h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Androyd, really this time,

You can ask to speak to particular people, yes. We may not always be able to oblige, depending on what is going on at the time. We always try. Nice certainly helps! Actually, civil is a good start. We have no trouble with civil criticism between equals. We hope to learn from it.

Asking not nicely will get a Protector, and even we are basically fun-loving kindsa people, who would like this Experience in Virtual Ergotamine Poisoning to be over, already, so we can get back to the reading and writing and having fun part. It is too much already.

What do you do with people from 3 to 53? We were a therapoid once. Still could use those skills, if anyone would give us 15 seconds' breathing room .

Maybe you can tell me if my syntax was so unclear that it reads as though I said *we* were drunk. I do not think so. Pronoun references are something we are acquainted with. Our 2nd rec'd article is about that, fergawdsake!

Frustrated, and not amused ,

Auntie... so whom should I go call?

Arpeggio:
Have you thought about taking an anger management course?

Psychology has always facinated me. I even took extra psych classes - as well as a sociology class - in college because of this. I thought about going into either psychology or sociology - which are more interconnected than most think - for a while, until I decided that I didn't have the patience for it. (My worst downfall, in my opinion, is my impatience - with myself as much if not more than with others.)

People's reactions to themselves, others and their enviornment is what has made me into a self-proclaimed people watcher. Its partially whar brought me here to H2G2. Its the best place to observe people from. Even when they think they are hiding themselves, parts of their true personality peaks through. It also means that I sometimes seek out crowds. People are herd animals and tend to be more relaxed when they are anonymous members of crowds that when they are by themselves...

G7

You're right, Androyd,

We don't work for the clampdown. We (and all the toddlers Inside) tend to lean the other way, most of the time. There's this Thing, which Barton calls 'aggressive ignorance', where a person effectively says 'I know that I don't know, and not only do I not care that I don't know, but also hate you for telling me, and I'll go out of my way to refuse to know'.

Sounds like the body's mother.

We have a total of zero patience for that particular stripe of juvenile. *Anyone* who *wants* to learn and improve and cares about doing the best job s/he can at hir own level of functioning, and raising that level of functioning, is so far as we're concerned. That is how people improve. Very few people get to start at the top of anything.



Aggressive ignorance, on the other hand, is selfish, lazy, and fairly toxic. People who think that way are the same people who think t-shirts that say 'wife-beater' are 'funny', and excuse hate-speech by calling it humour. People who think like that are a liability to the species... and there are a lot of 'em. It seems as if there are fewer of that variety of pest at h2g2 as there are most places. It makes them that much more obvious. This whole hoopla started when one such person said some bigoted things that pixxed us off, and when we tried to call him on it, dismissed us with 'the subject is controversial', which it is not and, 'it's bound to offend some people' as if that makes bigotry ok? It was not the total absence of meeting any of the Eds Guidelines that was *our* real issue, but the bigotry and insensitivity of the content and the writer.

We do not find jokes about mental illness (as made by people who are not mentally ill and do not work with mentally ill people) funny. Full Stop.

We are not amused by jokes at the expense of people who are intellectually 'different' acceptable. Whether that 'difference' is low-end, or high-end, bigotry is bigotry. That is not 'controversial', that is outright Wrong.

What can we say? People took everything we said as *they* meant it. They could read the words and not follow them, because they were looking for particular things. Prejudice is its own proof.


Auntie

Sorry again about the name thing. Migraine. One eye is working somewhat under schedule.

Saint Empath,

I've *taught* anger management. Also conflict resolution, also just about every other subject in the area of psychology. I *said*, in this self-same thread, which is not very long yet, we used to be a therapist.

Have you thought of taking remedial English?

Auntie, wondering what you think your point is, except gratuitous nastiness and false accusations.

G7,

We discovered Soc. was a discipline at the age of 22. We'd been doing it since birth. Soc. said a lot of 'what', but not much about 'why', let alone 'whether one should'. So we added a Religious Studies major to the Sociology major, to study Ethics, mostly.

