Let's be mindful about our behaviors

Look, I understand. This is the internet. Anonymity and indirection interaction pretty much hide you and you can say whatever you want. But I want you to guys to remember that Giant Bomb is organized by variety of people; race, religion, beliefs, culture, USA, Europe, Australia, etc etc.

North Carolina has banned gay marriage. Yes, it is a huge issue and it is something to be discussed. But I found it uncomfortable how all of a sudden people get rather "aggressive" toward people who have different opinions.

Because of one political forum post, written by a moderator, which I still found it rather strange because I do not want my video game website to take sides, now everybody who is against gay marriage for one reason or another is someone to make fun of. For example, I found this....

" said:

@ said:

This is news? I thought everyone knew this by now..

Can't say I agree with him.

*Queue hoard of angry college students wailing about equality*

I respect your opinion.....I thought I'd tell you that before the slew of insults come piling in.

You don't have to respect an opinion if it's stupid as shit. That's like somebody saying, "meh, modern science, fuck it, the world's flat." At a certain point you can respond with "fuck you, you sheltered prick, you're wrong.""

I deleted user names just in case they get uncomfortable and what not. But according to this one user, having a different opinion, or a belief, is considered as "stupid as shit." There were a couple of responds after that but I thought that would be sufficient enough. Of course, there are a lot of users that say "I respect your opinions. That's cool" which is great. That's how it should be.

This is what I am trying to say; Giant Bomb can be political when it wants to. I would prefer not mostly because as a person who majored in political science, it is frustrating to see how misguided people can be when they discuss about politics. But if the forum is allowed to have serious conversations, such as politics, I believe there should be a mutual understanding that every opinion should be respected. There should not be a user who hesitates to get into a conversation because he/she is afraid of being called flat out stupid by the others.

Here is an example; people complain about how one evangelical christian walked up to them and started talking/yelling/screaming about how they are going to hell. It is not a pleasant experience. But that goes for both ways. Christians do not like to be yelled stupid/backward/etc at them just because they have different beliefs. Nobody likes to be yelled.

Let's not be aggressive about other's opinions. There are better way of having a discussion than saying "you don't have to respect an opinion if it's stupid as shit." If you are not one of them, good on you! The internet overall needs more people like you! If you are not, please be mindful. I am just as guilty when it comes to writing horrible things on forum. I am not saying my hands are clean, which is why I said "let's be mindful," not "be mindful." But I believe we can all become better people, especially when we are going to talk about politics. That is all.

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@nohthink said:

Let's not be aggressive about other's opinions.

I want to crush your skull, do i win? Edit: No, i don't, not really, maybe just a little bit. But this fucking political correctness shit will kill me, it'll succeed where dota has failed.

Please don't tell me, or anyone else, what to do. Thanks.

I agree with you one hundred percent but I think at a certain point you just have to ignore the hate because unfortuantely this is the internet. I mean compared to Youtube Comments these forums are full of nobel prize winners and ghandi clones

Its a nice idea, one I'm in favor of. As this is the internet, however, ....yeah.

People are jackasses and unfortunately that's not likely to change. It's a nice sentiment though.

Its a sad thing I have to find a topic like this on GB, this site used to do this kind of thing on its own.

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

Its a sad thing I have to find a topic like this on GB, this site used to do this kind of thing on its own.

My thoughts exactly.

Its a sad thing I have to find a topic like this on GB, this site used to do this kind of thing on its own.

Its a sad thing I have to find a topic like this on GB, this site used to do this kind of thing on its own.

Nobody likes to be yelled...

I'm famous.

Firstly, a quick disclaimer: The statements expressed in my blog were mine and mine alone, they do not necessarily represent the beliefs of this website, the staff, or the moderation team as a whole. The only "side" which the site as a whole has taken is that racist and homophobic language is not allowed here, and the moderation team is standing by that.

Secondly, I'm locking this down. The community has proven multiple times an inability to have these conversations without them turning into a game of attacking each other and using the very slurs we're trying to prevent. What's more if you want to discuss this kind of thing there are already enough recent open threads on the site talking about homosexual rights and beliefs.