And I Say, Hey! What's Goin' On?

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Title aside, I’m serious.

What’s going on, denizens of Elsewhere?

I know that I don’t spend as much time here as I could, so I’ve probably missed something.

Whatcha Watchin’ got closed over a discussion that was off topic but seemed pretty innocuous.

I’ve seen other posts where members in good standing are considering leaving.

And apparently there was some contentious content in Just Asking that resulted in that thread being closed down.

O_o

Now I get it that all of us are only human, and therefore highly fallible.

And I’m guessing that the constant tumultuous rollercoaster ride that is the US political landscape right now has a lot of people on edge, if not downright nauseous.

(I understand the feeling, truly.)

So here it is, a thread to vent and express what’s bugging us specifically, and to try to figure out some resolution… or just to post silly ‘what’s up’ vids and pop culture references.

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Mostly me, I’m sure. I was already feeling like shit warmed over (no excuse) and then wasted precious energy replying to comments that I shouldn’t have been replying to. Whether the comments were blind expressions of internalized class privilege, or classist barbs directed at me personally, I really can’t tell. I still can’t tell. I should have let it all slide, or written a pm , but instead I chose to air my dirty laundry in public. I’m truly sorry for that.

Totally my fault.

As for closing the thread, whomever is in charge of this, please open the thread again. No reason to make everybody else suffer just because I’m behaving like a jackass.

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Context: Gay suggested newly published writers could create web sites to use as marketing tools. Another writer called her out for being condescending.

Which is weird, because that’s new writer marketing 101, and it’s not a radical notion at all.

And the writer who did the calling-out seems like a rational person otherwise.

Blame the political situation, blame August being the “silly season”, blame the Mercury retrograde (my personal favourite, because screw it, I need more woo and silliness in my life).

My job is mostly writing things down in technical documents and then getting people to agree I’ve got it noted completely and correctly. After that I have to make sure other people understand what needs to be done. I’m not overly busy right now, and none of my current work is that complex, but this past two weeks it’s been awful getting even the most basic things straight – both me screwing up and the people I interact with doing the same.

Just everyone practise self-care even more than normal, okay? 'Cos it really seems like we all need it.

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I’d like to pm. That would be helpful.

Thanks for starting this thread @Melizmatic. I am not in the bestest place ever in my personal life. I’m taking off next week from work to recharge.

I’m not sure if this will make sense to people here or not, but a few times in my life I’ve gone through some really radically transformations. Right now, I’m in the middle of a doozy. It’s been going on for about two years now. Not just starting a business, but focusing on learning communications skills, and then also pushing my marriage into new directions isn’t the most comfortable thing I’ve done. Oh yeah and I changed my diet pretty radically.

Right now I’m in the uncomfortable place where I see my old behaviors no longer work for me, and I haven’t really gotten comfortable with all the new stuff yet. It feels like nothing I do works. The old stuff doesn’t work. The new stuff isn’t sticking yet. I really want to just unplug and comfort myself.

I do believe this board is a really important part of the shift I am making, so whether it’s all working or not, I’m committed to doing what I can. I feel like this board is one of those things that isn’t quite working yet but is where I am headed.

I’ve been watching a movie on Netflix that talks about cooperative businesses and I think this is a model that we are trying to explore here. If anyone else would like to watch that movie and discuss it and ideas it might have for us here, I’ll open up a thread on it.

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Taking it one day at a time, doing my best to keep my sanity as I go.

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Yes please!

Damn, I hope it’s on Netflix outside the US.

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It’s called A New Economy Open.

I am trying to find it on IMDB so people can see what it looks like but I can’t find it.

Ok, here’s the picture

image

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I was wondering the same thing. Are we all just (understandably) on edge and jumping at the slightest discordant noise? Is this just normal growing pains for a splinter community? Or is there a deeper, systemic problem we need to deal with?

'cause I like this place, and don’t want it to fall apart if we can help it.

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I suspect that it’s considerably bigger than this community. IRL, almost everyone I know seems to be abnormally on edge and/or overloaded/overwhelmed for various reasons. This is where we come to get away from that and/or vent about it with each other. Sometimes those two purposes cross wires.

