Lemmie wrote:Niadna wrote:Telling YOU folks all this is my way of letting you know that If *I* call you an anti or an extreme anti, you have really been rude, insulting, and deliberately nasty, and NOT simply because you don't agree with me.
...'YOU folks'? That's an interesting way of putting it. You could just tell a poster that their content is rude, insulting, or deliberately nasty, and leave the mormon-related labels out of it.
For example, I might say to you that, although you may not have meant it that way, 'YOU folks' can be taken as a deliberately provocative and insulting statement, typically intended to create a negative division between groups. I don't assume you said it because you belong to a particular Mormon group, however, I am just commenting on the content of your statement.
Niadna wrote:....and I might say to you that, although you may not have meant it that way, taking offense at being folded in with "YOU folks" is taking offense where none is offered.
I didn't say I took offense, I said:
Lemmie wrote:...'YOU folks' can be taken as a deliberately provocative and insulting statement, typically intended to create a negative division between groups. I don't assume you said it because you belong to a particular Mormon group, however, I am just commenting on the content of your statement.
Niadna wrote:There's only one of me posting here. EVERYBODY else is everybody else.
That holds for everyone, right? I think every new person who starts posting in any forum feels that, until they get to know people.
Niadna wrote: "YOU folks" refers to that everybody else who is not me. Just as, if you used 'YOU folks" on the forum to describe all who might see it, I would assume that I was one of those 'folks,' since I'm not you.
Darn, that came out wrong. I don't quite know how else to express it, though. I'm the only one typing on my keyboard. You are all 'out there.' I don't know you. You are ALL 'you folks.'
Thank you for the explanation. My point was that, however you meant it, it is a loaded phrase that has negative meaning to many, and as such it is a tricky phrase to use.
Niadna wrote:I certainly cannot be differentiating between one group and another; I have no clue who is Mormon (of whatever level of belief or doubt) or who is not.
I agree; usually such differentiation into groups is unnecessary when responding to the content of posts.