>> ^thepinky:
^You just as good as said that I'll stop being a troll as soon as I "come around" and share your opinions. You think that I need to start seeing things from other points of view, and then I will no longer be a troll?

Seeing an issue from someone else's point of view does not imply adopting their conclusions and opinions as your own. It only implies "walking a mile in a another man's shoes" -- stepping outside of one's own perspective to adopt another's, however briefly and imperfectly. Obviously, this is always incomplete and filtered through one's own experience. But the ability to empathize with others, in the most general sense, is arguably the most important of all social skills. It's what allows (semi-)coherent social interactions in the first place.
(Shameless brain channel plug - search for mirror neurons to learn about the cellular basis for this ability.)

Being religious and conservative does not automatically make me less open-minded than you, and it doesn't make me a troll.

While neither of those qualities makes you a troll, I think it is fair to say that religious people are generally less open minded than non-believers. (Perhaps that should be restricted to agnostics - I suppose many strong atheists are just as close minded as those on the opposite side of the spectrum.) Absolute belief (or disbelief) in the existence of God entails certain cognitive consequences. For instance, religious people often have a hard time comprehending how an atheist could be a moral being, because for a believer, all morality stems from God. So, without Him, how can morality exist? Thus, anyone that rejects His existence also rejects morality. Every atheist and agnostic reading this will instantly recognize the absurdity of such a proposition, but for nearly every religious person I've every known, it's an accepted matter of fact. Essentially, absolute belief in anything causes the believer to be cognitively incapable of adopting certain points of view, because the original belief makes some points of view incomprehensible.

I have no doubt that you are a good and well-intentioned person, pinky. You are at that age of possibly greatest optimism and idealism. It's a wonderful place. Enjoy it. But don't allow it's comfort to prevent you from growing. It's kind of like the apple in the garden - knowledge is a double-edged sword. You'll lose some of that optimism, but you gain an understanding of your fellow humans. Unlike the original sin, though, it is generally worth it to go ahead and take a bite.

The people who have decided that violence, eg corporal punishment, with children is bad, are those who have given us those mouthy, dirtbag skaters we see ever so often on the sift. The ones who have had their social skills taught by the Internet and their music preferences. An absence of strong parenting is just a vacuum waiting to suck in whatever crap the random world has to offer. There is a fine line between strong parenting and abuse, but it is still a line.

ps. because she probably bought the notebook, and she'll probably be the one buying the replacement, she's a moron. Selling it on eBay for $1.20 would be more intelligent.

^yes, exactly. you can't force a certain belief/vibe/interest on a community you have to develop a community which attracts the type of people you are interested in. from what i understand, this site has grown and even if the number of "trolls" has increased they are probably at a similar percentage as before--that is, if nothing about the nature of this community has changed.

this is a community where people have to earn privileges, and that is inherently going to disinterest a lot of the types of people that troll. youtube on the otherhand which is just a clustf*ck of random people posting videos of themselves is a haven for such people.

you don't walk into a bar and as soon as one person gives you a funny look you throw up your arms and shout "thats it this bar isn't for me i'm outta here" you ignore them and talk to one of the other 100 people there. if you can't deal with it, its not the guys fault who gives you the funny look its your fault for failing to develop the social skills necessary to interact with a large number of humans. you don't talk to the bar owner and whine about how the guy gave you a funny look and how funny looks shouldn't be allowed and those giving funny looks should be kicked out. you act like an adult and take personal responsibility. maybe the guy was giving you a funny look because you do have paper penis taped to the back of your shirt. maybe he really should be giving you a funny look.

in case you haven't realized there are 6 billion people on this planet. i am willing to be that a great deal of them wouldn't get along with you (whoever you is) if you fail to develop coping mechanisms for the fact that not everybody is going to like you and not everybody is going to be like you this whole ride is going to be a lot smoother.

if you want some conformist lemming colony where there are guards in rubber suits making sure everyone is safely escorted off the cliff in single-file fashion, where nobody lives in fear because safety is enforced, violently, on every member; then frankly, f*ck yourself. your philosophy is diseased and needs to be dragged out back and put out of its misery.

you (undirected) are a splinter, equally if not more so, as "trolls" are splinter to you.

>> ^shuac:
Good flick.
One thing always bothered me about this particular scene: if these guys know each other well enough to laugh and joke around with each other (so much that Joe's gotta straighten them out), then how could they not know anyone's names yet? How often do you joke around with perfect strangers without giving them your name?
I mean, it's not a showstopper for me, I still enjoy the movie very much but I think this scene should have been split into two entirely different scenes: 1) assigning their names and 2) yelling at them for joking too much. Chonologically-in-the-story, they need to occur in that order but thru editing, they can be switched around, as Tarantino likes to do.
Just a thought.


