Mine is fairly short :)
I think it's a defence mechanism. I grew up in the 1970s listening to all manor of bigotry. I knew from an early age that it was wrong... My parents were working class and didn't have a pot to piss in. They were good people, they taught me to treat people with respect and look up to my elders, they were old school. The bigotry was everywhere... In school, on tv, in the general population.. By the time I was a teenager I had had enough, it was the mid 80s. I started to question people when they came out with anything that I found offensive, I got myself into a few scrapes.. I felt like there was something wrong with me, I felt like I was abnormal for biting.
I'm waffling on a bit here, so I'll get to the point. How far can you stand being pushed before you bite? What or who in particular makes you bite back?
Religious bigotry does it for me. I get offended when religious rights outweigh the rights of people who are just trying to get on with their lives... It's bullshit.
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I am a very happy, easy going nice guy. I have a really long fuse that is very hard to "light."
Probably the easiest way to light my "fuse" is when I see people inflicting harm upon others that can not defend themselves. Or a bully.
I am very fortunate. I am a strait, rich, white male, that was given nearly every possible advantage in my life. For most of my life I was always taller and bigger than most of my peers, (which certainly helps!) it is rare for me that I would personally get bullied, stepped on, taken advantage of etc. I also feel if someone gets me upset, I have just let them "win" and I failed myself by letting my emotions get the better of me. This is especially true in online anonymous format.
I understand that bullies quite often are underneath all the anger and bullying etc are often fearful, unhappy, possibly confused, angry and hurting often by things mostly out of their control. Bullying can be a form of a person clawing back lost control in their lives by attempting to control others.
While that sounds corny and something a parent would say to a bullied child, dismissing it this way would be dismissing the "why."
Regardless I can oftentimes take a step back, better understand what is going on, and try to put a stop to it (if I am able to,) without actually getting upset. Sometimes a break down of good communication is all that happened and a proper conversation can remedy the situation.
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▮Please include @LogicFTW for responses to me
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Totally agree with Logic about the bullies. I truly detest a bully. (Oh, and my "definition" of a bully is anybody who uses their size/strength/power/influence to intentionally and maliciously intimidate and/or cause harm to those who are weaker than they are.) Anyway, like Logic, I suppose, if there is any one thing that would instantly put me in "attack mode" it would be seeing somebody getting bullied. And I would do whatever I could to terminate the situation depending on the conditions. Otherwise, I try to be as laid back about things as much as I possibly can. People hurling insults and such at me generally have little to no effect, other than maybe causing me to start laughing in their face.... *chuckle*... Making threats to me is likely to cause a similar reaction, depending on the type of threat. (After all I have seen and done during my life, I am not easily threatened... *shrugging shoulders*...) Threaten my wife or family, though.... And, well, that's another story...
Now, with all that being said, I have to confess that there ARE a few things that can get me incredibly aggravated and start my bitch-box going full tilt. Keep in mind, though, that is not my anger on display. I always tell people that if you see/hear me cussing/ranting/raving and basically just throwing a super hissy-fit, basically just ignore me. No need to worry about anything. Just my pressure relief valve doing its job. Whenever I am in that mode (and it usually lasts only a couple of minutes or so), you could pretty much come up and smack me on the ass, and I would either: A. Call you a motherfucker and then start laughing hysterically, or B. Yell, "Ow! Fuck!" and then continue bitching while rubbing my ass. However, if you see me being really quiet with a stony blank look on my face.... Probably best to stay away.
My fuse is lit by ignorance and stupidity. You explain something to someone. You show them how it is done. You have them do it and explain it to you. After that... I have got one of the shortest fuses on the planet. Ask me the exact same question 5 times and see where I go with it. Fucktards are not worth talking to. I don't "step back" I fire them. No one can run any kind of a business with utter and complete incompetence. Obviously, in social situations, I must bite my lip a bit. However; if the responsibility is on me, tolerance is not my middle name.
Your rich? Want to laon me $40,000 so I can buy a bigger house than the one I can afford? How about 80,000. How rich are you ? 100,000 - one time gift? Support Cog? LOL - I've decided to buy a house in the Philippines. Ahhh the property I could have if I were rich!!!
@Cognostic
Hah I should of not put in that I was rich, it is such a subjective term. I consider myself rich, compared to the averages globally and locally I am certainly rich, but I am not the kind or rich where I could pass 40 to 100k in cash to an online buddy rich. If I was that kind of rich that would be awesome!
I was more making the point that I am very fortunate which for me makes it easy to keep my cool, I am not "struggling" and am able to buy everything I need for my self, my wife and my family. My MiL recently had to replace a leaky water heater and I was able to help out with that instead of her living without hot water until she could save up.
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▮I am an atheist that always likes a good debate
▮Please include @LogicFTW for responses to me
▮Tips on forum use. ▮ A.R. Member since 2016.
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Yes we are all very fortunate. Especially those of us with rich online buddies. ;-)
I don't think I have an especially short fuse, but I am far more inclined than the average person to get into debates and get pedantic about nuances.
To some extent, my fuse is shorter with loved ones which might seem surprising. Perhaps though this is based in large part because there is a difference when you know that a person knows they've raised the red flag.
