@The Pentacle Queen,
The Pentacle Queen wrote:
Well, I think I know what you're talking about there fox.
Hmm. Sometimes I think what you term 'unkindness' is needed though to change someone's perceptions of themselves.
People were unkind to me somewhat when I first came here, but then, I am grateful to that since what I was posting was generally ridiculous and I needed to be able to express my ideas in a less subjective light.
Constructive criticism is not unkind when it is appropriate and warranted IF it is not expressed unkindly. (Compare Paul Abdul's criticisms to Simon Cowell's on American Idol. Simon's observations are frequently on point, but the effect is blunted when he is sometimes cruel in expressing them.) And nobody enjoys receiving unsolicited harsh criticism or that which is unrelated or unnnecessary to the discussion no matter how constructive. In fact I think such criticism is generally not intended to be constructive.
I am probably as close to being as much of an abstract and subjective thinker as you, though; therefore I haven't had problems with your theses from the beginning.
But yes, a lot of us have learned more effective ways of expressing ourselves after a time and we adapt to the social norm established. The unkind will regularly remember and bring up past 'offenses', real or perceived, to diminish the present, and I think that unkind, unnecessary, and toxic. And I also think it toxic to draw negative assumptions about people ONLY because they express themselves differently, or perceive things differently, than we deem appropriate.
And, aside from even the direct and obvious insults, it was mostly in that regard that I thought people were inappropriately piling on to FOW and were being unkind.
All this would make an interesting discussion I think. Would you be interested in starting a thread? I would be interested.
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