I am leaving. Goodbye.
Over the last few months, I have been getting progressively more negative, depressed, and anti-government.
There are a lot of factors in this, but I believe a major factor has been the negative energy on KahrTalk since the re-election.
I have tried very hard to keep a positive attitude, and have even spoken out when I felt that the bullshit was getting too deep.
In one such case, I spoke out against comments, descriptions and photos of the First Family that involved racially motivated hatred. That event resulted in a more or less positive change, and I saw a definite reduction in the hatred after that, but it's still seeping in there with slyly worded phrases designed to avoid blatant expression but still get the point across, so the speaker cannot be called on it.
In another case, my objection to the negativity and hatred resulted in an accusation against me and my voting history, which the accuser had no information about, and which had the potential for a big ol' pile of bullshit being dumped on me if it gained momentum. Fortunately, I worded my response with great care, and people left me the hell alone as requested. But it was still a negative experience - "speak out against the hatred and be vilified for it" is the message that was sent to me that day.
But these are only the most obvious examples. I have tried not to buy into the paranoia and depressing conjecture about societal collapse, economic collapse and anti-government sentiments that are saturating this and other gun forums. But, as my wife told me last night, if you immerse yourself in a particular culture, it affects you. No matter how hard you try to only integrate the good things in that culture into your life, the bad things affect you too.
I tried to scan the thread topics and only click the ones that looked positive or interesting, but it seems that nearly every thread sooner or later gets around to abusing the government, specific members of the government, or society and its impending doom. All it takes is one person making a casual negative comment to start the ball rolling and it gains momentum.
Even if nobody starts the ball rolling intentionally, many people have these negative sentiments in their signatures, so even the most benign, positive, happy comment includes negative energy. Sometimes new users will comment on something in someone's signature or avatar, and off it goes like an avalanche.
I feel that it is necessary for my own mental health to step back from this tsunami of hate, anger, frustration, fear, paranoia, etc that has inundated gun forums. Even now, writing that sentence, I can visualize other forum members replying that by stepping back from it, I am burying my head in the sand, becoming a sheep, shirking my duty to stand up for our gun rights, becoming part of the problem, etc. The scorn is already lashing me before I have even clicked the "submit" button on this post. It has taken hold of me that deeply.
A while back, the admins on this forum said that they were going to let the election hubbub die down, and then start cracking down on the political crap that was overflowing the "Right to Keep and Bear Arms" sub-forum and polluting the rest of the place. But then Sandy Hook happened, ammo dried up, the local and federal gun bans came up, and there is no end in sight. Now even the administrators of this forum are openly participating in the hatred, doom, and gloom. And I simply cannot abide it any longer.
This post will probably spark a fresh wave of negativity, and I would be much surprised if a significant amount of it was not directed at me for posting this. Therefore, I will NOT be subscribing to my own thread. I hope that the admins will shut it down as soon as it starts getting nasty, for everyone's sake - but I won't be looking in on it, so if you're just going to post something mean about me, save your energy for when "they come for your guns".
I still like my guns a lot, and I'd dearly love to participate in a gun forum, talking about cool new guns, results of experiments and mods, helping people figure out problems, and stuff like that. But since I cannot have the good stuff without overwhelming amounts of the most potent vitriolic bad stuff to go with it, I am leaving.
"I know less than half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." - Bilbo Baggins, at the Party Tree, just before donning The One Ring.
Take care.
Last edited by Scoundrel; 03-01-2013 at 11:12 PM.
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I have unsubscribed all threads. If you wish to contact me, please send a PM.
If you want to know why, go to this thread: http://www.kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?p=226512
"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
P.S. YES, that notch in the rail is supposed to be there!
Originally Posted by ripley16
Take a rest for a while. Get your perspective realligned. You're welcome when you want to join us again.
Goodbye Scoundrel, hope you feel better now that you have gotten all thirteen paragraphs off of your chest.