@Sapporo: LOL The people who know you best know how to push your buttons most.
I have a very short fuse for people, especially parents, preachers, priests, and teachers, who treat children badly or unfairly. There is no punishment too harsh or shame too deep for those who use religious authority to harm children.
Dude, just read my profile.....
I am very, very hard to offend... unless, of course, it's my brother who is doing the offending... LOL
Religitards
rmfr
In the face of racism, my fuse is shorter than a pico-meter.
Racism actually makes more sense than religion.
Throughout history, the arrival of outsiders who looked different and spoke different languages was frequently followed by invasion, war, disease, and genocide. As Laocoon said in Virgil's "Aeneid", it made perfect sense to "fear Greeks and men bearing gifts". I think racism is innate and has to be unlearned.
Religion on the other hand is a self-imposed horror with zero empirical backing that continues to cause major harm in the 21st century.
@Algebe I acknowledge the dichotomy that you pointed out. In my POV Religion and Racism go hand in hand like buttered toast and Vegemite.
I submit that fear is a natural cause for a group to treat another as alien however, Religion breeds hubris, Hubris supplements a false sentiment of supremacy and that false sense of supremacy is reinforced by religion.
It's a tragic fallacy that we should have outgrown long ago. I have an extremely short fuse for it.
Yea. I hate racists. Especially Italians.
No Cog, Serbian female racists are the worst. THEN Italians. And by saying that, you can plainly see I am not racist at all. Some of my best friends are Serbian and some are females. So I understand them completely.
There are only two things I cannot stand in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures..... And the Dutch.
lmao this was the best comment on the thread
Oh..... I see.....
People who contradict themselves really bug me... My wife does it all the time, sometimes in the same sentence! I'm so glad I'm not married.
@Workingclasshero
Hah, that got a chuckle out of me. Well played.
@WCH Re: "People who contradict..."
Ah! Congratulations, my good man! You have redeemed yourself!... lol
Theists stepping on my lawn. Too bad the wife scares them away before I get a chance to argue with them. She invites them in to participate in a ritual goat sacrifice.
You could put this sign up at the entrance to your property (even if you don't own a dog):
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On a semi serious note, putting an obvious camera at your front entrance and maybe even a sign stating the entrance is being monitored/recorded is very useful if you do not like general scum at your door.
After I installed my very obviously placed camera that can't be missed I noticed the following:
- Religious apologist or proselytizers have gone to zero. (they were actually pretty rare in my neighborhood to begin with.)
- Scammers, like magazine sales, (for a supposed charity,) or something simple like the meat scam has gone to zero.
- Significant reduction in door to door salesman. (Also I can easily screen these by checking the camera on my phone when the doorbell rings)
- FedEx, UPS etc deliveries have treated my packages with more care.
- Less dog shit on my front lawn from a-hole/lazy neighbors. (although loose dogs that escape still seem to favor my lawn over my neighbors for some reason...) I can at least provide a description for animal control and I have also helped locate/reunite a lost dog with it's owners because of my front door camera.
I do recommend a motion sensing camera to make it more usable/useful though. (Mine always records but it flags motion and at night turns on the front porch lights when it senses motion near my front door.) These wifi enabled cameras sell for less then 100 now, and some can even be a super easy 1 step install by utilizing a lightbulb socket on your front porch. I recommend it to everyone.
(I do however discourage indoor cameras due to privacy concerns.) As well as cameras that can see into other people's houses based on front porch placement.
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▮I am an atheist that always likes a good debate
▮Please include @LogicFTW for responses to me
▮Tips on forum use. ▮ A.R. Member since 2016.
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I think she has permanently scared the mormons away from this neighbourhood. The last time they were here, she gave them a lecture that made their faces freeze into fake, but polite, smiles. I suspect we have been put on a blacklist of households that are tagged "Visit at your own peril", or something. I am kind of miffed at that, because I missed my chance to ask them for a copy of Mormon's book to put in the fiction section of my bookshelf.
Once my mom (who is a religious moderate) had a JW evangelist at our front door (and luckily for said JW, I, the resident militant atheist of our household, was still in school at the time!), and warded her off with an argument that, though when she described it to me sounded a lot like an atheist argument (about how we live on just a tiny dark-blue speck in the vast expanse of the Universe), to my slight disappointment later turned out to still have God in it. I then told her that if I was at home and was the one to answer the door, I would have told the JW to come back later once she's found the evidence to support her view. Another thing I would have done, although of course I didn't tell my mom, was that I would (with the door closed so my family wouldn't hear and yell at me) frighten her off by saying "No thanks, too busy sinning and worshipping Satan and (to give it a JW touch in particular) getting ready to go off to one of those dreaded secular colleges."
@Rohan M. Or a sign like this.......
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@GOML Re: "...wife... invites them in to participate in a ritual goat sacrifice."
Fascinating... Sounds like your wife and my wife have much in common... LMAO...
I have an incredibly long fuse on 99.9% of things and with nearly everyone.
The one thing I have a short fuse for is stupidity. If I explain the fallacy you committed, for fucks sake, do NOT commit it again.
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