I agree with this last post and what was said in the link to the other thread. Everyone has a right to their opinion, whether it's well- or ill-founded is of little importance. Obviously we're going to accept an opinion that's well-founded more, but the point is we all have a right to one. The person who started this post may or may not be right in what he seeks in a relationship, but that's his choice, and seeing as he openly claimed that he has low self-esteem, something I can relate to, a little bit of respect wouldn't go amiss. It's just common decency to another human being to treat them as you would expect to be treated.
I'm not saying that all the people who replied to the post don't have the right to say what they feel, and they may be right in the essence of what they said - I'm not taking sides - but the end result was hurting the feelings of someone who wanted advice. Surely you seek advice when you need guidance, when you're not sure you're going about it the right way, or to be told that you're (not) doing something wrong. Constructive criticism is much more likely to be accepted, rather than just rejected as "bullying". The person who started this post probably hasn't agreed with anything that has been said and has simply put his defences up because of the attitude with which the replies were written. If things had been said in a kinder fashion, he might have taken the points brought up and thought about them.
I read on the other thread that someone didn't understand why people should be so bothered about what people write/say about them. When you have low self-esteem, the smallest comments have an effect where normally they wouldn't on someone with some confidence. I was bullied verbally and mentally from the age of 9. It sounds minor - name-calling, whispering behind your back, ignoring, excluding you, etc. but it gets to you over time, erodes your confidence in yourself. When you're that age, you just ask "Why?" What's so different about me that I get picked on all the time? Some people feign confidence and manage that way, but some people just never do fit in. No matter what I did, I never fit in, and when I was younger, it only confused me as to why, but when I reached my teens, it became frustrating and depressing to know that people were judging you on nothing of any importance.
When you have years and years of people getting on at you, just wearing you down with snide, insensitive comments, you get paranoid, you get defensive (which shows from the responses from the person who started this post), and you feel that any criticism is difficult to accept. Only time and people including you and accepting you again can really boost your sef-esteem again, and the belief that there are some decent people out there who will like you for who you are. That belief falters somewhat when you read comment after comment like the ones on this thread, and you lose faith in your fellow human beings.
Please think before you speak, if you want to say something negative, say it in the most sensitive way you can, instead of openly attacking someone's opinion, even if you completely disagree with it. By bullying, you are only succeeding in making a vulnerable person even more vulnerable and hurt. How would you feel if you were them? By making these comments, the only satisfaction you could possibly get is similar to that of attacking an unarmed person while he has both arms tied behind his back.
[s]
EviLTwiN wrote on 09:22, 17th Jul 2004:
[s]Unregisted User Jeremiah wrote on 18:31, 11th Jul 2004:[i]
http://www.thesinner.net/messageboard-v ... read=10372
lets all be nice, eh?
And since that sort of behaviour described in the above link is just as common in 'non-intellectuals', if not more so, I find it odd that you could draw from that one line that I was an 'intellectual' trying to make people feel small or whatever...
I'm a normal person, with manners and a low waffle-threshold.
[/i]