blather_roll_call_2024 Soma It's February so this technically counts. 240210 ... Phil Nobody wants to hear about your fucking political bullshit. 240211 ... . and here come the blather police to tell others what they are and aren't allowed to say or talk about because perpetual whining about imagined relationships is preferred to reality 240211 ... . good try soma but this blather is more than dead. it's phil attacking nearly everything i say because it's 'fucking political bullshit'... decades old argument around here where the escapists want only bad poetry about their lack of real human relationships and everyone else needs to shut up only topics and anger previously approved by Phil need appear the polite canadian blather with all the rules is more active, probably because they avoid politics but i was told to shut up and leave that one too after doing my best to avoid someone else's ignorant political barbs i guess some things never change around here. people come here for community and end up brow beating the parts of the community they don't like because it's only a community when you agree 100% of the time 240211 ... . (to be clear i failed to avoid the ignorance on red several years back because ignorance always incites me eventually and i have no bad love poems to write these days but the idiocy of the idea that words must always be polite and nice or melancholy and maudlin musings on relationships or animals pushs and pulls me. wish i could just stop, leave this place once and for all but after all these years it sticks as my most tenacious addiction.) 240211 ... epitome of incomprehensibility Still rolling, albeit lumpily. 240216 ... e_o_i OK, but I never saw anyone suggest anything like "don't write about politics on blather red" - or at least anything that my mind would categorize as that. Now, I wasn't party to every private conversation between skites, so I can't say for sure such a thing never happened, but at least I never experienced it. Anyway, I don't go around thinking, "Oh, I have to avoid politics on blather." And it's not because my politics agree with everyone else's. I don't think anybody on red blather is my particular mix of pacifist and anarchist (with all of its qualifications and contradictions). I'm Canadian, sure, but what's Canada? An arbitrary assignment of a name to part of a landmass. I'm not naturally polite, anyway. My dad comes from the States and he's much politer than I am - at least more diplomatic and better at reading people. Sometimes I value my defiance, but sometimes I wish I were more like that. OK, back to the point. There was only one time where I was sort of told not to write something on red blather. I say "sort of" because it wasn't even about the content of what I wrote, but the post I wrote it under. If you want, you can write me about it privately and I'll explain. If not, that's all right. 240216 ... e_o_i ...Sorry, I read too much into what you wrote. Your exact words were (about red blather) "...probably because they avoid politics." Still, that doesn't fit my experience: I don't avoid talking about politics there. ...while I do have a shitload things I avoid. E.g. why am I up late writing here? To avoid all the stuff I have to do tomorrow (not that this approach is remotely logical, but yeah). 240216 ... . i was told privately behind the scenes not to write about politics and the puppet master also said he wished that no one would write about politics there. but clearly people who don't have controversial views and are less prone to arguing were not told the same things behind the scenes which is why I stay away. different rules for different people. all to keep it nice and polite...tone policing 100. 240217 ... e_o_i It sucks to feel excluded. I've experienced that more strongly in other contexts, but also a few times over the years on both blather sites. Okay, I feel sappy today. But even if we disagree on some things (and disagreement doesn't mean dislike), I want you to know that your writing on red helped me a lot. Specifically, when I was feeling guilty about things I'd done in the past. You were there to listen and respond with kindness, and that's not something I'll easily forget. But I also feel the same way about the person you're holding a grudge against, so my instinct is to offer another perspective, to suggest that the "don't write about politics" thing was a knee-jerk anxious reaction and not necessarily a dogma that he expects you to stick to. Because it was a contentious time, and I talked to him over the phone, and he mentioned being anxious that blather red would just devolve into arguments. So it probably reflected that feeling more than any serious desire for censorship. The one person who wrote something that seemed deliberately exclusionary isn't there anymore, anyway. I liked her writing and wish I could have been better friends with her, but I'm still afraid to try and contact her because I did get this feeling of censoriousness from her. It wasn't about politics necessarily - now, the word "ableism" does come to mind, but what I perceived as such may have been a reaction to family trauma and not fair of me to poke at - but maybe more of a personality clash and just mutual lack of understanding. The other thing wasn't related and I can't really say here, partly because I have to get off a train, but anyway. I hope you are doing well and I'm sorry for being bad at communicating. 240224 ... . you are sweet as ever but probably not the place for an in_depth conversation about my 'grudges' other than to say i resent anyone trying to engineer this place in their own image. i have been pretty damn consistent about that over the past twenty five years. and have gotten in plenty of ridiculous fights over that exact issue. censorship on the internet these days is a VERY serious issue so i take it even more seriously now then i did back in the blather_is_blather days. i'll stop at that 240224 ... silentbob just checking in :) 240224 ... daf "blather is words. bunches of words, strewn about in a twisty tangly web of pontification, insight and nonsensical delight. but really it's an experiment to see what shape this will take when left at your mercy." blather_is_blather and the content snobs have always been a part of it. It wouldn't be blather without them. These days I just come here to give blood and enjoy the free orange juice and cookies. see also: the_intellectual_decay_of_blather what_is_art 240224 ... e_o_i Hi silentbob! Sorry for being super long winded here. 240225 ... D to the O Shit. I remember voraciously reading every post and reply in the typical black tones I could see, except for the ladies/laddies that till wish to play with.... . Getting old now. Can't believe I have gotten this far back in time but.......wait a minute.... WHOthefuckisleftonblather? I would disregard any vote I put forward. ..... 240504 ... peyton hi there i still think about you. 241008 ... Soma (I still think about you too) 241008 ... dafremen Yep. Nice to see everyone. Blather is blather. 241010 what's it to you? who go blather from