[TriLUG] A sad comment on our culture

[Steve Litt via TriLUG]

On Mon, 12 Oct 2015 12:00:20 -0400
Matt Whitlow via TriLUG <trilug at trilug.org> wrote:

> I do agree that you shouldn't attack someone, however I probably see
> attacking a person differently. Personally I have no problem calling
> someone a F?cking idiot if they act like one, and have no problem
> being called one if I mess up. 

Who decides whether someone's acting like a F?cking idiot? Could they
be wrong? Could an extra several hours of cooling off make them realize
that there might be alternative, non-idiotic interpretations?

> To me that's not a personal attack
> it's a generic response to someone mucking things up. 

I hate systemd and believe wholeheartedly it's a Redhat plan for Linux
domination, monopolization and monetization. Did I just muck things up?
Do I deserve to be personally insulted because of it? If so, to what
level?

How about when I simply say that I've chosen to keep systemd off of my
computers. Is that mucking things up? I can tell you I've received all
sorts of personal insults for simply stating that my computers are and
will remain systemd free.

> However as I
> stated I am a blunt person and enjoy that type of working environment.

Are you saying you enjoy trading personal insults with people?

We're not talking about terse or brusque here, we're talking personal
insults. Negative sentences whose subjects are "You".

What is the result of personal insults? Does the insulted person just
say "oh, OK, I'll do what you want? Or is he/she more likely to shoot
back an insult? And if that happens, will a 50 post offtopic thread
ensue?

Is it that hard to substitute "that's just not true, and here's why"
for "You're wrong"? What are the likely outcomes of each? And what if
it turns out that *you* are the one who is wrong, either because of
misinformation, insufficient information, or an erroneous assumption?
How would your personal insult have affected your credibility going
forward?

I totally agree we should always express our true beliefs *about
technology*. But if we believe that Joe Blow is a "fool", then who gains
if we tell that to Joe Blow on a public mailing list?

Do we have infinite time to write insulting responses, or might our
time be better spent sending those we think bad thoughts about
to /dev/null? My experience, and your mileage may vary, is that the
people who annoy me the most are also the people who contribute the
least to my life and goals, so I lose nothing by sending their posts to
write-only memory.

I agree there are times when a person needs insulting. If I were to
come on Trilug, time after time, saying Linux is no good and to use BSD
instead, then I would be a troll worthy of the worst possible insults.
If I were to come onto Trilug, time after time, re-asking questions
that have been answered by Triluggers, when it's obvious that I never
even tried their answers, I deserve a verbal flogging. But these are
rare situations. I find the common situation is that somebody posts
a relatively innocuous question or statement, and someone else responds
"You are <something negative>". Is that necessary, and what are its
results?

Just some things to think about.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
October 2015 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times
http://www.troubleshooters.com/thrive