In our master's degree programme, we started with Ethics, and added Psych, and ended up doing an interdisciplinary degree in both, with a thesis called 'Peace Begins at Home: the Relationship of Domestic Violence to World Peace'. This subject is old-hat now, but in 1989, neither the DV literature nor the Peace and Justice literature had made this ridiculously obvious connexion.

We were several hundred thousand USD short, and couldn't do a doctorate. So we've spent the last 12 years specialising in everything, making ourself into a sort of 'renaissance woman' who is conversant with most subjects (barring golf) and really informed on a few. Especially since we became disabled in 1996, we mostly spend our time *learning*, when we are not teaching, when we are not writing.

We hoped h2g2 would be a good place for all of the above, and in many ways it already has been. We have two very short articles pending, one serious and definitive article rec'd, and one more lighthearted article in PR, in under 4 weeks, and despite... ahh... other distractions.

So, all in all, the balance is in favour of h2g2.

Our huge website is mostly devoted to trauma and dissociation, with some humour, lots of heavy poetry, some art poetry, and a lot of efforts and helping to support and validate the experience of other survivors. We've been meaning to expand it to include several more topics, but then h2g2 came along, and first we got hooked, and then...

too stubborn to leave a potentially good thing...

Sara for LeKZ (Auntie is off unwinding)

Tell Auntie that I hope she feels better.

I think that you'll find, once the fervor calms down, that H2G2 is a place that you will be comfortable. I plan to go read your website so that I can learn more about you and understand you better. Is there a place that you recommend I start?

By the time I took my sociology class (1994) the connection between the home and the world was well documented. I was able to use some of my experiences helping out my folks in both that class and my various psychs.

I have to admit that I ran out of money and motivation far before you did. I ended up leaving college two years into it - for many reasons, but not the least of which being that it was no more comfortable for me than high school had been. I had some professors who put forth a serious and honest effort to keep all of their students interested, but most just didn't seem to care. This upset me a great deal, as I would have enjoyed finishing at leat a bachelor's degree. (I was studying government/history with a minor in psychology; I had planned to go into law.)

I am very lucky, though, because my current employer is willing to help pay for education. I plan to go back to school, but am not yet sure what I will study this time around. I'll just have to wait and see what catches my interest, I suppose.

I want you to know that I am happy you are too stubborn to leave the Guide. I think that you will be too.

G7

Auntie for it is she to whom I am speaking here:
"Everything you say, no matter how drunk you were at the time, is being saved by h2g2 FOREVER. How much genius does it take to think before you put something in writing? " is what you wrote and in no way suggests you were actually drunk yourself. Hmmmm...could it be you were upset because someone broke into a conversation with a complete misunderstanding of what you were saying which made you so upset that the protectors took over?

Arpeggio:
You have taught anger management?
To whom?
Are you qualified to do this?
Or do you just rant away and hope that your students learn by example?

Seven, have you ever been interrupted whilst having a conversation by someone who completely misunderstands what has just been said and makes an inane comment? Has that ever annoyed you? Its certainly annoying me so it wouldn't surprise me if its annoying some of LeKZ. Why not start your own thread if you want to engage with them? I know I did.

I apologize for interrupting you, Androyd.
I was under the mistaken impression that this was an open forum.
My mistake.

Androyd,

My post to you, which contained that remark, was meant to be partly funny, and to address the bull in the china shop issue, and to address part of why we've been a bull in a china shop.

That part of why is some certain Brits who've posted some extreme emotional violence and abuse, and then come back with half-assed apologies and done it again. My point, starting at the word DUH, was 'how dumb can anyone get'. The drunk part was an example of how dumb some people probably DO get.

I wrote that post, because I'm pretty good at laughing at us when we make mistakes other people point out, and I was laughing at us. I was also laughing at the mixed quality of 'china', and at the notorious problem of repression turning into violence the minute impulse control is lowered, as by drink. At least, I *hope* some of those people were drunk; otherwise they have no excuse whatsoever!

Thank you for clearing up that I did not imply *we* were drunk, so the person who inferred it, and who said s/he would apologise if anyone else thought s/he had misread what I wrote, can get around to the apologising part already.

