Can someone help me? I'm trying to open my mind to new ideas about Refugees

[DespondentFishdeathMasochismo]

I said my grievances with the refugees isn't based on prejudice for their religion, holy shit. You just read the opposite of what I wrote.

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Hey fuck you empress. You give kudos blindly to some shit that guy said which wasn't even accurate. I hate you so much. Go back to the feminist thread.

Try really, REALLY hard to follow this.  I asked why you're worried about Syrians committing terror acts in the US, to which I appended the mug shot of a non-Syrian who just committed a terror act in the US.  You immediately replied that religion wasn't the issue.  I never said anything at all about religion, so your reply led me to understand that you equate 'Syrian' with 'Muslim'.  You then run completely off the rails of your own particular crazy train [nod to Ozzy] about how much you hate everyone here.

Is everything OK at home, dude?

Boru

Frankly, I don't think you read all of my positions in the thread. Just above you in a 4 paragraph reply on page 3, I stated some deeper reasoning for my position on this issue. I didn't really put that much thought into the OP of this thread, but I elaborated a lot on my position a bit later. My response to your question of if I am worried about terrorists on our own soil is: 

What I have been seeing, through what my friend has been telling me, is that the refugees are coming over to their culture, they're taking over countries like sweden and turning the areas they move into into ghettos, getting priority housing from their government and turning one of the places they belong now into the rape capital of Europe. That is just what I heard.

I actually went to a panel discussion that my mom put together in my city. It was a panel talking about the ways we could help refugees in our city, which has been chosen as one of the cities in america to support refugees. I don't have a problem with the people coming into america who are refugees. They go through a lot of background checks, we have a system in place that actually takes care of them and puts them through our school systems. I have always been on board with the american refugee support.

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Actually, The_Empress was a moderator and a damn good one.

If she thinks of me as her chew toy, I don't want her in a position of power over me.

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Boru, let me tell you about my home. My home is a very loving, very liberal place. I've never been beaten, I have always been given lots of presents on Christmas, lots of Presents on my birthday, driven to all the karate lessons, sail boat races, guitar lessons, football, soccer, ski trips, school orchestra concerts, baseball, cub scout camping trips. I live on my own now and I have my own apartment. I've been living on my own for about a year now, having my own place to live has made my life significantly more peaceful. My parents are loving people, in positions of power in the community, who have low tolerance for things like politically incorrect humor, they appreciate not swearing, they appreciate having good grammar, they generally want me to be safe and provide whatever opportunities for me they can. I don't like giving this shpeal, but I want you to know how dead wrong you are if you think my parents are responsible for my horrible, unintelligent, deplorable way that I think. I am just a stupid, fucked up person, there's not much more to it.

[Joods]

It was a sentence. Semantics. Honestly I swear 2015 must be the year for being offended. By everything.
Just learn to let some of this stuff go and you'll be a better person in the long run. I don't honestly believe she meant it in the literal sense, but in the figurative one. Either way, sometimes people say things we don't like. It's up to us to either rise above such things or let it bother us to a point that we get angry about it. If it gets to that point, some outside help may be necessary.

Try not to allow opinions from strangers posting opinions on the internet effect your mind too much. At the end of the day, you wouldn't recognize most of us on the street from anyone else, so why let small stuff bother you here any longer than necessary? Just smile and get on with your day. There are much more important things to worry about in your life than whether or not you are someone's proverbial chew toy. Right?

[Thumpalumpacus]

First, Becca made a goddamned good moderator. You insulted her and refused to simply apologize. Great. Don't get butthurt that she doesn't like you. She's a good gal and your beef with her is getting old. You have this really bad habit of attacking her personally rather than answering her points, which rather feeds the anti-feminist view of you that got implanted by your first interactions in this forum. You've come around to being decent with me and a couple of others, but you can't answer her questions without laying personal attacks?

Yeah, it was decent. And if DF is reading this, I just want to say that saying "you felt dumb" was a bummer. Finding blind spots in your knowledge is a good thing. That's where learning begins. Don't get disheartened; it's an opportunity, not just another reason to self-criticize.

