Insular crowd

I like adding words to my vocabulary! I am working “parish-pump” into a conversation this week

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I had to look it up but it is a useful term!
And all politics is local according to the late Tip O’Neill who ought to have known…

Collins Dictionary##
parish pump: British English
ADJECTIVE
of only local interest;
Synonym: [parochial]

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Credit to @bbqboy for calling parish-pump out, from a very long list of similar words ; I had not even noticed that one! I love that it brings us to parochial.

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“borné”, now there’s a conversation stopper.

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(post deleted by author)

Umm maybe, but sgee was offering these vibes recently .

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I see what you mean now. An immediate gratification type.

I’m an asset.

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I’m a liability.

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Haha. Had I been required to hazard a guess without context I’d have suggested an item useful in lowland parts of Louisiana subject to frequent flooding.

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in·su·lar

  1. ignorant of or uninterested in cultures, ideas, or peoples outside one’s own experience

Personally I can relate to the feelings that may have prompted this post. There’s a tide of aversion to many perspectives that don’t align with the comfort zone of certain folks, and it feels specifically hostile to understanding how someone not white, not straight, not wealthy (in some cases) and not christian may feel about certain places and situations. I don’t expect agreement and often feel that I’m in the minority, and that’s cool. That’s not a problem. Still just sharing feelings in response to topics and queries posted by others has led to name calling, accusations and bullying, in some cases sanctioned/refereed by moderators in a way that wouldn’t be mine (yes I know you’re volunteers and doing your best and I’m still appreciative). This has now happened several times.

Sometimes another viewpoint can make you feel a bit uncomfortable and that’s not always a bad thing. Makes me think about how someone else feels about something I posted or reacted to, or how someone in a different situation than me might feel differently so I can reconsider and do things differently, learn, whatever. But the community does feel too insular for that here and now to me and I don’t feel it’s particularly healthy and open, and it may be a reason for what also feels like stagnation and not a really robust community at least on my local page. I don’t feel diverse perspectives are respected and encouraged to speak and be heard. Maybe that’s how other folks feel too idk. I’m trying to be open and thoughtful.

Thanks for the fun. There’s a lot of love and appreciation for all and for the topics at hand. I’m taking a break. We’ll see what happens.

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FWIW, I don’t believe I am ignorant or intolerant with regard to different experiences, but I tend to take those discussions elsewhere.
At the same time, I do not tolerate comments I find offensive.

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This. There are plenty of fora, pages, etc. where people can discuss these issues ad nauseam.

Since I am the one @chienrouge is not-so-indirectly accusing of bullying for reminding them that not everyone, everywhere wants to hash out what ails society at large all the time.

Times are depressing enough, and it’s nice to have a reprieve from that here.

Also – way to alienate your allies, chien! Perhaps make fewer assumptions about people you don’t know anything about.

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A lot of times people just come here to have a light chat, take a break from real life with all its heaviness.

There are other places to have the heavy discussions.

It doesn’t follow that people’s perspectives are closed or they are averse to yours just because they don’t want to engage in a direction you want on a particular thread.

You might be surprised by how many people identify with or agree with positions you state. Most people understand food is political, food access is unequal, and so on forth. There are plenty of discussions here that link to those kinds of subjects. But taking every discussion there isn’t necessary.

It’s okay for people to want a small space that isn’t as heavy all the time as everywhere else seems to be.

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I’ve sort of changed my approach after becoming upset in July. I was on vacation- my first vacation in 2 years and 5 months- and I was upset about some Alpha posters’ comments. Some Beta posters kept on liking the Alpha posters’ comments,while my posts were getting no likes. Talk about polarization creep.

I now mostly interact with people I enjoy or people who don’t ruffle my feathers. I mostly ignore posters who aggravate me.

It’s funny- because I’ve been called a troll by some posters- and other posters have told me I come across as diplomatic.

I will take the bait occasionally.

There are cliques on this Board, and some people gang up on unpopular or unique opinions by liking all their pals’ posts that are contrary to the unpopular or unique opinion.

If people with unpopular or unique opinions continually run up against Mean Girls and Mean Fellas, they’ll probably post less frequently, because constant critique means that the Unpopular Poster or Unique Poster is not a bird of a feather. Of course, it’s the unique suggestions that make a discussion interesting, not the consensus comments.

I suppose I have my own clique. It’s obvious I click like on my favourite posters a lot. It’s validation. We validate our cyberfriends and vice versa, for a little I’ll scratch your back.

I might not like an otherwise likeable post because the poster has been an jerk to me previously.

I try not to be passive aggressive or a complete jerk to people I disagree with.

It’s just like Grade 7. Grade 7 was a good precursor to what the rest of life tends to be like.

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I graduated HS in the early 90s and never looked back :partying_face:

Strangers on the internet are just that to me – nothing more, nothing less.

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Sometimes all people have to go on is tone.

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I think when posting on a mostly anonymous message board like this one, our default criteria when deciding whether to post something or not should always be something like the following:

  • Whatever you would never say to a person’s face in real life, should never be posted on the Internet

The anonymity of the Internet has, unfortunately, made keyboard warriors out of all us.

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Oh no!!! I thought that everyone would outgrow this stage!!!
LOL!

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Or, in a socio-political context one can post <insert company\chef\restaurant> contributes to xxx socio-political group. But not "therefore anyone who patronizes <company\chef\restaurant> must also support xxx and xxx is wrong regarding their opinion of socio-political issue ?