Am I mad?

Well, I think that there are several ways of looking at this. One is that everyone has their own way of interpreting or looking at things. This is what comes from a discussion. And, I would think, that when several people feel that the originator of the discussion met one thing then it could be that the originator failed to describe exactly what they meant. And I think that all members have a right to their own opinions. And those are not always uniform or seen and understood completely by each and every one of us. I think too that when we start a discussion we need to keep in mind some objectivity as to the responses we may get. And not expect to have all the same minded people respond to a given discussion. If we can accomplish these things we will have a better outcome and better discussion.

I don't mind, that's the way you perceived it. Thus, we still have the freedom to say what we feels subjectively. In addition, we can not please everybody.

Hello, Lash. It's not restricted to religion and politics. I've just been in a discussion about writing sites. The OP said she doesn't use any writing sites but finds her own cleints and earns a good living. One responder asked 3 times for her to tell her which sites she uses, and 3 times she's told the responder she doesn't use any. The OP's getting mad now, so I'm keeping an eye on that one, as it should be good when she finally blows. Too many people just don't read through the discussion or the comments properly before wading in. It's not exclusive to MyLot either - it happens on just about all the forums I belong to. I don't know what we can do about it, but at least you can take comfort from the fact that you're not mad - for now, at least.

That is the problem with the written word. It is open to misinterpretation as we cannot hear the tone of voice or see the facial expression of the person conveying the message. There is so much anger and annoyance at others on online forums due to this fact. It is quite common and will never be solved. Having a site like this with people from all over the world who struggle to grasp the finer details of the English language just makes the situation worse.

No, you're not mad.....yet. I've seen responses that are so far from the original topic I can't figure out what discussion the responder is responding to. I've had to go back and read a topic over again to see if I read it wrong. One discussion in particular comes to mind. The author of the discussion was talking about her mother. All the way through her discussion she mentioned her mother many times. And her mother's age. Then, at the very end, she mentioned her "little sister (15Y/)". Once. Sure enough someone responded that "as you've said your sister is way too old...." ???? So no matter what you're discussing you're bound to get responses that are not at all related, even remotely sometimes, to what you're talking about. I have seen quite few where the author of a discussion has corrected the responder. That's always fun to read.

Hi there grandpa_lash, may I suggest you use simpler English when posting. Perhaps your meaning will be more understandable to those whose first language is not English. No offence to anyone, just trying to find a happy medium to try and make everyone happy :-).

You'll have that. Sometimes I think that I'm being crystal clear and someone will hop in and jump all over me for something. Usually it is on those types of topics that tend to get heated. I get pretty frustrated but not angry so much. Sometimes it is in a discussion that is not controversial at all. I think that I once asked your opinion on such a subject. The young woman thought I was being hateful towards her when I was merely expressing my opinion (which she asked for) based on the information that she provided. Other than not understanding , some people just seem to thrive on arguing. You are NOT crazy Grandpa. Not at all.

hi grandpa__lash my grandpa used to say most people do not h ave the common sense of a billy goat.well I think perhaps if one uses common sense and reads what you have said you were very clear and they should have understood that. "It compares best with" sure does not mean equals or you would have stated that.I understood it at once myself. Too many people read something about terrorism and at once blame us saying we think all Muslims are terrorists.yes its almost impossible to h ave a sensible' discussion when other parties do misinterpret all one says.

After contributing my two cents on a couple of forums like this, I find that a lot of people read and understand about like they listen which is haphazardly. It is so easy to misunderstand the written word. And I think that you are correct in that people are reading from their own POV instead that of the writer. I have loved reading since I was nine years old so I have quite a bit of practice in knowing how to read. So, no, you're not crazy (are Froot Loops crazy?). This also reminds me of inattentive listeners. This just frustrates me to no end. People are so intent upon thinking of what they want to say in response that they miss the gist of the original speaker. You've gotta remember that for the most part, their world is totally about themselves and they just do not learn to listen.

Oh, yes I agree with you. Misinterpretation is sometimes a problem here in myLot. Not all people see things in the same point of view. That's why we have to be careful in reading discussions so we can give proper responses.

That is the toughest part of serious discussion topics. People sometimes read two lines and develop a totally different understanding of the discussion that what was originally meant. Or even when they read the whole thing. I think that even sometimes a word can be taken from the first line and last line, combined, and then the discussion takes a totally different turn.

"And how on earth can one have a sensible debate when one (or more) parties are misinterpreting everything one says?" `Tis a puzzler ... maybe we'll find an answer to that in discussing it. The reason why the people misread you on Islam & Terrorism is that the mind rushes to extremes---to protect itself, or something. They read that the root of Islam--to the eye of one outside Islam--leaves a clear path to Terrorism, and they do not factor-in the truth that people want peace and that people will choose peace first. This is the basis for racism: the youngster instinctively feels that people who look more like himself are 'the good guys' who embrace 'peace with him' first, making people who look different 'less good' warmongers. As for the 'mistaking "like" for "equal"': I'm reminded of the early-childhood 'like vs. different'-exercise (in which the child is shown two pictures side-by-side and indicates whether they are 'like' or 'different'). Maybe the respondents were thinking you had looked at those two things and marked them 'like.'

i think the comparison does not work here,it is better to keep other political and religious views outside and think about other things

You are not crazy at all. I have run into quite a few of those in those types of discussions. You can't even use comparisons without one respondent hopping on the train and forgetting the rest of the response or it just doesn't compute to them and they ignore the rest of the post. It is becoming impossible to compare anything because people automatically think they are equal. In the very controversial (at least here) debate on pro-life/pro-choice/pro-abortion, mentioning pro-choice to people equals to being pro-abortion and hating children and much much more. I do not understand how believing people should have a choice in their lives equates to believing in the act at all, but alas I am sure in their world that it works beautifully. Words or sentences do not have a specific meaning to people who already have a specific meaning in mind which occurs in most of those discussions. Which means the moment you put the word "muslim" and "terrorist" in the same sentence, the minds of these people didn't read the sentence. They picked out the 'reaction' words and run with it. Then it doesn't matter what was actually stated, they saw what they saw. As I stated, you aren't crazy...people are just too set in their mind to go past the reading of the reactionary words. Sometimes you have to spell it out for them to get the differences across in what you say. I've ended up having to put the phrase "most not all" and other phrases because people assume if you speak of one group you are speaking of all the people in that one group.

In the examples you cite and indeed many incidents here, I am reminded of the term "lowest common denominator".

Nope. Same thing has happened with me. Sometimes I chalk it up to a language barrier and I'll just let it go because if that person isn't very good with English I'm really not sure how to say it so they understand. I'd probably confuse them more. Then there are people who I believe they just like to start something. They can take a very innocent comment and turn it into a darned circus.

MAD!!! You don't look like mad in any side :) :)