Originally Posted by
John2
It's actually a very good question. I question my own motives all the time. MillersMad is a fascinating place to me, it's a community to which I enjoy belonging, and into which I find there to be at times interesting and at times entertaining exchanging of views. I do like to keep up with the football stuff, my original purpose for joining the forums over 20 years ago, but I don't feel I have very much to contribute from afar so I tend not to contribute very much on that stuff these days.
In life we all have different traits. I like to question things. To challenge the status quo, to challenge authority, to challenge ideas, to challenge myself.
A forum personality is very different to an in real-life personality. Not that I'm uncivil on here, I genuinely do most of my activities in a well-intended way, even when slightly provocative. But in real life I'll always be try to be friendly and engaging, even (or especially) with people with whom I have very differing views. I don't take myself seriously.
Believe it or not, I get offended myself by surprisingly little. But I get frustrated by perceived injustice or inequality, sure. Not quite the same thing as getting offended on someone else's behalf. Do I think there is an enemy on millers mad I'm trying to fight? Certainly not. I actually have a great fondness for my hometown and fellow supporters of our hometown club, even where we disagree politically, there are always surprising ways you can find common ground with people.
Have I ever in my life stopped to question whether midget gems is offensive? Hell no. Will I likely continue to refer to them as midget gems myself? Probably!
In a sense, I worry for society the prevalence of misinformation and the political forces at work that are causing harm to our democracy. Is that my motive for being on millersmad? No. Do I think my posts on here are going to make the blindest bit of difference in the grand scheme of things? No. However, I do find it fascinating to engage with people, find the things we disagree on, and explore those differences. Sometimes in a more in-depth and engaging way, sometimes provocatively for the fun of it.
Some posters like to accuse me of living in a bubble. Actually, I thrive on participating in as many different worlds and interacting with as many different types of people in the world as I can.
You may think I just come to provoke right wing Brexiteers as part of some liberal crusade, but that's not what it is. I mean, sure, I do it sometimes, but I genuinely find it interesting to learn other perspectives and how people react to different things. I have friend groups where everyone is a lefty, I have close friends who voted for Trump, and I'm just as likely to find myself in a debate where I challenge their views with either.
So yeah, good question I thought I'd try and answer. I'm not entirely sure of my motivations, but I find it interesting to dip in here from time to time. It certainly doesn't consume my life like it does some posters though, and maybe I do need to be more considerate of that.
If you sit back and watch humans behave, it's really quite interesting. You see the things that are important to people, and what consumes their world. I'd be just as likely to provoke a "left wing" friend for getting upset about the wording of midget gems as I would be to provoke a "right winger" for getting upset about them getting renamed. In the grand scheme things it's just such a non-issue that it amuses me and fascinates me how much such things seems to matter to people.
Participating on MillersMad has taught me many things. I genuinely had no idea that grown men could get obsessive about things like the nationality of an 18-year-old girl who is good at tennis, and that these were the sort of issues important in their life to focus their attention on. I say that without judgement, we're all products of our environment, it's just genuinely fascinating to me and I enjoy participating here.
Anyway, brain dump over, read from it what you will.
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