Hello,
long time not having had an exchange with you.
I am not sure about this feature, though. If you like, read my comments here, they are all over the place. lol
I see the comment section not as "mine". It's public. Mine is the content of my blogpost-page, if you will but shall I have control over the comments made (leaving out spam and such)?
You are well within your rights to see the comment section attached to your post in that way and hold just as valid a position as one who doesn't see it in that way and would prefer not to engage in debates or name calling or whatever it is they are not wishing to deal with in their comment sections.
In the blogging world it is a standard feature for the blog author to moderate (control) the comment section. This is not an aberration within the sphere of blogging, the aberration was actually not having that ability present.
I imagine the same is probably possible in the realm of social media (Fakebook etc) where one has the ability to block others from probably even seeing their postings.
I respect your view of the comment section and I respect the views of those who would have more control over theirs.
Having said that, here is where I believe I align more with the not muting advocates.
There will obviously be more potential in the non moderated comment sections for ignorance to be shed as it is more conducive to more thorough examinations to be held. This will be a magnet for those who seek such ground, but because nothing changed for them it already was.
Those who wish a more moderated (protected) area to navigate in, they likely wouldn't have ventured to much into those types of areas to begin with.
I suspect not a lot has really changed with this feature for most, and those most impacted it was due to their seeking to engage another in a battle of wits the other wasn't welcome to having. The person in this scenario who would be impacted could always just write on the topic on their own blog and say whatever they need to say and allow the freer more lively examination to take place there.
And yes, it's been awhile. I hope all has been well with you and yours?
Thank you, I am well and so are my man and son. We still are on vacation. How is it for you now after some month in your new location?
I welcome the fact that you broaden your perspective to the fact that in the course of what we perceive overarching as cancel culture can be seen in the muting function.
Whenever I am able to take some distance from individual comment exchanges (which I also experience as very counterproductive in their emotional expressions), I would still say that it is the provocateurs, the satirists and even the ruffians who save the rest of the users (public) from the fact that some online forum operators are all too quick and convinced to introduce certain central features.
I make a distinction here between what I as an individual perceive on the part of the provocateurs as exaggerated, morally offensive or otherwise overstepping the bounds of good taste, and what such voices do beyond that.
They are the sand in a gearbox that otherwise purrs on without correction or reconsideration of its own actions, possibly without realising that functional expansions or changes could be the gateway to totalitarian and oppressive developments (though, interestingly enough, they also can be a cause for such steps - but then further questions need to be asked why that may be so).
The dispute as something positive, with sufficient distance to the disputants. It is often those who made themselves most unpopular who nevertheless also spoke in favour of the many others, I think.
I once ran a Wordpress blog myself and had very lively exchanges with my visitors there. There was one who kept coming back and annoying me. At the time I thought what an idiot he was, yet I got involved in debates with him. Many years later I realised that he was quite right in important aspects with his argumentation (which was often insulting and very direct). I didn't like to see that at the time. However, one's own vanity and the fact that one would much rather be confirmed than criticised is much less helpful (echo chamber) than such voices that use a sharp or provocative tone.
It takes a certain tenacity and stubbornness to take on the role of the fool and the harasser who will not be chased away, insulted or otherwise talked to. Few people want to see any valuable potential in that because what these guys say in public can be so offensive.
... But they are a symbol and mirror for all of us who are used to suppressing our needs and often just pretending to be mostly reasonable when we are not. Those types who do so, may be seen as the sum of many oppressed voices and of course, they also overdo it (how can it be otherwise?)
Does that make sense to you?
It does.
I think there is room for both depending on what the purpose of the person is. And those of us willing to allow voices into our topics freely will gain the most at times for sure.
I liken it to when I was defending the VTS here against some of the whales. I don't personally use them and believe they are short sighted (the same in most cases with the super mute feature we have now) but I defend anothers right to use it and have it available if they wish.
Many of the folks who would be more prone to being put on one of these mute lists were part of my circles back on Steem and then Hive. The one most likely to be on one of these lists came here specifically because I asked him to.
He wrote a counter to this post, and made a hilarious picture of me that I would guess those who would use such a mute feature would find deserving of such. While I wasn't offended and still laugh every time I see this picture, I know there are lots of folks out there who would get offended. But really, that is a reflection on them (as is comments made in posts).
Oh, here is the post I was telling you about.
https://blurt.blog/blurtnews/@practicalthought/rfvvn2
I smile thinking about you hosting a blog on WordPress with an open and lively comment section. I wonder if your antagonist still wonders about you, and if you ever came around to the positions you say now were right.
Many folks who use WordPress utilize their moderation of the comment section. I'm curious now as to what sort of site you ran that was the impetus for such lively examination.
Glad the family is doing well, but you left out your brother. I hope he is also doing well.
I've wondered the same thing a few times when digging through old publications. In part, I find my earlier outpourings quite naive. This naivety is what my opponent also called "wishful thinking" and I have to agree with him, because they were. Many years have passed since then and I have become much more thoughtful about what I write. My style has changed more towards self-reference and I don't scatter as many assumptions about the world as I once did. I've lost a certain rock-solid conviction about this, which on the one hand I welcome, but on the other hand, if taken the wrong way, can be viewed as misguided indifference.
Some of my responses to comments are sharp and to the point, but few actually took offence to that at the time, in fact it seems to have been welcomed.
