What is the role and responsibility of all of us, as citizens?

Great posts. @RickR could be right, people are afraid to be kind to one another. The person you may want to say a polite casual decent thing to could have an agenda and a heart full of hate that will use your kindness against you. So we stay quiet. And by staying quiet because we are afraid at how things will be interpreted, we are losing our decency and camaraderie.

I was watching I am Legend last night. This scene kind of went hand and hand with this discussion:


"The people who are trying to make the world worse are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness." I believe that. The haters hate everyday. I think it is easier to hate and be negative. Kindness and compassion come from the heart so at times those of us that are trying to keep the goodness alive get tired and beat down. I think Bob Marley was right, we cannot take the day off because if we stop the goodness then our country is lost. I do not believe it would be worth a civil war because I refuse to fight for a country that will end up filled with hate, division and darkness.

 

I don't understand the nastiness I see(mainly on Facebook since I don't get out much on purpose). Sure I was nasty on occasion when I was a kid, but I grew out of it. I have no trouble being polite/civil even to people I don't like. The 'worst' I'll do is just ignore someone. And I'm not gonna rise to the bait when I get replies to stuff I say, I said what I wanted, and I've moved on.

We can't change the world, but we can change our local community. I think that's one of the things that needs to happen, need to start ignoring the outside world, so to speak. Focus on your community. People need to start minding their own business and learn when to shut their mouth. Live and let live. Until someone is a direct threat to you, then you rip their effin' face off.

I have been thinking alot lately about what I'm doing with my life, what kind of person I want to be, etc...there are things I've been avoiding because I like my privacy and don't want to be in the spotlight, but I know that for things to change, people have to get out of their comfort zones, so it's probably time for me to put up or shut up.

 

Just my thought and experiences of life are that those who continually are nasty to others may have a number of disconnects. Also they are disconnected to life in general. They have lost the connection to others and often believe themselves omnipotent and need not answer to others no matter the time or subject. Part of that reason is they are insecure or have experienced some event in life that causes them to strike out at others when others do not have a clue why or how that person tripped out.

In short, as my Mom once said, They have a big chip on their shoulder so you can either knock that chip off and then pick it up and beat the whey out of them or you can walk away.

This is not the same as a strongly opined person but may seem that way at times, for the Hateful type is into nasty ways.

We have experienced the hateful type on this list, you've all seen it, the Poster that finds fault and wants to argue at the drop of question mark about what they have posted and sometimes for even lesser things.

Here, in our mostly polite society of the Monkey the Mods are here to alleviate such a problem.

OUT THERE there is no hope to even be polite to such people so you just need to take care of family and friends and blow off the scum of life.

You can't fix stupid and you can't fix a fool with a chip on their shoulder.