Dangerous Words
Every now and again I produce a blog that is completely misunderstood because of an innocent word or phrase appearing somewhere in the blog. I’m talking about a word or phrase so irrelevant that if the sentence containing that word was omitted, it would not have changed the spirit of the blog and yet, the inclusion of it changes the entire flow of comments. Somehow some people latches onto that word or phrase and respond to it in stead of the blog as a whole. This happens mostly when the ‘trigger’ appears in the first or last paragraph.
In this way even a tongue in the cheek blog becomes a serious affair. I’m led to believe that some people only scan the blog for a ‘forbidden’ word or phase to react on, often negatively and sometimes completely out of context with the spirit of the blog. All you need is the first few comments to be off track and you never get your topic back. I will include a few examples in the comments section.
These triggers may change from time to time depending on world affairs and other blogs at the time but some always remain controversial. Some of the more popular triggers in the past included corporal punishment, PMS, poaching, death penalty, scammers, rape, sex, hunting, meat production, and any form of woman/child/animal abuse. While these are all excellent blog topics they tend to derail my blogs if mentioned en passant. This phenomenon also appears to be regional because I noticed that Americans can get quite excited if the word ‘Trump’ appears in a blog.
I have intentionally included a lot of triggers here to give everybody something to latch on to. You have my blessings to comment on anything and maybe suggest more controversial triggers so I can avoid them in future. Oh dear! I should have listed then in the first or last paragraph
It seems that I come from a notorious family of writers. My father writes checks that no bank will honor, my mother wrote memoirs that nobody looked at, my brother wrote novels that nobody published, my other brother wrote songs that nobody ever sang, my sister writes poems that nobody recites and I write blogs that nobody reads.
Comments (52)
I see Catfoot is missing in action here for a few days .
I hope he is alright
I guess it is because I get accustom with his blogs .
Hope you are doing great Cat
I am reading the title of your blog as "dangerous words" and it just makes me smile.
I gather that the point of this particular post is to express your concern and upsetting feeling that sometimes, if not most of the time, we the readers and or commenters normally don't read the whole blog and just take one word and use that to present our opinion or idea on your topic.
This is what I can say, I read the whole blog. While it is never my intention to misunderstand and or miss the whole point, there are instances when I do focus on what is important for me at the moment relative to my mood, my needs and what is my understanding to those points.
I have to share you my experience in College. My Arts teacher once asked the class this "when you look at an art, at different times, of the same art, does it always give you the same impression?" Surprisingly about 90 percent of us, said "no"., Then she went on to explain that it is not uncommon because everytime we read a book or look at an art, our feelings, moods and environment influence our feelings and emotions that of course impact our thinking which gives us different impression.
I know for a fact that when you wrote the poll at the Forum about reading the whole blog before commenting has only one point. I couldn't have derailed that and I answered yes.
Anyways, going back to your original post on this blog, it is my understanding that those trigger words are to you "dangerous". I don't feel it that way. I feel that each one of us has all different levels of understanding, have all different perception, experiences and environment, belief and cultures that push our thoughts to respond relative to your topic.
My goal when I read a post is to try to understand as best as I can, and then give my idea. If and when it goes out of your parameter or intended goal, then no big deal, just explain it and steer me back to your topic, that is all.
Anyways, I always enjoy your topics and try to give my thoughts as honestly as I feel and think in response to your objectives or goals.
Again, I am sorry if I cause you to be upset with my unintentional derailing off your point.
I was thinking the same about Cat.
Im sure he is fine, but i sure do miss him.
I love his blogs and soh.
Come back soon Cat...ur not allowed to have a life and leave us all here missing you.
Or you would have some explaining to do , lol
I realize Beapatient is missing in action as well .
Irony is not strong enough. Try sarcasm.It works every time.
I wonder what happened to her.
Never out of order but bear in mind that I have a real life too. And a fairly busy one. I may be retired but I'm not in a coffin yet.
Good grief, no! I'm not upset about it. The blogs are the last thing in the world to upset me. I just find it sort of strange.
Actually I have been so busy this week I have not been back to that Poll. As you can see, I'm only getting back to this blog now on the fourth day.
I'm sorry, i have been very busy this week. It may be the same next week. Next month is autumn and we'll soon be looking at rainy skies and gales. We're taking advantage of the weather at present.
I think Bea was here all the time. I saw her on one or two other blogs and when I logged on this morning I noticed that she was on line last night. If a person don't blog regularly, you don't always see them that easily. She read these comments in any way because she told me yesterday afternoon already that I have a lot of homework here.