I've been here today, because the poem business, and the mixed signals, left all of us very confused. I can be friendly and funny, and I can be protective and make sure no schrapnel actually reaches anyone Inside. The person with the reading comprehension problems has had me nicely torqued, all day, probably in an effort to goad me into saying something Not Nice enough that there would be grounds to close my account. I have self-control. I am only exactly as rude as I want/need to be. So, here I am. I go Inside periodically and untorque, and keep smilin'. They hate that!

Auntie, who can both baffle 'em with her b******t, and dazzle 'em with her brilliance, but prefers an even mix, with a few good paradoxes thrown in.

No she is not going to apologise but I seem to have upset her also. . I'll live, she'll live and I trust you'll all survive. I'm ending this thread for now since its so open. Perhaps if we started a thread marked 'private conversation' it would be better. Or maybe 'Stay away at your peril!!!'

Androyd again,

'Annoying' does not begin to touch the barest scum of the surface. It accused us of having been drunk and instructed us to 'learn this while you're sober' as if talking to a very, very stupid, recalcitrant teenager.

It also said it would apologise if anyone else thought it had misread, but I'm not holding my breath.


Another super-fiendly ace****... what gives with the group? I thought ACEs were the people who make newcomers feel, um... welcome? That is the word, right? Not to be confused with, like, repelled?


This is not the first ACE to behave like this under colour of authority, and my opinion is this is an active disservice to h2g2, on their part. A new person might think something like: ' if the Welcome Wagon is like this, the boss around here is probably Satan. Gosh, I think I should go away!'

Fortunately, we talked to some of the bosses before the ace****s showed up with this oh-so-professional approach.

Nothing against ACEs, ever. Plently against ace****s.

Auntie, getting ready to go back Inside unless something else pops up.

Until a new conversation thread is started that you invite me to, I'll keep posting here. If that's ok, of course.

I am sorry that some of my fellow ACEs have jumped in with both feet before looking. (I know, mixed metaphor. But its such a fitting image...) We are here to make people feel welcome and - generally - that's what we manage. Unfortunately (and this is in no way an excuse for any inappropriate behaviour) they sometimes tend to be protective of the site and those already here. This isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but it can lead to conflict. I'm sorry that it did in this case, and I am glad that you recognize not all ACEs are this way.



G7

I like Gwennie, she is sensible

Thank you.



G7

G7, and Androyd,

Of course no ACE is a problem. The problem ones are the ace****s, and they are not the same variety of person even a little! (we need a so badly!)

A private thread? I don't know that such a thing is possible, though there are a couple where people have not barged in and made themselves at home, cleaned out the 'fridge, put their muddy boots on the mahogany, and puked all over the kitchen floor...

What about a thread for real ACEs, like yous guys and our sweetie Amy , called 'No Ace****s Allowed'? Naah, they'd like the idea of gate-crashing that party.

Thank you Androyd, for eliminating what was becoming a major thorn in Auntie's side. She was so pixxed, she actually wrote out a Bad Word and Nice Moderator had to b******t it. That's the first time we've slipped on that, since being here.

Well, , that seems, for the moment, to be that. We're going to wander off and edit our 'Colorado, USA' article a bit, while the dust settles. If you (either) hit upon a good thread name, start it. We've only got trivial adjustments to make, and then that one is done, and we can stop thinking about it. It's probably going to get rec'd fairly quickly, too. So that will be over, and maybe there is such a thing as starting again, though somewhat the wiser, but not too much the worse for wear.

G7, where to start at MetaSite? Go to main page and scroll down to Who We Are - How We Got Here - LeKZWorld. It's kind of the intro to the intro. Or if you want background in multiplicity, scroll down further, to the Kids' site, and read The Kids Make DID EZ to Understand.

Think we should probably think about the Eating thing, too. It's been a really hard day's night. We got all of two hours' sleep this morning, and the migraine is still winning.

TTYS and thank you both so much!

Arpeggio, peeking out now the Other Person went away for LeKZ

Hi
I hear and are given away free on this forum.

MM Barging in.

Umm, MM?

and , at 0409 (local)? MMph?
maybeand a ?

Or you could have an on the Italics, who buy for anyone who drops in on this page (I shouldn't mention it to them, though. They'll want to know all about who got hold of h2g2's Corporate American Express card... and that is a long story.)


Arpeg