06-27-03 @ 7:57 am EDT

Ranty entry! La la la. :) But rest assured this is not aimed at anything in my own situation. Just at a user I observe in my lurking so I have had no personal interactions with them whatsoever. They probably don't even know me. I might be too identifying in details in this entry, so if you know them, if they see this, or whatever, just keep this entry to this journal; if they want to they can post about it in THEIR journal, I don't even care; just so long as it's kept to personal journals and NOT public forums or sitewide e-mails, and so long as no names and blatant hints ("Ooohhhh, her name begins with a T and she's into MYTHOLOGY, not that I'm naming names!"...passive-aggressive, anyone?)...really, I couldn't care less if people lambaste me anonymously in their journals. I just hate it when it gets taken further than that. *shrug*

But anyway, as none of the people involved really care about me, I'm supposing I can post freely without thought of any trouble...just covering my bases because I've been wrong before!

...This is all about a particular user who, from all I have seen, shows up to post in a popular forum ONLY when they are pissed off and want to snipe at somebody else. I swear to God, I have NEVER seen a positive post from them, EVER. Maybe in the past they were like that...I seem to remember when they first showed up here, I liked them somewhat. We never got to know each other though, and they are not very active around here, having somewhat fallen from grace; they have some issues with the site itself, and bitch about THAT a lot, but sure do hang out a lot for somebody who hates it and knows of better communities. *shrug* I could go on about THAT for pages, but that's not the issue this time around. So they want to stay here even if they "hate" the site; fine. It's what they do post nowadays that pisses me off, even though I'm not in the least bit involved. (Thank God.)

It's a forum I stopped posting in long ago; won't get into that again. But I occasionally stop in to read since there's always bound to be somebody trying to rile things up. And this person is often it. They have some problems with religion. Who doesn't? I'll be the first to admit I have serious issues with the Christian church...I won't get into THAT, either. That's for another entry all about ME. (It's my journal, mwah!) The thing is, most of us tend to keep our problems with religion to ourselves. This person? They take it out on followers of the faith they detest at EVERY TURN. They sneak in and snipe as if they really believe it won't even be noticed, but they should know from experience that it will. It always is. When you attack somebody's faith, no matter how "trivial" your comment might seem, you are setting yourself up for trouble.

Heaven forbid somebody should attack THIS person's faith. They get very pissy when that happens. But they take every chance they can to snipe at others' faiths. (Well, more like one particular faith...but anyway...) It almost makes me grin seeing what a big chip they've got on their shoulder, what inferiority issues they must have. But it IS infuriating to be attacked for one's belief system. They are so adamant that they are going to be attacked for THEIR beliefs that...they are constantly going in there and SETTING THEMSELVES UP for attack!

I mean it! Since I'm not involved, I think I can see it a BIT more clearly than the ones involved...though I could be wrong, since I'm such an overly emotional person. Bla bla, this is my entry, go away if you don't like it. I have ACTUALLY seen at least two posts by this person where everything was peaceful and had NOTHING to do with religion. They went in and demanded answers to faith-based questions from followers of this religion they detest. They pretty much set any responses up for failure by saying things like, "Your answers had better be LOGICAL and based on REASON rather than such stupid things as FAITH. Anyone who attacks me will be IGNORED!"

Well hmm...sounds almost like they EXPECT to be attacked, right off the bat. As someone who always expects to be attacked, I know this feeling...and it is most often WRONG. If you're polite enough in how you phrase something, you don't have to expect attacks. And I have to admit that these requests, while kind of brusque and snotty sounding, were not so much rude as angry sounding. Attacks should not have really been expected...except from somebody who is A. paranoid like me, or B. WANTS to be attacked! (That is, stepped in there for the specific purpose of provoking an attack--which I believe was the case. From what I've seen, this person can be very confrontational--when it suits THEM.)

They also said they'd ignore any responses that were based on faith and belief rather than fact and reason. Give me a BREAK. When it comes down to it, ALL religion is based on faith and belief. We CANNOT prove there is or isn't a God, or a Goddess, or many gods or none. We can only believe, or not believe. We can ask for facts to back up specific incidents given in holy books, and to back up people's REACTIONS to religion, but we cannot ask for facts to back up belief itself. To ask for this is ludicrous and just stupid. Doomed to failure. I'm certain this person knew that, but they posted the questions anyway.

They got some responses both times. Both times I read all the responses I could and ALL of them were polite and well mannered. Some answerers, of course, could not meet the too-strict requirements given and had to base their answers on faith alone. Others DID offer facts to back up certain things, and I thought they did a pretty good job, even if I agreed or not. I sat back and waited for the angry person's response to these posts.

And...

There WAS none!

Well HUH! Go in and demand answers of followers of a certain faith you are KNOWN to have extreme issues with, and then ignore all the responses? Very nice! Some of them DID meet the criteria given but this person still ignored them ALL. Personally...I think they were disappointed that nobody attacked them as they expected they would! :P

And in lieu of that, they had no response to give! They weren't EXPECTING reasoned responses. Nya nya nya!

