Personal Question

Personal Question

Gay male
11
38%
Gay female
0
No votes
Bi male
5
17%
Bi female
0
No votes
Straight male
12
41%
Straight female
0
No votes
Straight male with bi/gay tendencies
1
3%
Straight female with bi/gay tendencies
0
No votes
Other (you'll have to explain if you pick this option, so choose wisely)
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 29

ITALIANO
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Post by ITALIANO »

Hustler wrote:it is the first time that I appreciate a respectful post coming from you, even a sensitive one.
I'm glad for you - but honestly it just means that you haven't read most of my posts. They are all show respect - to the truth, especially - and are even sensitive, though, I admit it, not always diplomatic.
Hustler
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Post by Hustler »

To be honest, Italiano, it is the first time that I appreciate a respectful post coming from you, even a sensitive one. It is probable that something I expressed previously made you reconsider some way of presenting your ideas. In that case I´m glad for you, and it will be very pleasant to disagree with you in the future.
ITALIANO
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Post by ITALIANO »

Hustler wrote:. So as a matter of coherence it remains confusing that you insist with your attacks and lack of tolerance in a board that seem not to satisfy you at all.

I'm here for more time than you can imagine - almost from the beginning - so I guess this means that this board satisfies me. And it does. But yes, it's true that when I agree with someone - and it happens - I prefer not to join the chorus and be silent, unless of course I can add something constructive and hopefully interesting to the thread. And I do that, more often than you think (though not as often as I wished, but only because most movies opens in Italy months later than in the US, so by then my comments would sound a bit "old").
But yes, I think that one has the, I'd say, intellectual duty of DISAGREEING, even vocally, when - especially in a context he generally admires - he perceives something completely wrong, or more than a bit absurd. And since I am also part of MY culture (not to mention the fact that English isn't my first language), I do it like I'd do it in my country - so I may sound a bit hard sometimes by American standards. But it's not like Americans are necessarily gentlemen - I've been attacked here in a much harder, and I'd say even less honest, way - and often, cowardly, by whole groups, not just individuals. But of course that's part of the game, and it can be even fun - I'm not complaining. If you go to those threads now, after some time, you can objectively see if I was right or wrong. I wasn't always wrong. Definitely not.

But what I find more interesting is the reaction that my posts get from people here. Some aren't bothered at all - they may not agree with me, of course, but they don't feel threatened, and sometimes they are even able to see my point of view. Others - and you can find a pathetic example even in this thread - seem personally offended even if I simply attack a movie or a way of thinking. And since they can't discuss my opinions, they direct all their anger towards me, at "the image I project of myself", while of course the projection is theirs, and psychologically very interesting by the way. I am myself - like me or not - I don't need projections, and I don't use internet to create an alternative version of myself. But it seems they do - in their terrible lack of self confidence, they feel menaced, and rather than doubt their own system of values, they prefer to see me as the symbol of Evil. I can pity them, but you can't ask me to find them nice.

This system of values is a very American one, by the way. I know, Hustler, you are not American, and I'm not American either - but this is a largely American board. And it shows. In many good ways - an Italian board on the Oscars would be, frankly, a mess - and in some dreadful ones. And I like to point out when I detect them. I'd do the same, of course, in a Croatian internet board or in an Ukraininan one. I do this, by the way, in Lebanon or Syria or other cultures which I visit often and which I strongly disagree with on some points. I've had all kinds of reactions - but rarely as aggressive, as self-protective, as I've found here by some. And this says alot about the way Americans perceive themselves and their beliefs, and how some need to defend them at any cost.

When I force myself to read the sometimes heated discussions between Criddic and the others here, I realize an interesting thing. While I'd be politically completely on the side of Criddic's opponents, I feel intellectually, philosophically, equally distanced - and very far - from both sides. I couldn't even take part in those discussions - it's like another planet for me. I'd have an entirely different approach to those political issues - most of what I read, and not only from this Criddic, sounds alien to me, and often absurd. Still, at the same time I respect it - it's about very American problems, so it's quite possible that theirs is the correct way of dealing with them, and mine would be hopelessy wrong.

