Freedom Day

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I..really don't know where to begin unpacking all of this, Yuka. Let me just say that I do not hate you, okay? I get angry and I get snarky but I do not wish you ill.

[Madner Kami]

No, really, everyone on this board just fuckin' hates each other, I'd almost forgot how toxic it was. I really wish there was an option to just permanently nuke my account. No regrets.

As a senior citizen was driving down the freeway, his cell phone rang. Answering, he heard his wife's voice urgently warning him, “Herman, I just heard on the news that there''s a car going the wrong way on Route 280. Please be careful!” “It's not just one car,” said Herman, “It's hundreds of them!”

[Yukaphile]

I..really don't know where to begin unpacking all of this, Yuka. Let me just say that I do not hate you, okay? I get angry and I get snarky but I do not wish you ill.

I do appreciate that, and I'll return that sentiment, for whatever that may be worth, it's not actually meant to be mocking, I don't hate you, but more so I was referring to the kinda interactions between Makeshift Python and clearspira. Plus the board has shed so many other users, who's left? Feels more like the stubborn haters, in many ways. The introverts and social outcasts and pariahs and losers. Of course we're going to be at each other's throats.

People can be so cruel. You know it, as well as I do.

[TGLS]

Plus the board has shed so many other users, who's left?

Well, because I'm lazy, looking solely at people with 1000+ posts, these are the following that are still active:
BridgeConsoleMasher
Yukaphile
Fuzzy Necromancer
Clearspira
CharlesPhipps
Madner Kami
Dragon Ball Fan
Thebestoftherest
TGLS
Makeshift Python
Deledrius
Winter
McAvoy
Riedquat
Rocketboy1313

And these are the ones that are less active (Username, Last Post Date, Last Active Date):
Captain Crimson, 03-Jun-21, 03-Jun-21
Robovski, 16-May-21, 22-Aug-21
Admiral X, 19-Feb-21, 01-Sep-21
GreyICE, 09-Feb-21, 24-Feb-21
Antiboyscout, 19-Oct-20, 25-Oct-20
Darth Wedgius, 07-Sep-20, 07-Sep-20
LittleRaven, 27-Jun-20, 27-Jun-20
Mecha82, 03-May-20, 03-May-20
Karha of Honor (AKA Slash Gallagher), 01-Nov-19, 04-Oct-20

Two appear to just be quiet and not really posting at the moment (their decision), but even counting them as inactive that's still more than 60% retention. On the second page sorting by post count, there's only three users who haven't been active in a month.

[clearspira]

I don't dislike any of you and I mean that. The problem with text alone is that you cannot convey emotion properly. I'm passionate about what i believe in as are many of you. But 90% of the time I say what I say with eagerness to see what the reply is going to be because I enjoy debate. As sad as this sounds, sometimes I would go as far as to call many of you the friends that I have never met. If any of you have the unaccountably large amount of time to go back through 3000 of my comments I have changed and mellowed on many things. Others hardened. But that's life.

And of course we are all united in our platonic love of Chuck.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Touching, cowboy.

[Riedquat]

I..really don't know where to begin unpacking all of this, Yuka. Let me just say that I do not hate you, okay? I get angry and I get snarky but I do not wish you ill.

I do appreciate that, and I'll return that sentiment, for whatever that may be worth, it's not actually meant to be mocking, I don't hate you, but more so I was referring to the kinda interactions between Makeshift Python and clearspira. Plus the board has shed so many other users, who's left? Feels more like the stubborn haters, in many ways. The introverts and social outcasts and pariahs and losers. Of course we're going to be at each other's throats.

People can be so cruel. You know it, as well as I do.

A downside of not being superficial is that'll happen. A bit of friction's from people who are passionate and put thought in to what they're saying is preferable to bland, lifeless avoidance of anything controversial. Or sitting in an echo chamber.

Incidentally I hadn't realised I'd posted that much, thought of this board as one I pop in to occasionally.

[Yukaphile]

That's the thing that pisses me off so much about this damned pandemic, whether you wanna call it fake news or something else. I've talked to many in the conservative political leaning over in RK Outpost, many of whom aren't even in America, so it's not like you can divide them into arbitrary groups of "my side = good" and "orange man bad = DISREGARD." They're not monsters, they're not devils, they're not demons. The one argument I've seen come up over and over is that we've been on a downward trend for a long time and COVID is accelerating that. What the secular right cares about, gets upset about, mostly among the libertarian crowd, is the increase in loneliness and social isolation. That had already been building and frankly, it's getting worse. Take the movie industry. All these big-budget films are bombing because the industry was already on shaky ice as they now transition more fully into direct-to-streaming. But that's technical detail shit. People can't deal that way. Suicides have gone up due to COVID. People who already felt worthless see no reason to want to return to society, because they never fit in. I'm not a conservative, I never will be, but I agree there. The more and more you look at modern society, the more you realize how overrated it is and that SOMETHING has to give. It cannot be sustained. Eventually there will be an implosion and while I'd never ROOT for human life to be taken, at the same time, I AM cheering for that implosion to come. Maybe things will improve then. I don't know.

[Yukaphile]

It's enough to make you wish you never cared about people, because there's not a damned thing you can do now. That's one thing we say over and over. We WANT less restraint, less limitations, to be free. Well, that may require facing some ugly truths at the core of human experience. To be free might mean we're more potential serial murderers, tyrants, gluttons, power freaks, pedophiles, rapists, sick junkies, and hardcore psychotics than we want to admit. After all, you never really know what's lurking at the heart of another human being...

[ProfessorDetective]

Plus the board has shed so many other users, who's left?

Well, because I'm lazy, looking solely at people with 1000+ posts, these are the following that are still active:
BridgeConsoleMasher
Yukaphile
Fuzzy Necromancer
Clearspira
CharlesPhipps
Madner Kami
Dragon Ball Fan
Thebestoftherest
TGLS
Makeshift Python
Deledrius
Winter
McAvoy
Riedquat
Rocketboy1313

And these are the ones that are less active (Username, Last Post Date, Last Active Date):
Captain Crimson, 03-Jun-21, 03-Jun-21
Robovski, 16-May-21, 22-Aug-21
Admiral X, 19-Feb-21, 01-Sep-21
GreyICE, 09-Feb-21, 24-Feb-21
Antiboyscout, 19-Oct-20, 25-Oct-20
Darth Wedgius, 07-Sep-20, 07-Sep-20
LittleRaven, 27-Jun-20, 27-Jun-20
Mecha82, 03-May-20, 03-May-20
Karha of Honor (AKA Slash Gallagher), 01-Nov-19, 04-Oct-20

Two appear to just be quiet and not really posting at the moment (their decision), but even counting them as inactive that's still more than 60% retention. On the second page sorting by post count, there's only three users who haven't been active in a month.

How I got lost in that shuffle, I have no idea. But yeah, this place feels fairly tight-knit.

As to hating anyone. While I vehemently disagree with a few of you, only one has ever made me go 'would you just GO AWAY already?!' and he's been MIA for a while.