Behaving Badly

There are moments when we all behave badly. Sometimes I feel like I have more than my fair share, and yet I’ve more than once seen others with much more frequent occurrences, so I have to presume I’m somewhere in the “normal” range. One thing about my bouts of anger – they flare hot, they cool slowly, and then usually they’re gone, sometimes leaving a bad taste in my mouth. It usually takes rather a lot of instances of someone working to piss me off for me to put them on the “does not exist” list – the thing that some people consider to be my ability to hold a grudge longer than most anyone.

Take, for example, someone we shall refer to as “Rob” – because that is his name. Rob has spent an awful lot of his online time deliberately snarking at me and trying to find ways to piss me off – trolling, as it were. Rob also publicly “apologizes” for these actions, only to turn around a week later and do the exact same thing again. I have made it clear to everyone in the group that knows both myself and Rob that Rob has crossed the line and is a non-entity in most cases to me.

The only time I’ve come out of the “he’s a non-entity” phase was when I heard he was getting a divorce and just *had* to let him know that it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving fellow. Yes, I can be mean like that. I can also spew some rather nasty vitriolic verbiage when attacked without due cause. Oh, I can take whatever is dished at me, and dish 10 times worse in return, no problem. But when it is someone who really probably doesn’t know any better, well… maybe upon further review I should cut him or her some slack.

The other day someone made some unbelievably rude comments to me – suggesting brainlessness for openers – simply because I made a suggestion to them that might have made their writing become more coherent and readable. Needless to say, I retaliated, somewhat repeatedly, and became (as could be expected) progressively more nasty as the attacks continued.

It is upon further review that I consider the source. This individual was from another country, and has some rather warped ideas of what constitutes acceptable behavior toward others here. He or she also began the post with what appeared to be a direct attack on someone whom I consider a friend. That action is a big no-no to me, as I am rather viciously protective of my friends (mama bear mode.) Not that this particular friend needs protection, mind you. I’m sure he can fight for himself.

Yeah, I could just blow this all off and say “Oh, it was PMS” (although at my age that becomes less believable), or try to ignore it, but the more I’ve thought about it, the more I realize that I did, in fact, behave badly. Mona, I’m sorry. I over-reacted to your initial nastiness and didn’t take into consideration what are possibly cultural and informational differences.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled BS from the little blue mouse with big honking yellow ears.