On the other forum I frequent, we had a massive flame war about whether lions were better than tigers... and this is a history forum!
Yeeeeah. I have a brother who's kinda like that. Plus the dismissive thing that makes it impossible to actually talk about things with him. But man, there is a point where is it worth it to really get in that much of a heated argument over something so petty as toilets, tigers, and pizza toppings? I guess to some people it is. To be fair, I know I've gotten into arguments with my family that were way more blowup than the subject really deserved, but also it felt different to me. That was an 'enforcing boundaries' thing. I am trying to avoid that online. Too much room for other people not involved to involve themselves.
The internet leads to what I call SLOPS - severe loss of proportion syndrome. It's partly because everyone is stripped of means of non verbal communication, and partly because when everyone is anonymous and there's no real consequence some people are far more likely to be aggressive or tactless than they would be in real life where it could result in firing/social awkwardness/law suit/ a smack in the teeth or whatever. That also goes to what I was saying before about dick pics - I doubt 99% of the dodgy dudes concerned would walk up to a young lady in the street and flop it out, but because it's social media and there's no gross indecency charge/kick in the nuts as consequence they feel free to be ass hats. which cycles back to the original topic - it can be a good idea to use a pen name, or at least shield the real you behind a writer profile, and be careful about sharing contact info etc because there are a minority of people out there who will behave like colossal nuggets without any encouragement or provocation on your part. The flip side is that its not wise to feel that protected by using pen name because the determined will find their way around it (vis Erika Leonard, better known as EL James)