I think it was on the second occasion they did this, demanded answers; there was ONE response they did reply to...and it was to be snitty and pissy yet again. The other, polite responses? Not even noticed, apparently. See? They thrive on confrontation and negativity. As somebody who knows that feeling all too well (but doesn't claim to revel in it like this person seems to)...I think I know THAT when I see it.

They take every chance they can to spitefully attack this other faith, while snapping if somebody attacks theirs. Then whine and piss and moan about how it was the OTHER person's fault. "I'm only being so spiteful toward your faith because people of YOUR faith have been so mean to me!" Well, get it through your head, person; nobody there was being rude to you EVER until you opened up your yap and was rude to them FIRST. Of course they would attack you THEN! When you stepped in and saw no attacks coming, you started snarking and ASKING to be attacked. Live with it! As somebody who whines so much about their own faith being attacked, they sure do attack others a lot...as somebody who cries that we should leave those of other faiths in peace, they are a very big hypocrite to not follow their own advice when it comes to this ONE particular faith. Chip, chip, you should try to brush that chip off your shoulder but I'm afraid you might break your fingers, it's so heavy and ingrained. For God's sake, you've seen how pissed off I am with the Christian church, yet I do not go around slamming others of that or any other faith--even Scientology, which I DO detest--because of the hatred of some OTHER people who have nothing to do with the ones I would be attacking.

This person is painting everybody of this one faith with the same brush. My how convenient! They ask for it not to be done to them, but it's okay for them to do it to others.

Even if they must be such a big hypocrite with so many inferiority issues, they could at least learn to keep it to themselves. Nope! Whenever they can they try to slip in a snide little remark and then act all righteously indignant when the other party takes the bait. (For BAIT it is!...somebody so petty is surely aching for a fight to make themselves feel better, to make them a martyr. Ah, that's the word I was looking for all along--MARTYR! "Wah wah, I attacked you and now you're attacking me! I am the victim! Wah! See how BAD that religion is?!...") They try to brush their HURTFUL comments off as mere jokes when it's obvious from their past behavior that if somebody were to make little niggling comments like that about THEIR faith, they would not see it so "humorously." (Damn, that chip is so big it just won't BUDGE no matter how hard you try!!...shall I get you a crowbar to try to remove it?) Then when others get understandably upset they get royally pissed off and start harping about how awful and bad that religion really is, because see?...the wounded party just proved their point by getting mad...but only because they were attacked first. Poke a lion long enough and of course it will bite your head off. Poke a lamb, even and it might butt you in the rear. Poke somebody about a subject that even YOU YOURSELF are obviously sensitive about, and then be surprised when they snap? Hoh, please. I am very ignorant and naive sometimes but even *I* am not THAT stupid.

Which is why I believe it's this heavy chip on their shoulder, or some inferiority complex, which drives them to seek confrontation in order to make themselves the victim, seek support from friends who they have even attacked (I did see an attack from this person on a close friend...the attack was later "conveniently" deleted...typical, of this person!)--friends who are probably growing just as exasperated by this behavior, whine when they are attacked, sulk and poke when they are NOT attacked, and...VANISH FROM THE SITE COMPLETELY when they don't have any confrontations to tend to! For as I said, the only times I EVER see them post are when they are getting angry and grousing at someone else's (usually nonconfrontational) post, or when they are trying to start up fights themselves.

Oh, they would never admit they are trying to start a "fight"...I can tell they really DO believe they are in the right. But as somebody not involved in it, I see them as perpetually pissy and ill tempered, very intolerant despite their claims to the contrary, and incredibly sulky and pouty. Wah wah...nobody's noticing me today. Shall I bitch about somebody's religion and how badly it's treated me in the past? That'll get me noticed...here I go...

I've never claimed to not be an attention-seeker, a hypocrite in my own right...but at least I can see this behavior, and I hate that I am like this. But GAWD does it piss me off when people not only can't see what big flaming hypocrites they really are, but when they take every advantage of that that they can...at others' expense.

For God's sake, if such issues piss you off so damned much, FIND SOMEPLACE ELSE TO POST ABOUT IT! And quit snarking. Grouse grouse grouse, pout pout pout, WHINE!

WELL...I have not proofed this aside from a little spellcheck in MSWorks, as I have to log off. Hits to Skew the past day have been very slow. Hm. I'll hopefully have better things to talk about later...*reminder to self to maybe talk about Silver?--maybe*

And once more I ask, if you take some issue with what I'm saying here, post it in your own personal journal, but for God's sake don't snipe at me or other users about it. Sheesh, even I try to keep my own agenda out of the forums...well, except for when it comes to R&R'ing. I never claimed to be perfect. ^_^

Tar...