re: #205 RunningBare

Maybe I just don’t fit in with the “cool kids”, or maybe I don’t fit in with someone’s clique, apparently. I can’t explain it, and frankly, I’m not sure I care enough to try to explain it. If Charles wants me gone, that’s his right, his house his rules.

RunningBare — I thought that the italicized sentence deserved a downding but the bolded one showed enough cluefulness to get an upding; hence they cancel each other and I gave you no dings at all.

To explain the problem with the first sentence: Accusing other posters of being a “cool-kid” clique is almost guaranteed to be a losing/loser strategy, and here I speak from my own past foolishness on other blogs and websites. Apart from the fact that it insults other people to suggest that they’re a bunch of Heathers*, the clique accusation essentially violates the ancient Internet dictum “There is no cabal.” To put it another way, it’s a very mild form of conspiracy-theory thinking.

Admittedly, sometimes there really are cliques, but a good “razor” in these cases is that if 10 people seem to be ganging up on you, you should first consider and rule out the possibility that one of your posts managed to annoy 10 unconnected individuals simultaneously, before you start imagining that there’s a mob whispering behind your back.

* ♫♪ Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme… ♫♪