Tone It Down!

[Iason Ouabache]

http://chaoskeptic.blogspot.com/2011/01/tone-it-down.html

If you didn't notice, a lot of time on the internet last year was dedicated to the topic of "tone". Not the musical pitch changes kind but the literary  "how-an-author-treated-his-audience" kind. Whether is was skeptics telling each other to not be dicks or accommodationists telling New Atheists to not scare people away or subreddits calling each other circlejerks or Discordians fighting with each other about how best to get our message out or even every single forum complaining that content used to be so much better, everyone spent a lot of time in 2010 picking the lint out of their own belly buttons. No matter where I turned it appeared that everyone was trying to have deep meta-conversations about how best to communicate with one another.

And all of those conversations were shit. I'm not going to include any links in this post because I feel your time is too important to waste on such trivialities. All of them can be summed up as followed:

A: "You should be nicer to people. People like it when you are nice to them."
B: "Whateva! I do what I want!!!"

As a Discordian I am all for internal strife because it helps to get rid of the riff-raff and pantywaists who weren't going to put in any effort anyways. But at some point you have to stop having committee meetings and backstabbing contests and get shit done. If you notice, while everyone was talking amongst themselves about how best to get their message across no one was actually working to get the message across. An outsider who came along wanting pertinent information was met with a bunch of monkeys throwing shit at each other.

The thing is no single tone works to get the message across. No two people communicate the same and no two people receive messages the same. What works in one situation might not work in another. We need as many voices as possible translating the message into their own personal language. We need people saying that Christians can believe in evolution as well as people saying that the Bible is all bullshit. Yes, being nice attracts people to your side but being a dick is more entertaining.

So please, for the sake of everyone can we stop fucking yelling at each other and go back to yelling at the world?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Excellent points, Jason.

[Sister Fracture]

Fuck yeah.

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

 

[hooplala]

So please, for the sake of everyone can we stop fucking yelling at each other and go back to yelling at the world?

Yes.  Fuck yes.

Well said.

[Phox]

Interesting point.

[BadBeast]

Interesting point.

Certainly worth some serious thought, and consideration. 
Not sure if I can totally cut out being a dick though. Maybe if I just pretend to be a dick, for like, some of the time, then be all Discordian for the rest of the time.
But in a way, isn't that being a really dicky dick?  Hmm, . . . . that's Con-fu.  *Thinks*  I'll get onto this one. Give it some more th. . . . . . Oh look, a beetle!    

[Telarus]

So please, for the sake of everyone can we stop fucking yelling at each other and go back to yelling at the world?

Yes.  Fuck yes.

Well said.

This.

Also, I'd want to remind everyone that the next time some-one thinks of 'organizing' the Discordians, you NEED to add the subtext yourself:


"ONLY SOME OF THEM, AND ONLY TEMPORARILY..... BECAUSE THAT'S ALL WE NEED TO BE EFFECTIVE"

Then, we can focus on getting emotionally attached to the CONTENT of the post, the ideas contained, instead of getting emotionally attached to the "tone-drama" which Iason has explained.

[navkat]

I think there's some worth in the concept of arguing/trolling/whatever for the sake of keeping everyone sharp and on their toes.

I think there's also a point where arguing/bickering turns mean and pointless and accomplishes nothing but schadenfreude.

Some of us are better at parsing than others...and some combinations of us are a better communicative "fit" than others. I think the cure is in offering a constant, almost unconditional basic level of respect (ie: don't judge, try to quell the knee-jerk negative response within yourself and don't try to impose your orientation on others, etc) and taking on an "assume good (or neutral) intent" philosophy among ourselves. In this environment, tone would take care of itself either coming or going.

[Captain Utopia]

"ONLY SOME OF THEM, AND ONLY TEMPORARILY..... BECAUSE THAT'S ALL WE NEED TO BE EFFECTIVE"

I really like that perspective!