An Open Letter To RWHN

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

Good post, Rat.

Agreed. Well stated.

[Bu🤠ns]

AFAIK, I haven't really participated in any drug debate or shit flinging from and toward RWHN so maybe that allows me to take a neutral position ITT.  I dunno. 

On one hand I've always felt a sense of respect for RWHN for sticking to his guns regardless of how carried away these threads have become.  On the other, none of them have really resulted in anything of value. When I first came to PD I regarded RWHN as good people and would give his posts the attention they deserve. 

Since this whole situation began, however, I found myself disregarding his posts because I suspect that he doesn't really give a shit either.  I can kinda understand that given that the trend around here can be very confrontational.  There seems to be a tendency toward "I disagree with you therefore you're an idiot/fucktard/whatever" rather than "I disagree with your point," -- and that's it. 

Now the former is pretty easy to sidestep because, honestly, who cares?  That's just the nature of the place.  (i.e. the Internet)

So, from my (admittedly) rather limited perspective, it seems like RWHN would hold on to the former and just stopped giving a shit.  I also suspect his posts are colored by a lot of personal shit (which is, of course, none of our business).   

If I could have it my way, I'd love for the old RWHN to come back.  No need for truces or apologies or changing of principles...just back to business as usual.  If this be the case, I'd also love for folks to give him a chance and just let go the past year or so.  It wasn't always like this.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I hear that burns. And you know i dont hate the guy either. Even at the worst of it i didnt hate him. 
I remember a time when he was just some other spag.  I miss those days.
Im never going to agree with him on drugs or his damaged sense of humor. But. Id still be his friend. Even now. If only he would snap out of it.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Also i think i have an open letter in the works but his track record of late is discouraging especially where he still hasnt responded to the intervention analogy.

[AFK]

Sorry, life is a little busy this weekend.  But I have been reading what everyone has been posting, and I will respond when I have more time and space. 

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Sorry, life is a little busy this weekend.  But I have been reading what everyone has been posting, and I will respond when I have more time and space.

Take your time. Thanks for the acknowledgement. I still have hope that this is salvageable and that this thread will be fruitful. No one ever said that rebuilding bridges was an easy task.
Twidbridge still heavily damaged but twidgrad is accepting new and improved blueprint proposals.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Dear Uncle What's His Name,

I'm sorry that all of this has come to this, but I'm hoping that these open letters will, as I said before, bear some fruit. The fact that you apologized for calling me an assface is promising. I'm going to continue to disagree with you on your stance on marijuana, and more importantly, your stance on the death penalty (honestly, I'm more horrified by that, but I've made no secret of it, and I hope that you eventually change your position on that, more than your position on the ganj).

Things have gotten pretty nasty over the past couple of months, as evidenced by the fact that even I have taken an antagonistic position towards you (for reasons that had nothing to do with drugs), and you know, if we can all bury the hatchet, and get on with other things, I'm all in favor. I admit that I've engaged in a bit of the ad hominem, and I'm a bit disappointed in myself for that. Anger does funny things, and I was angry that you were twisting my words, whether intentional or not. I'll remind you that recently that I disagreed with Bearman's attack thread, even though I consider him a friend, and that I voiced my opposition to my other friend, Waffles', statement that he would pull your plug. I consider Waffles a pretty close friend, but that was a bit much. Our relationship, whatever that may be, is damaged, but you are a human, just like I am, and I would prefer you to thrive and be happy, even if we end up hating each other. I'm slow to hate, and as far as I know, there is only one person in the world who has my irreparable hatred. Burying the hatchet is going to be difficult though, as evidenced by what Alty, Gogira and Paes have said, and what others have said in more subdued words.

The fact of the matter is is that Roger, one of your main antagonists here, has gone out of his way to empathize and reach out to you. Your response to him has been, well, disappointing. I can see if you want something in return, but really what this was is Roger reaching out to you and offering a peace treaty. Not a truce, a peace treaty. He gave some words of advice, and your response made it seem like you were rebuking him. That's part of the problem, and he's right. You're kinda stuck on #1, as well as subsets of the other numbers. We're not this monolithic force. Again, I'll remind you, my beef with you had nothing to do with drugs, even though we disagree on the topic. It had to do with how you took my words in relation to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and what he does or doesn't deserve, and where I stood on the value of human life. The bridges aren't burned because of careless joints, they're burned because you absentmindedly covered them in gasoline and dropped some matches.