Actually, I quite often joke around with strangers. I believe it's called social skills...

I remember when I first heard about this condition, I thought, man, wouldn't that be cool? Then I found out most people who have this are actually autistic and like Kim Peek, have several hindered social skills that renders then incredible knowledge useless. But this guy seems to be decently able to connect with society.

This should be in the dark and terrible channels. This is extremely awful.
Those people are contributing to the kid's problem. Individuals crave freedom and respect for their ability to make their own choices, and to be part of a group; these people are trivializing the kid's choices and desires, and are ganging up on him thus making him an outsider. His own brother has completely emasculated and humiliated him, in front of (to the kid, I assume) strangers even. That's probably why he feels that way about Myspace; he can find plenty of people there that treat him as an equal.
This definitely looks far worse than the xbox360 kid situation. If this is typical of the kid's life he will possibly suffer impaired social skills later in life.

I agree with winkler1. Is this host an actor or a clown? Is he for real?

Seriously. Even if you wrote the highest archetypal part of "complete dork" and got a seriously dorky comedic genious to play him, you still couldn't get what this guy delivers.
And don't get me wrong: if he answered the "how would they actually do it" question with anything approaching technical aplomb or with even a whiff of insight, instead of the canned, half-witted corporate marketingspeak he sputtered out, his complete lack of *any social skills whatsofuckingever* might be lightly excused. Instead, like winkler, I feel an inescapable urge to smack him repeatedly.

Anyway, good for Joel.

I may have a solution....like any habit, skill, or discipline, one must develop social skills which afford the meat-bot meaningful connections with their fellow sentients...sure, would have helped if the imprint was in place, but you can thank yer dweebish, wallflower parents for that- no use whining about it now-One must develop interaction skills, by stepping out every once in a while.....force yourself to interact with other humans in the flesh, of else that particular withering branch of yer tree will wither, and you'll end up twisted crank-The world is fast approaching some fiendish unfriendly experio-scape, so times' a wastin'! Interact. Press the flesh. Fuck, go do the free hug thing....or else you wanna end up like the cat lady?? She's hot, but not.

I see a future world of paranoid, fear-motivated automatons headed our way, and the programmers have had yer number, for some time now....gotta break outta that shit, and teach yourself to derrive meaning from the sea of bullshit dysfunction, we call, modern society in the west.......

Look at China....an example of conformity I for one hope explodes into majick, at N. Korea, as the fucking middle east.....What would help to make these "communities" more dynamic?......a freekin' brain douche, that's what!!! Mushrooms for everyone!!!!

man get a grip
Hmm...I wonder what Jesus said about this sort of thing...

he said whatever you think he said......now, less-God-boy and nore, welcome to the world you have to be in and not of.....no more need for this paragraph-spewing brain, enough of my own......you write, like I suppose you talk or think....are you Bi-Polar??? Please, I am curios?? You sound it....there are always some so-called reps of the most high likke you, all oyu need is to poish yer social skills a bit, you'll find a plcae heree if you do that...then maybe you'll get a crown, or, amazingly, show God's love in not such a freakish way...

This is MY opinion ans MY observation
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i think this kid seems smug and douchebaggy. yes does lack social skills to the fullest extent, but damn his attitude is just bad. no matter how cheesy that morning show is, they're just trying to be nice to the kid and celebrate his spelling prowess.

Period, huh?? Well, well, public schools have certainly done a wonderful job teaching someone in their perception-booth empire, some shining social skills, and socialism can of course, only come from a quality public education-mill.....

Wish going to public school in the U.S., was as rare as the stunted-brained primates that she gives the planet.....How do you spell, Metagnostic???

feelings are subjective constructs
polite to me, may be a slap in the face to you-
social skills come in varrying stages of incubation
This hair preparation, contains chemicals known to the State of California, to cause cancer, in laboratory animals, and some domesticated primates.

LOL.. that was awesome. I'm guessing autism probably has more to do with his social skills, but I'm sure homeschooling didn't help. I can't imagine this kid "relates well to others"

"I think that home schooling may have some effect on his social skills."

That statement is complete and utter bullshit.

I'm a bit stunned by that. I'm not sure whether to mock or agree with bizinichi. I suspect the lucky lady might not be able to get a word in edgeways. How can your social skills get so bad?