As far as flaming goes.....I think that sometimes when a person is feeling down or inferior or just having a bad day (it can actually be quite subtle), their first form of defense against their own feelings of inadequacy is to attack. The attack can be anything from a subtle off the cuff comment to out and out verbal abuse. In a strange way, we look to build ourselves up (the easy - lazy way) by tearing someone else down. I know that I am guilty of having done this in the past and might very well be guilty of doing it in the future. I would like to think that through the years I have mellowed and matured enough to where I don't find myself letting this type of behavior happen very often. (nobody is perfect..) When I feel threatened usually my initial primal defense thought is first and foremost to attack the perceived source of the threat. However, I can now, more often than not recognize what is going on inside of me and head it off at the pass, so to speak. Providing that I don't just fly off the handle, I can either seek to come up with what I consider a more thoughtful mature response or I can choose to let it go. When I was a young man, I most often would just let it rip instead of biting my tongue long enough to have a second thought. I grew up in a rather tough neck of the woods and adopted an "I don't take sh*t off of anybody" attitude during my teen years. Unfortunately, I have a collection of scars all over my body to prove that the just let it rip method isn't all that good of a solution, especially when the guy that you are attempting to beat is bigger than you. (I only weigh 150 lbs. soaking wet with my clothes on) But I wouldn't take sh*t offa nobody....lol...how smart was that! (similar to revenge trading maybe) At any rate, here on the internet we don't have to worry about getting slapped upside the head with a mullet or a large trout. So, if someone so desires they can flame away and not have to worry about much more of a repercussion than maybe being out debated or out witted...etc...(which I'm not very good at either) Words can and do hurt, but it's just not quite the same as a good knockout punch. Therefore, I think that immature behavior is probably even more amplified by the anonymity provided by screen names and by being able to lash out without fear of direct confrontation or reprisal. I think that some posters have several screen names in order to provide themselves with even more anonymity and less accountability. I consider it to basically be a sign of immaturity and I might get flamed for having said that. If so, so be it. I'm not saying that this is true (putting others down in order to build myself up) for each and every argument, debate, rant, rave or flame. Some arguments just need to be had start to finish and I suppose that sometimes we just have to tell someone off. (can't take but so much....lol.) After all, in some states, here in the south - the statement, "BUT YOUR HONOR!!! - HE JUST NEEDED KILLIN !!!" is considered a valid defense in a court of law.
I think the fact that a lot of us make a living out of "tearing others down" might have a little to do with this, too. The fact that for many of us our "primal violent attack instinct" is (has to be) suppressed all day long in order to keep a clear head and survive the modern battle for resources, doesn't really make things easier. Clearly enough though, the greatest warriors in history were those who could battle completely void of anger or negative emotion, counting anybody from wise Egyptian warlords to Samurai and modern Marines. I think such behaviour could equally reflect the quality of an ET'ers mind / degree of self-control / inner peace. I know I too am guilty of flaming in the past. It's just such an easy thing to do. But it's much harder to mop up the blood afterwards... Yeah, I wrote something like this to a friend the other day; I fully agree that the 'wars' seem to be an integral part of ET. Just consider it's a community of people under the complete protection of anonymity, and to top it off, comprised of a probably 95% frustrated majority. In real life, people facing each other would never dare to deal like this (other than maybe inmates in prison a day before leave). Nice post, plumlazy...
Just thought I'd add this for a bit of illustration.... Now this is proper flaming! You would be out of your depth in a parking lot puddle. I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself on the Internet. You've got a big hole in your head, now shut it. When you are at a loss for words, your loss is our gain. As Ellen Glasgow once remarked: "He knows so little and knows it so fluently." It's just as well you can type, for if you had to speak your mind, you'd be speechless. You couldn't get a clue during clue mating season in a field of clues if you smeared your body in musk and did the clue mating dance. Have you ever noticed that whenever you sit behind a keyboard, some idiot starts typing? To quote Thomas Brackett Reed: "They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge." You are a bore, and a very dull one at that. You are nastier than a five-dollar whore getting a shit enema. You're a waste of time, space, air, flesh, and the rectum you were born from, retard. Maybe you wouldn't be such a Jerk-In-The-Box if you weren't living proof that stupid people should not breed; if your weren't so fat that when you walk down the street, everyone yells "Earthquake!", or if you didn't have a face so ugly that your Psychiatrist makes you lie face down. Who am I kidding? You would. Just when I think I've read the stupidest post ever, you go and post another. I suggest you hone your writing skills before applying borrowed glories as a mere typist. Finally, why don't you go and get lost somewhere where they don't have a "found" department? When god was handing out personalities, you must have been holding the door. You're so boring, even a boomerang wouldn't come back to you. You are the kind of person who, when one first meets you, one doesn't like you. But when one gets to know you better, one hates you. Maybe you wouldn't read like such a pathetic loser if you weren't living proof that stupid people should not breed; if your weren't so fat from all that cheap beer you spend your Welfare payments on that your belly jiggle is the first ever perpetual motion machine, or if you weren't uglier than the north-facing end of a south-bound mule. No, come to think of it, you would. Is there a gibberish translator in the house? I can't make head nor nail of that uber-babble you flung onto the screen during your latest spasmodic seizure. Just as the strength of a solitary brick will not save a poorly built structure, your bold typeface does not redeem your craven incoherent words. In conclusion, why don't you go away and play Russian roulette with all chambers fully-loaded? You are a confoundedly boorish contemptible misdemeanant and a preposterous, chronically flatulent display of indecency. Stop whining like an old whore. I can't be bothered to slap you about your wrinkled gin-ravaged face any longer - it's too easy. Shut up before I wire your eyeballs to a defibrillator; set the voltage to Kill, and smile as you go flying around the flashing coop like a beheaded multicolored, fire-farting chicken before collapsing conveniently at my feet so I can piss-out the flames and feed the remains of your fried gimp carcass to the pigs. Shut up, before I stick shove my foot so far up your ass that you'll be shitting shoe-shaped turds for a month. It's either silence or Armageddon, chucklehead.
Shut up before I wire your eyeballs to a defibrillator; set the voltage to Kill, and smile as you go flying around the flashing coop like a beheaded multicolored, fire-farting chicken before collapsing conveniently at my feet so I can piss-out the flames and feed the remains of your fried gimp carcass to the pigs. Surely this is a step in the right direction towards world peace! ROFLMAO