On Sun, 11 May 2008 08:04:03 +0100, MM wrote:
>>So if youths are harrassed, your response is "Ah diddums, they should
>>get used to it". But if *you* suffer an occasional insult, you expect
>>people to do something about it?
>
>Well, SHOULD something be done about it, or not? Obviously, you think
>we just need to get used to it. You just said so above. Although I'm
>not sure how to understand the rider: "though not necessarily in
>silence" because that seems to contain a fair bit of fence-sitting.
Not at all. It simply means that I believe in free speech and so
would not wish to prevent *anyone* from complaining about things,
justified or not.
>>To answer your question, it is a circumstance that I *very* seldom
>>have suffered. But if a group of youths have decided to try to
>>provoke a reaction I will either ignore it or come back with a jokey
>>rejoinder to show that it's water off a duck's back that has not upset
>>me in the slightest.
>But it *did* upset you! Else you would not have bothered to come back
>with a jokey rejoinder!
What on Earth makes you believe such a ridiculous thing? It's part of
normal human social interaction.
> And the fact that you did lets the group of
>youths know that they scored yet again, thus reinforcing their
>anti-social behaviour, which includes provoking a reaction.
I've managed to get the rest of the group laughing at the one who made
the original remark on a couple of occasions - though as I said, it
happens so rarely that it's not worth bothering about.
If youths are frequently calling you names, I suspect that it has
something to do with how you behave toward them.
--
Cynic
|