How's everybody doing?

[lovinlife101]

Dudley, why must you try to bash me in even the most courteous of conversations?

Luke and Realist kept the conversation respectful, friendly, and jovial.

Your happiness is not contingent on my absence. You can be happy DESPITE my presence! It's not a zero sum game. You may have to look that one up.

It's up to you. It's your decision. Will you decide to be happy or not? Your choice. It has absolutely nothing to do with me. I choose to be happy. If you choose to be unhappy, that's fine. But I'm not responsible for you, your opinions, or your feelings. Same with me. Your presence or absence has absolutely no bearing on my attitude or outlook.

As the best president in United States history (besides President Obama) Abraham Lincoln said, "Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be."

Wisdom, my friend, seek it, crave it, use it.

And I almost forgot, HAVE A GREAT DAY!

[lovinlife101]

Dudley, what you have done is a textbook case of bullying.

For some reason, you can't feel good without trying to put me down. You can be happy independent of my absence or presence.

However, you gain pleasant feelings trying to put me down and talking to others about it.

You're trying to gain power by abusing someone else.

Why not just exclude me? That would be better than excluding me and then telling others how great you feel by excluding me.

I really hope you can get the help you need that you can be happy independent of me.

[lovinlife101]

Thanks for chiming in, Zenith.

You have every right to have an opinion and speak your opinion, so do I.

It is my opinion that bullying is wrong and that we should try to reduce, if not eliminate, it.

That being said, everyone has the right to think the way they do and express that verbally.

Nobody on this forum or any other forum has been attacked more mercilessly than I have been. I have been threatened with violence and death. But do you see me using vulgar, hateful, profane, obscene, and inappropriate language? Nope. That's what I've decided to do, despite other people choosing to disrespect and bully me.

Don't get me wrong. I do not want to take away anybody's freedom of speech. Far from it. Police already do a great job at violating our civil rights. We all make choices. I choose love, respect, and peace.

[lovinlife101]

Thanks for your advice, Zenith, however I am choosing to disregard it since I disagree with your opinion that you believe in blaming the victim.

"You bring this on yourself, regardless of who-started-it." I hope you don't advise this to rape victims or other victims of bullying. Their silence does not make the issue go away.

"Don't whine. People don't like whining. Don't attack people. People don't like to be attacked." I agree with this. That's why I refuse to attack others. I wish you would have the decency to tell those who are attacking me this, but you'd rather blame the victim, which you have every right to do. However, I also have the right to point out your flawed reasoning for others to see and make their own decisions.

Oh, and whining? Check all the times where others want me silenced here. There is an entire thread created exclusively to silence me and my opinions. I have never whined. I respect all opinions.

I'm so sorry that you feel the best way to resolve conflict is silence. So many relationships have ended because of poor or nonexistent communication. I hope no one takes your advice.

[lovinlife101]

Welcome back, Sarge!

Zenith, don't bother explaining whether you care about people taking your advice or not. It wasn't asked of you.

You also don't get to decide who is a victim and who is not. I'm glad you weren't in charge when the Civil War broke out. All those "self-described" victims as you put it would not have received any sympathy from you.

And your advice for victims to keep their mouths shut would have really advanced freedom!

Don't feel bad that you "got sucked into this." The important thing is that you learned something.