My blog was very issue specific and pointed in its focus. For this reason I gave up on it one day, because you can only write about a topic to a limited extent without repeating yourself.
Today, it is no longer possible for me to write so unambiguously, to be so overly convinced of something, because that is exactly what has started to bother me a lot. I guess that's called polarising. I have developed an aversion to it. "Only the mad knows no doubt" is more like something I can underline with conviction! HaHa!
I had full control as a moderator of my blog, but even then I did not delete anyone or deny access to the comment section. I don't expect to have unwanted visitors permanently, because on the one hand I'm not very receptive to them and on the other hand I blog too rarely respectively I'm not a big player, so I'm not a point of attraction either.
Thanks, my brother is okay. However, you haven't told how you are doing in your current environment. :)
I maybe come back to you after reading what you've recently posted.
I marvel at times how we often don't grasp how others see us. I've mentioned before I don't always agree with you, yet the way your mind works coupled with the way you can articulate it is a work of art. I've witnessed the reactions of others over time as well and there are many who see over the heads of those with their heads turned down who appreciate their exchanges with you as well.
Thank you.
I'm still trying to find my place here. I've been taking steps to set up something new business wise that I hope I can use to free myself once again. I've spent many hours over the last week and a half educating myself and have ideas taking shape on how to incorporate past knowledge with the new knowledge to create something new for myself. A lot of words without saying a whole lot, I know. I tend to keep much of my doings to myself online so as not to doxx myself.
Thank you for asking (again). :)
Thank you, I take it as a compliment.
It's quite difficult to remain in a status where my blog posts are not commented like they used to be (when the readership is huge) and still have faith that there are people out there who read my articles as well as my comments and find them valuable (without me knowing of this fact). So I am graceful to be reminded of that.
When I look at your exchanges it gives me also reassurance that there are people out there who take the risk of not being always liked. One gets more aggressive or insulting reactions but I assume you are welcoming the fact that disagreement is a learning ground for you, too.
HaHa! Yes! 😂
I've been mostly a loner in my life, and don't hold as much weight in the value being a lot among those who are often little more than bullies.
And while open to those who come across as sincere as holding a valid observation that would invalidate my ignorance, as I prefer being correct than defending an idea that is wrong, I also know that at times truth is subjective and we all have to make our journey alone.
By the truth is subjective part (which I know can be controversial among some in my circles) I would liken it for example to face piercings. In my quality scale, they are ugly. And of equal importance to myself I'm not a fan of physical pain and can't see any need to have someone punching holes in my face allowing me to wear such an ornament. So in my truth there are negatives and no positives.
Yet, who am I to decide for those wearing them that they are wrong in liking them and embracing the momentary pain and infection that can come from them. They walk their shoes, not mine. I don't understand it and can't pretend I do in conversations I may have with those who like it, but I acknowledge this is a truth to them. A rather simplistic example for sure.
You mentioned in a previous comment about your journey from hard positions to softer more flexible ones. I'm still prone to hard positions, but have tempered it many years ago to being more flexible with anothers positions.
I view it more as a preferences category however moreso than a right position in many areas. My studying has led me to being skeptical of many so called truths once I began grasping how many of our truths are the result of agreements we made with those in charge of our learning in our formative years. The varying levels of trance states we are in and out of constantly like the waves of an ocean determining our varying levels of susceptibility and agreement with what is being presented. Made more powerful once there is added the extra dimension of group agreement.
About one of the only sureties I have in life here in my old age is that I made a hell of a lot of agreements I'm not so conscious of that tint my view on a matter, and that I hold a lot of preferences that may or may not be tainted by such agreements.
Returning now to the disagreement are you mention, it is in these disagreement pockets where one can stalk themself (our thoughts and reactions) and perhaps gain and understanding on the origin of these agreements we have bound to ourselves.
As you should. I hand them out so rarely and they must be earned.
A very good point. To having oneself bound to certain agreements can be tricky.
Bullies, assuming that they perceive themselves as inferior, are an expression of the same. In the unconditional wanting of consent in the sense of "obey me!" it is futile to want to change the behaviour of a domineering person.
What I can do when confronted with it is simply not to obey. The other person will not necessarily stop wanting to dominate one, but will notice that one nevertheless does not obey. If I am able to not verbalise my disobedience as "my right", the other has no leverage against me because I leave the level of justifying myself and mind my own business. The bully will lose interest sooner or later if I don't feed his dramaturgy.
I had some interesting encounters in my professional life where people higher up in the hierarchy wanted to dominate me. Like my ex boss wanting me to wear a mini skirt at a fair. I told him that I would not and he can fire me, if he so wishes.
I refused to work longer hours and asked him "So, you find pleasure in seeing your employees working overtime? I'm not going to do this just to please you. Am I doing a bad job? If so, tell me. If not, I will continue to go home on time."
Of course, I also had moments which I would not call very heroic or brave. I had a job where I realized that it would be too much of a fight towards my boss and I quit working there. Sometimes it succeeds to earn respect, at other times it fails. It took me some time not to feel ashamed towards myself, for I had the feeling of cowardly running away (which need not to be framed that way but is just a sense of reality that I cannot fight on all fronts).
A bully will not stop if he sniffs that I am having certain weaknesses but I still argue with him. I will get defeated by those weak points I have (... but even that may be a learning lesson for me).
Having said all this, I think that one can talk to almost everyone if the mind is fresh and the heart is light. :)