Alegrias1
Good question NellG, just been thinking about his while I hung the washing out
. I expect what I am about to say will ruffle a few feathers but here goes anyway....
There are things posted on here, i.e. Gransnet, that are downright nasty about all kinds of people in the public eye. Sometimes I point it out, sometimes I don't. Sometimes others do. The line between justified criticism and insults or character assassination just seems to be non-distinct for some posters. Remember "Screechy-gate"?
. Or the Oscar winning actor who was referred to as having a potato-face on another thread? Now some will say that's just light hearted, I think its unacceptable.
So if someone says there was nothing nasty posted, and the thread is littered with nasty comments, then demonstrating that is a good way of proving the opposite case. I don't expect the original posters will care what I think, but if you see unpleasantness that is then denied, I think you should point it out.
Totally fair.
I do remember 'screechy-gate', and believe it or not spent quite a lot of time looking at my my input to it - even spending an interesting few hours reading articles on why women's tone of voice is an issue. I tried to deal with it with humour, but unfortunately seemed to make it worse. I came to the conclusion that I shouldn't have posted what I did, even though I wasn't making the insult, I was using the insult and it wasn't my finest moment. I got a bit arsey about it because I was being judged by many involved and in judging me they were using invective and personal attack which was such a double stnadard- I kept it erring on humorous because to do anything else at the time would have caused it to go into ultra meltdown. Given that I ended up practically being accused of peeing on the Scottish border and burning effigies of NS it was, all in all a bit of a pointless debacle. Although I don't doubt that the silent majority got a great deal of entertainment value from it. So much so, I did consider changing my name here to ENSA [wink}
Anyway, the point of saying that is not just to you, but to anyone reading that sometimes it's worthwhile thinking about what 'you' did actually say and sometimes it's worthwhile to give yourself a good slap upside the head for being a cocky idiot in saying it. Lessons can be learned, even at our age.
I don't know about actors who look like potatoes, I must have missed that - no doubt if pushed I could think of one or two who do!
Anyway, I can't police what words people use, but I can moderate my own words, and tone - if not always successfully. I believe that to be about self respect and respect for others.