We value dissenting opinions and different perspectives because that makes things interesting and we learn more about ourselves from them. But when the wires cross and tensions (even unrelated ones) are high those things can make sparks fly.

That’s when we need to remember that we’re in it together because we value each other, and

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This, so much this. Politically, culturally, personally, there is just too much going on, and so very little we can do to change anything. It’s terrifying and frustrating and heartbreaking… and there’s no easy ending in sight.

As messed up as things have gotten, I’m grateful we have this place to come together and share both the good and the bad. It’s meant a lot to me. You all mean a lot to me. So please, let’s all take a deep breath and try to be kind to each other. It can only help… we are all in this together.

foxy keep on keepin on

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I’ve only learned to really open up in the last couple years and I’ve had a hard time reestablishing healthy limits on top of that.

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Well, uh, lol…

Things are going well for me. I’ve been working on myself. I’ve been focusing on being peaceful, on actively diffusing and/or converting unjustified negativity into more useful channels.

This has been going on since, oh, 2013, a slow and sometimes arduous process. This site, and the gentleman who runs it, has helped me immensely in the last few months:
http://spoonofconsciousness.com/

What’s been going on in the world now has been going on for as long as humans have had consciousness and emotions about that which is outside themselves. There will always been A. Jacksons, Caligulas, Trumps, Kochs, Coulters. But there will also always be Washingtons, Lincolns, S. B. Anthonys, King, Jrs., Malalas.

In “Plain Speaking”, an oral biography of sorts about Harry S. Truman which was written just before the JFK assassination, Mr. Truman says something about all the new technology making people nervous. I don’t have time right now to find the exact quote, but I HIGHLY recommend it, as it’s the story in direct contrast to what’s in office now. But Harry was right. From the tech of the WWW/Internet and just about everyone’s ability to access it 24/7, people have become super-anxious mostly because they’re told they should be.

Well, one may tell me how I should feel…but I’m not going to pay it any heed. I think I’m as informed as I need to be at the present time about current events. But I have puh-LENTY more control in what happens to me personally. To make a long post short, I’m more interested in me being a happy, serene individual than I am in changing the world. Because in that, I am changing the world ever-so-slightly by trying to show through walking the walk of the talk that I talk that it can be done.

And I got the scars to prove it, fyi.

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On another forum where I’ve hung out for years – not a particularly US-centric one – there’s always been some occasional bickering, especially between certain less level-headed people. But it’s really been blowing up lately and occasionally I’ve found myself wading in too, and then regretting it. I had to block the site in uBlock for a few days recently, and then set a few people to ignore and lowered my amount of participation.

image

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Yep, there’s a whole lot of that going on. Completely innocent stuff being taken out of context, and taken out of context in weird, unexpected ways. Probably best to let stuff slide in public, and address it over PM if necessary… which is what I should have done.

I suspect it’s only a couple of small discordant noises somewhere, but being amplified through a feedback loop. Please let’s try not to amplify this noise.

A lot of it is normal growing pains. Because we already know each other through bOINGbOING, if not other places as well, we actually have a lot fewer issues than I think most fledgling communities have. We just have to be more productive in how we handle these issues.

Yes, I plan on following my own advice.

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There have also been countless nameless schlubs caught in the middle of it, powerless to do anything except effect small changes in either direction, all of which cancel each other out in the grand scheme of things.

Plain Speaking by Merle Miller. I know what you’re referring to, but it’s been 25 years since I’ve read that book. Probably worth a re-read.

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I’m not on here as much as I should be - I really should shift my focus here and let the old place be my back up spot for online chatter. I still love it over there and enjoy it, but I want to make this more of a central place for me to be.

I have noticed some contentious debates, which is disappointing. I agree with everyone here that it’s generally just the tensions in the world spilling into our online leisure time.

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For me personally, Charlottesville and what Trump said afterward has really scared me. It makes me feel that things are violent, horribly wrong.

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The response of reasonable people have given me some hope. Counter-protesters showing up with ratios of 10:1 or greater against fascists and Nazis is having a positive effect. I feel like the tragedy in Charlottsville is pushing a sea change the country desperately needs. Above all else…

…we Resist.

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