January 08, 2010

Hypocrisy, show-off and political correctness

When I was young, I used to believe that everyone is almost always honest.

Now, I wonder at the ease with which people can tell a lie. It's really easy for them to be dishonest to themselves, let alone to others. When everyone is looking at them, they show off themselves for what they really aren't. They don't have the courage to face the truth. When they talk with someone, they would cross all the limits of dishonesty as long as they believe that this dishonesty is never going to come out. They can do this because often they either have power or are in a group of a bunch of people and have a fanfare of stupids following them.



I have learnt a few lessons after having been active in a forum:

(1) You are supposed to be polite and considerate to everyone on the forum.

(2) If you are new to the forum, you don't matter.

(3) If you've been on the forum for a long time, you can unlearn the above lessons.

(3) If you happen to have views different than the moderators of the forum AND you aren't close to any of the moderators AND you want to get actively involved in something you believe to be inappropriate which doesn't directly concern you, you're 'dusre-ke-phate-me-taang-adda-raha-hain'ing. Hence, you can be thrown out like a fly out of a cup of tea.

(4) Moderators of the forum need not follow the first lesson mentioned above. Moderators can bend any rule anyway as long as it's in their interest. They moderate the forum after all. Hence, they can bend rules even just for fun and you're supposed to keep mum if this happens.

(5) Moderators are always right. Or, at least that's what you're supposed to believe.

(6) There are more number of sane and nice people on a forum than you think there are.

(7) Of these sane and nice people, very less are ready to stand by something they believe in.

(8) There comes a time when you've to choose between the two - (i) standing by what you believe in and (ii) enjoying an educative/informative/funny forum.

(9) Most people go for choice (ii) in situations similar to the one above.

(10) You can bend the normal rules of the forum too provided that you satisfy one of the two criteria: (i) You are a good contributor for the community; (ii) You happen to be close to one of the moderators and/or the owner of the forum.

(11) You can get a threat to be sued by the community owners if you stand by what you believe in. Instead, you are supposed to stand by what moderators believe in. Why? See lesson (5).


PS: I normally don't prefer to use sarcasm in normal speech or a blog post. This is my first attempt at sarcasm (?). Feedback would be highly appreciated.

Edited: In lesson (9) above, I mistakenly had typed choice (i) in place of choice (ii). The erratum has been corrected now.

7 comments:

  1. Really satirical post. And well written.

    Just dont take the entire episode to heart :-) !

    You have lot of things better to do :-)

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  2. well written
    just an eye opener towards bitter reality
    thanks for visiting blog.
    happy new year

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  3. @Maxell,

    thanks for the encouraging words :-)
    Yes, I have moved on from the episode long back.

    @sm,

    Thanks for the encouragement!

    And, wishing you a fantastic New Year too!

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  4. round-and-round elaboration....in my opinion, it is leading to only one conclusion - 'not giving freedom to express'...nicely elaborated...it would be better if the scope of this topic is extended beyond remaining in a forum ------ i'm expressing my thoughts, so let me see whether my comments are getting green signal to be posted on your blog or not!!!

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  5. @Anonymous,

    Exactly! It's about not giving freedom. Thanks for the comment :-)

    I would also like to get this topic discussed beyond 'being in a forum'.

    Unless the comments are from Spambot or extremely irrelevant to the topic, it will always get a green signal :-)

    You may post your next comment.

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  6. You went through this?
    I feel it is best to write your views on your own blog if you feel they are totally against the moderators' views. Sometimes I read blogs that say something that feels terribly wrong to me - like a blog post said 'if a bride gets her husband's inheritance, why shouldn't she do her bit by bringing dowry?' - Arguements and discussions would have gone on and on, so instead of commenting, I wrote a post on my own blog. It works better if we discuss the same topic objectively on our own blogs I feel...

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  7. @IHM,

    Yes, I have gone through what I've mentioned in this post. And, I left the forum since I simply can't be at a place where someone suffers without any reasons but the personal bias/immaturity of someone.

    And, yes, you're absolutely right. There comes a time when we come across something which we find wrong or inappropriate. So, for these very reasons of not letting the discussion go on and on (especially when you're sure that the other party is neither likely to argue logically nor ready to accept logical argument), I preferred to leave the forum which has once been very close to me.

    True! It's the best to give your views and/or raise your concerns in your own blog, your own space in your own way.

    ReplyDelete