Someone apparently blocked me for asking them 2x to read my whole thread (total of 2 posts) before twice responding inaccurately after only reading the first one.
Some people do not like their regular programming of doom and gloom to be interrupted by trying hope or just waiting to see what happens.
For some predicting and obsessing about “the worst is happening” or “will happen”, is a means of feeling in control of uncertain situations that hold the possibility of disappointment.
While making clear you’re liberal-minded, you and your thread are firmly rooted in the now. They wish you to be a member of their doom & gloom crowd.
@bronakins They insisted that I was telling people to be optimistic. I was going much deeper than that, something they refused to even acknowledge, let alone read in my thread.
So many people don’t read the entire post and/or the included article — they’re so anxious to get their “two cents” in they only read the headline or the lede. It’s the digital version of “passive listening”the OPPOSITE of attending carefully to what a speaker is saying — active listening!
It’s why in my comments I often as you said yesterday “recap.” I ASSUME some didn’t read your post carefully.
Your account is doing a service to your followers to help them keep informed of current events. The care you put into writing your posts is evident and it’s reasonable for you to expect your followers to read them with equal care (especially when you call it to their attention).
Your page is like your home online, you can decide to whom you do not wish to extend hospitality. It’s not like you don’t give them fair warning.
I was just catching up on your post and it looks like an account by someone who wants to leave comments but not from their main account where they can get called out and suffer the consequences. "...Observing from a safe distance"
@alexhammy@paul Right, but I was acknowledging, in my thread, that I relate well to those who feel alarmed, angry, etc. but that I prefer not to jump to conclusions, so I default to “wait and see” before making dire predictions BEFORE the trial even starts.
So it was more complicated than optimism vs pessimism.
@GottaLaff I was just talking about this the other day-people are more angry & sensitive- not just strangers (they are!) but family members. My SIL has been so angry at my brother & his wife about basically nothing. You can’t even talk to her about it & that’s just the tip of the iceberg- my family is up to its chin in conflict. I just don’t remember a time when it was so bad. Maybe (probably?) it’s increasing temps with climate change but people are def having a hard time dealing w each other
@GottaLaff me too. It is terrible that at a time when we need each other and should be working together, that we’re less tolerant of each other than ever before.
@GottaLaff Don't sweat the Ignorant Riffraff! You are doing a phenomenal job reporting! Without you I would not know what's going on most of the time 😁
being blocked isn't necessarily about you, it can be about the blocker knowing themselves & knowing they have a tendency to spiral into gloom when defending a debating point
no idea if that was the case this time but could be if it was a mismatch not of core beliefs but of personality/innate nature
people can't easily change from pessimistic to wait & see, or from reactive/defensive to relaxed/open/wait & see
there'd be no disease called anxiety if that was easy
@GottaLaff LoL Rather considerate of them to save you the trouble of blocking them and having to type out #Toodles Sometimes a jackass will just surprise ya. One of the wolves that raised them apparently got past 6th grade. 😜
@GottaLaff Awww, very sweet of you to say. Sadly I’m the last born child in an Irish American family and I have the indestructible ego that goes with that so we were already cool. 🤣 🤣 🤣 (But thanks for saying it. 😜 )
@GottaLaff@pixelpusher220
My dad says, "Don't wrestle with a pig. You get muddy, and the pig likes it."
The key to sanity on social media is getting to the point you can let someone say something stupid, and then just move on. Let them have the last word.
@dingodog19@pixelpusher220 I agree. In this case, they seemed friendly, seemed to enjoy my posts, but refused to acknowledge that I wrote a second post that would have clarified the issue.
My last post to them was, “This tells me you still didn’t read my thread.”
@deborahh They kept insisting I was telling people to be optimistic, after I said “I try to be hopeful” and in the second post said I relate to them and default to “wait and see” mode.
I kept telling them I never suggested “optimism.” They thought I was “at odds” over semantics. They refused to read that second post.
@GottaLaff@deborahh I have been listening to the book "Book of Hope" by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams. I'm only a bit of the way in, but something that has really been sticking with me is the difference drawn between things often thought of as somewhat synonymous with "hope" -- optimism, faith, fantasizing. Hope, they contend, is an active process, including advocacy, effort, and not passive faith.
What you do here strikes me as very hopeful rather than "optimistic." (Which I admire!)