Very wise. I have a sort of deep feeling of dissatisfaction with my intelligence a lot. I often wish that I could be way more intelligent than I am, it's refreshing to see someone say something like this.

Listen, I've gone through a lot of my life feeling like I was never good enough, and I can recognize this sort of behavior by now. Forgive me for playing the Gramps card, but by fifty years old, I know what the hell I'm seeing.

I think you're uncomfortable crediting yourself with what intelligence you have. I think you take criticism too close to heart. I think that you hammer yourself hard, perhaps because someone else in your life has done so as well.

You're not a dumb guy, that is clear. You are obviously troubled; you're prone to outbursts of violent emotion that ward people off, even online. I'm willing to bet that irl you are more careful about expressing those hot emotions, but that doesn't bring you any closer to people -- which is probably another frustration.

Be yourself. Consider the feelings of others as you'd wish them to consider your own. Learn what fascinates you in order to fill in blank spots in your curiosity. Take the chip off your shoulder; don't be so defensive. No one can hurt you here, anyway.

[Edwardo Piet]

Being misdiagnosed as bi polar is an extremely dangerous thing[...]

From personal experience I can agree and say, yes, yes it is.

I was misdiagnosed with Bi Polar disorder and heavily medicated for 7 years... after 8 weeks of my first breakdown I was put on lithium at age 18, 4 years later they still hadn't weaned me off it because every time they reduced the dosage they put it back up to manage the lithium levels.... so after 4 years on it I ODed on it and ever since then I've been off it. They were never willing to put me back on it again after that because it's one of the most dangerous things you can OD on.

I wish I'd never made that suicide attempt but I shudder to think that I might never have otherwise gotten off that strong and intense medication.

[Edwardo Piet]

 Either way, sometimes people say things we don't like. 

Indeed

[...] In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other. We have to learn to put up with the fact, that some people say things we don't like.[...]

[DespondentFishdeathMasochismo]

I don't know who becca is. I am pro feminism, but I am weary of feminist extremism. Very weary. The rational feminists I've talked to share my perspectives, I respect feminism and I would date a feminist. Once again, I don't know who becca is, but I would be happy to be friendly to her, I'm also not anti feminist. I am a very liberal person.

[Edwardo Piet]

Becca=The Empress.

On the thread I explained why I don't believe there are "feminists extremists", you can't really be "extremely pro women's rights", and it may seem a bit pedantic of me but I think it's important to note that a group of people who happen to be feminists and pro-women's rights but also push anti-men views is not extreme feminism, it's feminism + anti-men bigotry.

[abaris]

I am currently undecided about the refugee issue. On one hand I believe it's good to help people and have empathy for others. On the other hand I think that it's not our war, they're the ones at war here and we're making sacrifices to help them. Never the less, we're helping a bunch of Muslims. I'm putting myself in a vulnerable position here, but to be frank, I don't like Islam. I think it's a primitive, at times abhorrent culture. I want them to be in the middle east, out of civilized society. 

Oh, yes, it's not oour war. If everybody followed that line of thought, nobody would have made it out of Europe in WWII. There's a famous quote by pastor Martin Niemöller nailing that issue.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

And the second part about not liking Islam. Well, I don't like it either. In the same way, I don't like christianity or judaism. But we're talking about people here, not about a religion. Very few people make that kind of distinction.

[DespondentFishdeathMasochismo]

Becca=The Empress.

On the thread I explained why I don't believe there are "feminists extremists", you can't really be "extremely pro women's rights", and it may seem a bit pedantic of me but I think it's important to note that a group of people who happen to be feminists and pro-women's rights but also push anti-men views is not extreme feminism, it's feminism + anti-men bigotry.

Then maybe I shouldn't say feminist extremists. I should say "delusional". There's people with very twisted views of the world, who call themselves feminists. There's creepy people, who go down the street, punching men in the face, for telling a rape joke.

[Edwardo Piet]

I've never known of anyone who does that, but such people wouldn't definitely be creepy. And yeah, there are fucked up bigots of all kinds in this world... unfortunately.