Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

Okay, so I got into kind of a weird argument (? - not even sure what to call it) on this other internet forum I frequent. I'm interested in people's completely honest opinions about what I said here and how I said it because I'm really kind of feeling weird about it now.
This is the thread: http://www.premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61713
And it should be fairly obvious which one is me...

I assume you're the one that was rubbed the wrong way? I think you were perfectly legit in what you said. Having never frequented this other forum, I'm going to take a stab in the dark. It sounds like a type of discussion that is welcome here (discussing touchy topics in a respectful, but honest way) but is probably not common on that forum. But I could be way off base.

The one thing that bugged me was saying, in effect, "Once upon a time gays were shunned and now we're accepting them. So we shouldn't shun a pedophile." It kind of sounded like you were comparing them and saying that someday pedophiles would be accepted. I know that's not what you meant and wasn't discussed at all again, it's just the one thing that kind of, [cough] rubbed me the wrong way.

Okay, maybe it's not as obvious which one is me! (actually, that might be a good thing for my pretend internet anonymity!) I'm actually astrogirl and I was the one saying I wish I had known he was a convicted sex offender because I wouldn't have bought his book.

And I did find his comparison (I think he's a he, anyway) of pedophiles with gay people to be a bit offensive, but I decided to drop it hoping that it was unintentional. But I really don't know this guy at all, and he's only got like 6 posts on there. And as far as the general tone on that forum, people frequently do bring up controversial topics and it usually quickly degenerates into name calling and fighting and the threads get locked. A lot of trolling, and not a lot of respectful discussion. But that particular subforum is just about my particular med school, and other people both on there and elsewhere on the internet have said that they wish they had known this guy was a convicted pedophile (he made videotapes of himself having sex with pre-teen girls in the 80s) before deciding to buy his book because they didn't want to support someone like that financially. And I feel the same way - I wish I had known that.

Clearly, the solution for the whole problem is to just rely solely on the used book market. You get the value of the text, and not a penny of the transaction goes to the pedophile! Win-win.

And, as usual, I'll scuttle back into hiding until I have another singular, tangential thing to contribute to a discussion.

I for one thought you explained your views calmly and rationally. Why do you feel weird about it?

Eirene wrote:I for one thought you explained your views calmly and rationally. Why do you feel weird about it?

I think mostly because I usually don't get into controversial topics on that forum. And also probably because a lot of people at school know who I am on there.

Laser Jock wrote:xkcd that's tangentially related to your thread title

Ha, I thought of the same thing when I saw the thread title.

First of all, I knew which was you... astrogirl made me pretty sure, and the link to your gluten-free blog cinched it. : )

Second, I thought you explained yourself eloquently and calmly, without saying anything that could of itself further inflame the thread. (Those looking for a fight can always find one, of course.)

So, I need to stop reading things late at night and thinking I know what I'm thinking about. Somehow, I totally thought Katya started this thread and I was really, really surprised that she frequented a medical forum, but whatevs.

In my defense, I did think that the nym astrogirl sounded really familiar.

Laser Jock wrote:xkcd that's tangentially related to your thread title

That was what inspired the thread title, actually!

Dragon Lady wrote:So, I need to stop reading things late at night and thinking I know what I'm thinking about. Somehow, I totally thought Katya started this thread and I was really, really surprised that she frequented a medical forum, but whatevs.

In my defense, I did think that the nym astrogirl sounded really familiar.

LOL, no worries. It actually occurred to me afterwards that my name and signature might not even show up to people who aren't logged in to the forum, because I know there are some forums like that!

And I'm feeling less weird about it today, so that's good.

I think you explained yourself well. I also think it's unreasonable to know the background of all authors and producers of all things, and to expect that no bad things will be supported even with vigilance.

Dragon Lady wrote:So, I need to stop reading things late at night and thinking I know what I'm thinking about. Somehow, I totally thought Katya started this thread and I was really, really surprised that she frequented a medical forum, but whatevs.

In my defense, I did think that the nym astrogirl sounded really familiar.

physics chick / astrogirl . . . I can see how you might have made that error.