Gatogateau

Now that I have half of the forum blocked, I do wonder what I missed. Then I think. I imagine. A very few times I have peeked and was proven correct in my theorizing. So I'm guessing, shaking my head and after 10 years of never blocking anyone, have to admit that it is relatively blissful (or bliss-less as the case may be).

I sure wish you guys would lay off my tail, though. It's mine!

Thanks for the link. Gah, he's sooooooooo adorable. Just look at that face! Beard and all! I kinda wish he'd have just done a mic drop after the 21 seconds though...

@kiramanell and @Selene Gregoire

I have a fantastic friend in RL that I met in SL. He's been figuratively by my side for something like nine years. I love that he totally doesn't sugar coat things, like today about something he told me I was right about something, really right, but also stupid. I'll own that and having someone you can rely on for that stuff in your life is rare and precious.

Also, Moira told us waaaaay back on pg 1 (?) that Petite Mort (sorry not inworld so no LM) has a free group gift of a BLM crop that looks very nice, and there is also an appropriate tapestry available, all for FREE and you do NOT need to be a group member to get them.

I'm assuming you haven't made it to the "noisy channel" post of mine yet. I do not think you, Beth, or Scylla or Amina have called me racist. Stupid, possibly. Wrong (Scylla said it verbatim as "dead wrong.") I can live with that. If the noise can be bypassed, I meant what I said, not how it was taken. In this case the fault of communication (delivery, not content) was wrong because I truly thought that most of the people in the conversation were on the same page and could look past trigger words if they were put into a bigger picture. I was wrong. I'm not fighting (much) with "you guys." I know who I am and what I believe in and I'm very OK with that, and I think most of the people I communicate with regularly also know. But... reference back to "noisy channel."

This. This just instantly blows my blood pressure sky-high. Also that so little is said about the three cops who did nothing. They are on video doing nothing except looking at the camera and the people screaming "you're killing him." I mentioned in an earlier post (that got lost in the noise) that I can totally understand why the civilian bystanders didn't jump in, they probably would have been shot. The complicit cops?????

For misgendering I get an apology. For telling me I have no right to speak and to go eff myself... crickets. I "may not" be a racist, gee thanks. Again, you could not have read what I actually wrote. And no, not an exception that proves a rule, by a long shot. That the words I used, despite being fine in context, were a dog-whistle, that is obviously so.

This is at least the second time you have referred to looking under my tail. Totally without my consent. I need a safe space.

Ya might want to read (and quote) things in context and apparently you need to think thrice before you hit the send button. And, also, you might want to know your audience before making bad analogies. I'm part Jewish, I had relatives killed in the Holocaust and also French relatives in the Resistance.

Are they not? I thought I read they had put out an official "not us" statement?

Thank you. Even with the "dead wrong." Hopefully you'll read the bit about "noisy channel" ... (and it was another blankety blank Canadian expert who had the most marvelous convo with me about that. I understood every other word or so.) I honestly thought in a "room" of relatively like-minded people that there was room for a discussion, using lots of words, to put forth a slightly differing view. And yeah, you and I both knew (from your earlier post) that your OP was ... I really shouldn't be referencing "acrimonious" threads so much... I can also now put on my profile "RL verified as a she by Scylla Rhiadra." Yay!

Because you are so eager to be offended you are offended. And you are wrong in regards to me (and that was to whom your comment was referring to Kali). You obviously read nothing, in or out of context. Even the other people who are peeved at me are not taking it the way you are. They are peeved for other reasons. Whatevs. You are, of course, entitled to your moral indignation no matter how ill conceived.

People in communications speak of the theory of the noisy channel model of communication. I know this because I just spent some time talking to such a person. Basically it means that because we all think and process differently, we all have our own "noise" and that noise causes problems with communication. Regardless of how perfectly one discusses something it is impossible to communicate so that everyone understands it the exact way it was intended. That's a paraphrase. I probably got it wrong, no fault of the expert talking to me. I absolutely knew and know of the negative undercurrents of "All Lives Matter" can have. My mistake was in thinking that those words, put into a larger context, in a reasoned discussion, could be understood outside of a narrow parameter. That's where the noisy channel theory comes in. I was wrong. So, in that case, as someone put it, I didn't read the room correctly. I honestly thought "bigger picture" would get communicated. I'm sorry I triggered people. That was not my intent. I do get frustrated when I feel I'm writing clearly and it isn't getting through. That frustration is with myself as much as others. I'm generally not at my best when frustrated. I apologize. Black lives matter. BLM. BLM does not equal looting and violence. THIS is the time for BLM to gain traction. (I said all of this before, this isn't changing my stripes.) This really is (mostly) not about a bunch of white folks across the globe yammering about black lives. Until we can truly know, by experiencing day after day, this isn't about us. The irate yelling back and forth isn't the point. This is the time to listen (mostly), as Beth and others have said. However, I said (mostly) twice for a reason. "We" the yammering non-blacks, are part of the equation. If "we" weren't around then there would be no need for BLM. It is like you can't have an up without a down. So it isn't about US, but we're a part of it. The same about listening. If nothing else happens we need to be listening and not just listening but REALLY hearing. (Again, I said this to Beth.) If we do listen, then we need to be communicating with each other and blacks. Not later. ASAP. First listen. Then talk, to each other, not just amongst ourselves. Change has to come and that will only come about from knowing the problem (listening) and then working out solutions together (talking to each other asap). I was really hoping to hear more from the SL black community here and I'm really appreciative of the input they've made, and I read every word. Again, if I offended you, it was not my intent and I thought I was saying so over and over.

