I can't join more advanced threads without being attacked.

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I've posted my opinion in a thread about sexism and than what happens? I get attacked by everybody in that thread who's goal is to make me feel stupid. Now I know why I never post in any of the more philosophical threads. I'd just be cast aside as an idiot.

I had a look at that thread and don't see anyone attacking you.
There's someone else telling his side of the story, basically saying that gender stereotypes don't only exist for women. But none of that is an attack on you.

I think one one enters into those forums, one should realize they are essentially entering into a debate. A proper debate, however, should not be comprised of personal attacks, however, but an exchange of ideas and perspectives through logic, during the course of which both sides seeks to arrive at an agreed upon logical conclusion.

In most instances this conclusion will not actually be met and people will simply agree to disagree.

In my family, debates were fairly common and a person was expected to be able to substantiate their claims or points of view, and be able to counter challenges. However these debates were not hostile. My friend, however, comes from a family where this type of interaction did not take place, and has a tendency to perceive he is being criticized or being attacked when he is disagreed with or when someone argues a point counter to his.

So I don't think people are intending to make you feel stupid. I think perhaps that you simply have expectations of the interaction that differ from that of most people.

I kinda know the feeling...I get crap for my opinions on things to, but it wouldn't do me any good to change them just to make everyone else happy. Though sometimes I wonder where some of the assumptions and accusations I've ran into come from, in another site I had someone try and rip on me for calling them out on their bigotry towards people with tattoos and mental illnesses that they were expressing. Pissed me off.

What can I say I get sucked in and then I wonder why I even bother.

I just looked at that thread and I don't think anyone was having a go at you.
You had some good points there in your post, it was a good discussion.
don't worry too much about it if there's a topic you want to comment on you have a right too.

Disclaimer: Anything I say in this post is criticism based on past experiences with the internet as a whole and is not indicative of any person or persons affiliated with this website or WrongPlanet.net in general.

It's my experience that debating on the internet is a waste of time. You are essentially fighting a hivemind that consists almost entirely of brainwashed, progressive uber-liberal college students who have all been trained in defending the socialist agenda and marking anyone who defies said agenda for vilification and persecution. No one in this hivemind can be bothered to back up their opinions with facts or relevant arguments, they deal in strawman arguments, ad hominem attacks and hypocritical moon logic that routinely defies common sense, but is meant to paint them as "tragically wronged".

TC mentioned that he entered an argument on sexism. Never offer an opinion in a thread like that. If you are a white male then you lost the argument before it even began. They're isn't any desire to debate this issue amongst the militant feminist set, only to decry males as evil and seek to advance their own social position which has it's goals set as establishing a matriarchy and deleting the "Y" chromosome from the human genome.

Anyone who plugged into the gaming community probably heard about this woman, Anita Sarkeesian, who gained a $160,000 in donations from kickstarter for a webseries which intends to paint the video gaming industry as anti-woman. I have seen some of her short youtube videos and she never makes a single point about gaming that isn't an strawman argument or an ad hominem directed at the entire male gender.

This is the kind of mentality you are dealing with in those topics. There is little point in attempting to directly battle it, it's like a tsunami, and will curve the arguments around your blade, making it useless. But if you let it crash itself on the cliff, it will make so little progress that it will eventually give up and go back to sea.

Just for the record, I am not a Republican. I get accused of that a lot, but it isn't true. I don't like Republicans or any politicians for that matter. I think governing should be done with common sense, not party rhetoric. But that's never going to happen in my lifetime.

I'd go back to that thread and apologize for my little meltdown, but apologies are seen as irrational here. I guess that I'll just apologize, anyways and explain why I'm doing so.

I'm not the logical type like most of the people on WP.

Any logical person can have their logic clouded by passion. I have to admit that I am probably set to a knee jerk reaction to things I perceive as wrong or unjust, and that's probably due to a childhood of being beaten and humiliate constantly. And many of the tactics I see being used nowadays in so called political crusades are standard deviations of that bullying, at least through my eyes.

You know, fads come and go. But bullying and hurting people never seems to go out of style.

...

First the Olympics, then this business. No one's against you, Cockney Rebel.

Psst... DiscaredWhisper... CockneyRebel is a girl, not a guy.

As far as the topic goes, all I have to say is that people will disagree with you if you post something. However, you shouldn't take it personally as I don't think it is meant as anything but a disagreement. I, for one, live to argue complex points and I get attacked all the time because not all of my opinions are popular. I am also a very sensitive person and I do not like to lose. For this reason, I usually pick my battles and focus on things that I know I can win on. I have also learned not to take it personally. In the end, it's just the internet and that's just the way it works. Plus, you have just as much right to post a counter-point to someone who disagrees with you as they do to you. Learn to read opposing posts and pick them apart in your mind. You can also read how others do it and try to analyze what they do right and wrong so as to learn strategies for future battles.

sorry I wasn't attacking you in anyway mate, you made a wonderful post and have nothing to apologize for. I was telling my opinion and personal experiences and opinions.
and I also suck at debating I end up being very rude/insulting when I try to. so lately I've tried to avoid it.(losing friends over dumb internet arguments isn't fun.)

I have a tendency towards reactionary behavior. I've already been asked to curtail that sort of thing and in respect of others I will do that now. I just like to point out that restraining myself from my usual reactions requires an effort of herculean proportion. That being said I do not care to justify my earlier comments.

There's a massive difference between someone disagreeing with you, or with your opinion, or refuting your argument - and someone who personally attacks you.
Even if someone criticises your argument or your behaviour, that is not a personal attack either (many of us have times when our behaviour is less than perfect).
A personal attack is directly attacking that person - so if someone states (or overtly implies) that you are stupid, or that you do not have basic comprehension skills, or attacks you for what race you are - those are personal attacks.

You have to understand that when a discussion is in progress, everyone is free to discuss, debate and argue about the ideas, opinions, evidence and arguments presented, or the specifics of a said idea. Them disagreeing with your idea, or trying to hash out the specifics of it, does not mean it is a personal attack.

Furthermore - this is a difference which seems subtle to many, but is actually incredibly important. It is what defines the line between a mature, respectful and civil discussion, and something that ends in a thread being locked. Many of those do not necessary argue based on logic in those threads either - the majority merely use their logic to justify an emotional position and their understanding of the world. If you recognise that you do not argue out of logic then I would have to congratulate you for at least being self-aware enough to acknowledge that fact.

Niether of you have anything to apologize for.

She made a good post, and so did you in response.
Both expressing truths from your respective points of view.

Exactly what you're supposed to do.

People make a big deal out of sexism and racism. If one person thinks you are being offensive when you're only making a point and not intending to be offensive, they still accuse you of being racist and sexist. You've got to be so careful of what you say these days, because people take things to seriously (not getting at you, I'm agreeing with you ).

I don't get it - NTs get away with calling us ''weird'', which is dissing a group of people, but if anyone gets caught calling blacks ''packys'' or something, everybody loses their respect for that person (it's happened to me before).