Off-topic troll.

I apologize, Joyce.  I really shouldn't have posted an off-topic political
rant.  But it's not as though I had absolutely no reason for doing so.

In my defense, I was reacting to another post that was extremely derogative
and on top of that months and months of posts that have been derogative.
The newsgroup has been quite open to off-topic rants in the past, so I
didn't feel entirely unwelcome in protesting a growing trend, not just in RL
but here in rpca as well.

If this group did keep political rants off then there would have been no
reason for my particular rant.  The problem is that America bashing has
become so profound and so pervasive that people don't even react to it as a
political rant all its own - they just assume it's OK to denigrate an entire
nation of people and get no adverse reaction from doing so.  Therefore, I
don't entirely understand the "double standard "remark, since I've been
seeing quite a few posts that are politically slanted in a quite different
way than what I expressed in my "rant" - which, again, was the entire reason
for my "rant".

Hugs,

CatNipped

This conversation has made me think about my inability to get folk to
always do what I would like them to do and I think it right to share
my thoughts.

As a result of one of the lessons I've learnt while receiving help to
overcome alcohol dependency, I have come to better understand the
limit of my power over people.  In the context of postings to NGs,
when I accept my powerlessness/inability to stop anyone from posting
anything that they want to say and exercise my power of choice over
what to read, then I am doing the best I can to maintain my serenity
and to better enjoy the time I spend on them.

Sheenah

The way I see it, and this is just my opinion on this (I could well be very
wrong) is that political posts and other posts that put people down, attack
people, insult people, upset people and are in other ways negative are not
popular here. Political posts that are supportive, uplifting, and generally
positive in tone are, if not welcome, then tolerated.

The original post that started this discussion contained a passage that was
very negative towards a set of people who are well represented in this
group. The group responded in a positive manne, pointing out the good things
that that set of people also have. The rest of the post that started it -
which was discussing the merits of a particular film - did not attract the
flammage, and in fact all agreed that the trailers of the film
misrepresented the content of the film. It was the rest of the post that
flung insults towards a large proportion of this group that caused the
controversy.

Simply put, this is a group that holds supporting each other in very high
regard. I think most of the group consider each other part of the family, we
more than just posters to Usenet, we are a community
;p. We do not like anything to interfere with that intimacy. Posting insults
at any group of people to which any of us might belong is dangerous, and not
well tolerated. After all, most people don't like things that cause our
friends hurt or upset. Thus it is I will refrain from insulting, for
example, Democrat voters, for as much as I may disagree with the Democrat
party, I have no quarrel with any of my Democrat voting friends, and to
blanket insult Democrats would be to insult them too. We don't have to agree
on everythign to be friends, but we do have to have respect for each other
an each other's opinions. Friends don't insult each other.

Yowie