I hope that my intervention analogy hit home. Because I can't think of how else to put this thread in perspective. Just say no, dude. It's not backing down from your principles or anything, it's just acknowledging that some things are just useless, toxic even. And I think that's what makes it a good analogy. It's bad for us, but we all come away with a bit of a high. But your response here has made me think that you're trying to save some sort of face, where you don't have to. I kinda feel like you're opting to be an asshole in order to not look like a pussy (don't take that as antagonistic, I'm not saying that you're either by nature).

And you know, it's not like it's impossible. Your puns in general irk me (I think mostly because they feel like a trap- it might be in the presentation where I see a subject that might be interesting and then I get pun all over my face) but, when I was doing the bit where Waffles was in Maine, I liked your Nunavut pun. I miss the old you, even where the old you was implying some major news development and me ending up grrrring at the screen. I miss not automatically associating you with your stance on prohibition.

So, I apologize in my part for pooping all over you, and I hope that you see Roger's open letter for what it is- an olive branch, from him specifically, and how you may be able to mend relations in general. This is my olive branch. As far as I'm concerned, unless you say otherwise, we're cool. Others will obviously still poop on you, but how you interact with the board from here on out will determine if they continue to do so. That's all that Roger was saying. I agree with his open letter entirely. Not because he's one of the cool kids, but because he's right, and it was pretty honorable of him to do so.

Come back, man.

Your disowned Nephew,
Twid


Sign peace treaty here:
x ___________________________

[AFK]

Treaty signed.  Ideally I'd have a long-winded post here responding to different points in the different responses, but I'm just not equipped with the adequate stores of free time to do that and do it justice.  I'm not going to sit here and tell you I'm completely honky-dorey with everything that's been said.  But what I will say is that if people can just be cool I can be too. 


My most adamant request would be to keep my personal life out of philosophical disagreements unless I bring it up.  If we can agree to that very basic, and I think reasonable request, we can all be cool. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Treaty signed.  Ideally I'd have a long-winded post here responding to different points in the different responses, but I'm just not equipped with the adequate stores of free time to do that and do it justice.  I'm not going to sit here and tell you I'm completely honky-dorey with everything that's been said.  But what I will say is that if people can just be cool I can be too. 


My most adamant request would be to keep my personal life out of philosophical disagreements unless I bring it up.  If we can agree to that very basic, and I think reasonable request, we can all be cool.

I am down with that. Furthermore, I apologize for every single one of the shitty things I've said to or about you in the last couple of years, and for baiting you.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

NO WAR ON RWHN
NO WAR ON SYRIA
NO WAR IN FURRIES
NO WAR ON DRUGS

THIS IS NOT THE AMERICA I GREW UP IN.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Dear RWHN,

I got mad at you because you refused my cookies. Your stated reason of "I HAVE KIDS" rubbed me hella the wrong way because I have kids, too. So I started pointing out instances of your personal privacy policy being fucking weird because I was still pissed about the snub. My bad.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'm not going to make a big speech.

Just gonna let things drop.

[AFK]

Treaty signed.  Ideally I'd have a long-winded post here responding to different points in the different responses, but I'm just not equipped with the adequate stores of free time to do that and do it justice.  I'm not going to sit here and tell you I'm completely honky-dorey with everything that's been said.  But what I will say is that if people can just be cool I can be too. 


My most adamant request would be to keep my personal life out of philosophical disagreements unless I bring it up.  If we can agree to that very basic, and I think reasonable request, we can all be cool.

I am down with that. Furthermore, I apologize for every single one of the shitty things I've said to or about you in the last couple of years, and for baiting you.

Accepted.  Thanks.

[AFK]

NO WAR ON RWHN
NO WAR ON SYRIA
NO WAR IN FURRIES
NO WAR ON DRUGS

THIS IS NOT THE AMERICA I GREW UP IN.

I got a call last night informing me that the mj legalization referendum in Maine is going to be in 2016.  My colleague and I gave a synchronized sigh of relief as, believe it or not, I am really fucking tired of talking about marijuana.  It's been two years straight.

[AFK]

Dear RWHN,

I got mad at you because you refused my cookies. Your stated reason of "I HAVE KIDS" rubbed me hella the wrong way because I have kids, too. So I started pointing out instances of your personal privacy policy being fucking weird because I was still pissed about the snub. My bad.

If it's any consolation, I often say "no thanks" to people IRL when they offer me food.  Don't know why, it's just one of my idiosyncracies I guess.