The Japanese had this great concept of being able to extricate yourself from a potentially embarrassing situation or argument with your humility in tact.

Facebook Should be Named “Losing Facebook”

It seems every public argument these days, especially in social media is all about decimating the opponent.  It’s not just about winning the argument…it’s about making those with whom you disagree look like a complete fool and publicly humiliating them.

In my mind, that’s the online equivalent of physically beating someone so badly, they don’t have the ability to come back and fight another day.

It’s brutal, overly cruel and unnecessary.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been guilty of arguing this aggressively numerous times.  My anger and rage lately make me want to pulverize people with whom I vehemently disagree.

I’ve decided I will try and offer online opponents the opportunity to save face in a few different ways.  There are different kinds of disagreements on Facebook which I will handle the in the following ways:

1. People who honestly disagree with a post on my own timeline and state their reasons coherently and respond directly to the point of the post without posting multiple other non-sequitur responses. To these people, I will thank them for their opinion, letting them know how much I value their ability to present their opinion in a way I can understand it.
2. People who respond to a post on my timeline with less-than-coherent arguments, lies/inaccuracies/alternate facts, or information that doesn’t respond directly to my point, but tries to distract with other points.  I will respond back with feedback about how their response is not valuable and allow them to respond coherently, or have their comment deleted.
3. Responses from a comment I make on someone else’s timeline that are clear and respond directly to my comment.  Especially when it’s from the person who made the initial comment, I will again thank them for their point of view and the clarity with which they present it.
4. Responses from a  comment on someone else’s timeline that is unclear, non-responsive and/or aggressive.  I will reply back with reasons why I won’t pursue their argument and unfollow any further comments from the post.

I’ve decided I don’t have to win every argument I get into, but I also want to make sure I don’t accept bullying, lies or hateful language…especially on my own personal space.

We’ll see if this newfound civility will last.

Current Knitting

Having been off pain meds since Sunday, I have gotten back to knitting and decided to focus on trying to finish the Easton Logo Blanket.

I’m finally past the point where I had to rip out and now I only have the rest of the current panel and one more intarsia panel to knit.  Sewing it all up, weaving in ends and doing a border will still take quite a bit of work, but I’m liking how it’s turning out.