
|
I could see how that would be frustrating. I must be missing all of the threads where it occurs.
I don't insult or attack individuals. It's my opinion that insults are a refuge of ignorance; if someone's calling me stupid, it's because they have no viable way to counter my arguments and are unwilling to admit they're wrong.
On the other hand, I have no problem with criticizing a person's actions and/or intentions. If I think someone is acting in a way that is stupid or irresponsible, I'm going to call them on it. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not obligated to be nice about it.
Now, if someone is doing something ill-advised out of sheer ignorance, I will probably try to correct that ignorance in the kindest way possible. However, when someone solicits my advice and then flat out tells me they're going to ignore it because they don't like the answer and don't want to accept the consequences of their actions, I'm going to take that as a show of disrespect. At that point, I don't feel that there's any need for me to coddle that person.
If you don't want me to tell you that you're doing something stupid, then don't do something stupid. It seems pretty clear cut to me.
I've never claimed to be a nice guy. In fact, I freely admit that I'm not.