Please show where I have said or implied any of this. Because I have not. Over and over my comments about PC groupthink have been explicitly stated as *how* we are *allowed* to talk about a very serious subject.

I came into this thread and specifically answered the ON TOPIC OP. I read further. I read Paul's comments. I read all of them. I read the reactions. I thought he was getting unfairly treated, and that was because through MY lenses, my very PC lenses, I agree with him. As I understood him. I may have misunderstood him, as I thought others had. I wrote *words* lots and lots of words. Few were acknowledged, just that anyone who could utter all lives matter, in WHATEVER context, is a deluded racist. I'm accusing that over-reaction of being PC group think. Sorry, not sorry. I won't lock step, even if that means being told I have nothing to say and to go eff myself. How's that for some liberal lovin'?

And Beth, no. You're wrong, point by point. I am not feeling beat down. I'm feeling that people are so stuck in their one particular way of thinking that they are not reading, and certainly not reading things in entirety or context. I am frustrated. No, I am not enraged. Correct, I am not being heard and I was JUST TOLD I have NOTHING TO SAY. So again, I'm reading the room correctly. And no I'm not wanting to shake you or many others, most of the people I would want to shake I have muted (and you'll notice I haven't addressed them). Yes, I do feel like others want to shake me out of my delusions. Well, if ALL anyone heard out of thousands of words was "all lives matter" sure, they are going to be upset. And are. And are totally over reacting. And ascribing things to me I have not thought and to which I've written the exact opposite. I did not ignore Kimmi or anyone else. And I really don't need to be sat down and told to think about what I have done. I wrote what I meant. I said what I meant. It is what I believe. I've stated umpteen times that I agree people need to listen (I would like the same courtesy but apparently I'm not allowed). I have stated I'm for what is happening now with BLM. I have said I don't believe looters = BLM. And on and on and on. But I didn't say it in the correct PC way. Sorry. Still not sorry.

What. The. Actual. Eff. I have nothing to say. I am not allowing people to process... Wow. Just. Wow. NOTHING I have written deserved that. Not. One. Damned. Thing. But then, I'm guessing my whole bunch of posts were not read. Thanks for proving my point.

Nope, there was no deep nuance to my sarcasm about groupthink. I'm quite aware of what atrocities are going on "now" and for the past hundreds of years. I have a view point. It doesn't follow the EXACT viewpoint of the groupthink, so yes, I understand about patiences and discernment and frustration and a bunch of things. That said, I don't know what your appropriate response is to that. (sincere, not snarky)

Yep, I totally don't get what you're saying. Except, gosh, I've said 99% of what you've said. And I have not been belittling, with knocks of a 2x4 against your head, your views. I have not jumped on three words and taken them out of context and not read the rest of what has been said in your comments. I'm reading the room quite well. I don't like it. But I've read it.

Whatever, Han. I generally agree with you, but then, I usually am in lock step as required. Pretty sure people agree with me in this thread too, 99% of it anyway, but, yah know, that little variation is a killer.

As I predicted in my first post... So, continue on, patting each other on the backs for thinking and speaking EXACTLY in The Correct Way without reading or listening. Weren't we reminded that now is a time for listening? Does that only apply to certain people? Apparently. Yes, I agree. I'm stupid. I'm ill informed. I am aiding and abetting repression in all its forms. I am callous. I certainly do not choose my words with care, nor do I know my own intent or beliefs. I will go back and reread all the great wisdom so that I may, too, march in lock step in the correct method. Silly me, I thought I was walking to a mountain top. So glad to have been shown the error of my ways.

I have. You can read it as you like, too. I see the discussion of the last 7 pages or so, and it has veered way off topic from "are you showing support" to a discussion of sorts of racism. Interestingly, it is all about The Right Kind of PC. That is detrimental. /me shrugs

Augh. I can't get the quotes to work the way I want to, so doing it the old fashioned way: @Amina Sopwith said, "Whoa...I certainly said nothing about brain damage." Nope, you didn't. Sorry if I implied otherwise. I've been reading quotes and responses throughout where apparently some people are saying things like "brain damage" if they aren't toeing the line. (And that's 18 kinds of wrong right there, too.) Amina: But to use the mountain paths analogy: no, we are not all heading up the mountain. The ALM expedition, in fact, exists purely to cause a detour around the mountain. You appear to be stuck on the notion that someone is discussing ALM as a group. I have explained umpteen times that I am not. I have written a lot, and if you choose not to see my words and in their context, then there is nothing more I can add. You are talking apples. I am not. I have not delegitimized BLM at all. Quite the contrary to anyone who actually read my words. I have seen a couple of people here state rather puzzling/disturbing views, and I read their words in context. I honestly believe, not that anyone is bothering to pay attention because my words do not fall in line with group think, that overall the best way to approach the very real and necessary social change is to change for ALL. Otherwise we get bogged down into special interest, and piecemeal solutions. This thread has touched upon black lives, impoverished lives, Native American lives and it has touched upon ableism, classism... and heaven knows what else. Raise everyone up at the same time. However, and I've also said this, which no one is bothering to pay attention to, more preferring to jump on one small part of my now novel-lengthed words, sometimes you have the opportunity and need to raise one group up. This is the time and the environment, because of the spotlight, for BLM. Hopefully something happens. Maybe even that something will also pull a few more groups up with it. My belief is that in the long term, big picture, it is the "all" portion that has to be addressed, not the individual groups. Shoot me for not spouting the current PC wisdom.