Made a mistake today. Commented on a meme about immigration. Because I said it was "cute" I was somehow degenerating the plight of "Indigenous Peoples". Which, honestly I view as I do the term "Native American". As bullshit. Anyone born in America is an indigenous person, or a native American. Because some of your ancestors immigrated to the continent twelve thousand years before mine did doesn't make you more native than I am - it makes you American.
Then I was lectured on how I don't get to tell someone else what to call themselves. By the same person who was reading things into what I said. And told I was being a jerk. Because I questioned her special status. Look, I get it. The ebil white oppressors came here and destroyed the peace loving native peoples status quo with nature. Then, to make things worse, they fucked the locals on several levels, and continue to do so today. That's not the problem here. You want to tell me how I should feel and what I should think. Based upon a meme that mentions not a word of what you want it to. I should not get my panties in a bunch over a picture I don't agree with. But it's ok for you to tell me how I should feel, and then use your heritage to make me feel bad because I don't agree with you. Guess what? Every people everywhere at some point in time got treated or continues to be treated like shit. Its a fact of life. I get to see my relatives and ancestry treated like rag headed, suicide vest wearing idiots every day. I didn't bring up ancestry, the person I was debating did. And made sure I understood his ancestry very well, by listing groups of people he was descended from. And kept hitting the "this is right because NDN's think its funny" button. I guess I forgot that debating the value of the meme itself was less important than telling me how badly his ancestors had been treated. Then, of course, fled the discussion.
I have it on good authority, I can be a bit of an ass. I tell myself that every damn day. I'm an ass, behave. But my simple act of disagreeing with you does not make me a jerk. My pointing out the logical flaws in your argument and trying to get things back on track doesn't make me bad. It means I know how to hold a discussion. I don't read anger into someone's words, unless they say "I"m Angry" or use words to indicate anger. I don't read defensiveness into a discussion automatically. But apparently using small words and punctuation reads as defensive.
I should have remembered the International Lord of Hate (tm)'s Internet Arguing Checklist.
http://monsterhunternation.com/2013/09/20/the-internet-arguing-checklist/
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