But about movies and other general subjects, I'm sorry, I think I know enough to say clearly what I think, always, and to defend it against the rest of the board. And I will go on doing this - I'm just curious to see what will be this years's "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" or "Dreamgirls".
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Post by Hustler »

ITALIANO wrote:I'm not in private contact with ALL those whose ideas I find interesting. And also - I'm sorry, but I don't think it's your business, honestly.
Don´t misunderstand my point. I was not trying to interfere with your private business. I was just trying to clarify the situation. You seem all the time furious and upset because of the lack of intelligence you report in many posts. At the same time you informed us that there´s a lot of interesting people with whom you establish a private contact. So as a matter of coherence it remains confusing that you insist with your attacks and lack of tolerance in a board that seem not to satisfy you at all.
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Post by flipp525 »

ITALIANO wrote:
Hustler wrote:I think that the key point is how you present your ideas.

Don't look at the way ideas are presented - look at the ideas themselves - this is another friendly advice.

Nobody gives a shit about your "ideas" if they're all presented in that obnoxious "THIS IS WHAT I HAVE TO SAY AND I DON'T CARE IF YOU DISAGREE CUZ UR ALL UGLY AMERICANS ANYWAY!!" manner.

I can't stand this image you project of yourself -- haughtily sitting back on your self-imposed throne, waiting for us to wow or surprise you with an interesting fact or idea when, in truth, all you ever post are negative, repetitious reactions to someone else's thoughts. The irony just drips off of that.




Edited By flipp525 on 1185748797
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Post by Sabin »

Can you imagine the cattiness that would go on if there were?


Yeah, the last thing we'd want is cattiness on this board...
"How's the despair?"
ITALIANO
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Post by ITALIANO »

I'm not in private contact with ALL those whose ideas I find interesting. And also - I'm sorry, but I don't think it's your business, honestly. As for me not having an open mind... well, it's different from yours, definitely, but not narrow, young man, believe me.
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Post by Hustler »

I admit I have to correct my earlier post. Not only the form, your ideas themselves are presented as authoritarian. (that´s the way they look). I can´t see your open mind. Anyway, If you know whom you can expect an interesting idea from and from whom it's impossible, so why are you posting here if you have, as you said, a private contact with those who you are interested ?
ITALIANO
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Post by ITALIANO »

Hustler wrote:I think that the key point is how you present your ideas.
Don't look at the way ideas are presented - look at the ideas themselves - this is another friendly advice. I know, form can be important for some, but I usually go for content, and at my not-so-tender age I doubt I will ever change. And of course I think I'm right - why should I express an opinion which I think is wrong or which I can't defend?! But I'm ready to accept other ideas - as those who are in contact with me privately know well. Yet by now I guess I know whom I can expect an interesting idea from and from whom it's sadly impossible. I'm always ready to be surprised though.
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Post by Hustler »

The point here is not to agree or to disagree which is, as you said, very simple. Of course I don´t agree with you at all and this concept is so known and predictable if we read our last posts. But I would like to introduce an idea which could explain what happens here. I think that the key point is how you present your ideas. I find you are very authoritarian, like your ideas are the only ones to be admitted. The richness of an interchange is precisely to accept other people´s ideas and to take the best part of it. Apparently you are too haughty to do that.
ITALIANO
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Post by ITALIANO »

Hustler wrote:Oh, C´mon! Are you seriously thinking that everybody here has the same way of thinking?
Don't be so banal please - do it for me if not for you. Of course each one has his own opinions and idea - this is even too obvious to say. But yes, there is a common mentality which dominates here, which is, unsurprisingly, the American one. (Most contributors are American, and we are here to discuss about a very American phenomenon). It's a cultural thing, not necessarily good or bad - just normal. Even Italian mentality has its own common aspects. And when I write a post about Americans it's about those common aspects - which by the way I find very interesting. You are free to disagree, but honestly not by pointing out that you are not American and that there are exceptions blah blah - because it would mean, quiye simply, that you don't get my point. With time, maybe.
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Post by Sonic Youth »

Come to think of it, I'm glad there are no women on this board.

Can you imagine the cattiness that would go on if there were?
"What the hell?"
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Hustler
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Post by Hustler »

Oh, C´mon! Are you seriously thinking that everybody here has the same way of thinking?
ITALIANO
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Post by ITALIANO »

Multiple and different?!
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Post by Hustler »

ITALIANO wrote:But it's complicated, I know.

what is complicated, I see, is that you could accept that is impossible to generalize in one concept, multiple and differents ways of thinking.
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