Wellll...
Since the Forum is now happily ready to accept slagging off us fat, ugly, disabled folk as all in all jolly good fun, harmless and entertaining I don't see what's wrong with this thread either.
After all, it is what makes the Forum go round isn't it? For the good of the site and all that...
It's just a post, the same as all the others. Or are you hinting some people shouldn't be allowed their opinion?
Gosh, must stop. Being far too provocative. ;-)
For what it's worth, I don't know if Brucie is a troll or not (I said his name! Oh lordy, strike me down!). I just despise arrogant, opinionated rudeness and won't overlook it simply because I want to fuck that person or find them attractive physically or intimidating intellectually.
But by the same token, I see no point in making an issue of it either as it just adds credence to his more hurtful statements and gives him the attention (nay, adulation of some) that he seems to crave.
Certainly as a ploy to stir things up and get himself noticed (and a following) it has worked very well, so you can't argue with results. Most people seem quite chuffed the forum seems to be buzzing again, so who therefore gives a toss if it offended a lot of people in the process? (Well I do, but I'm in the minority)
I just don't agree with how he achieved that initially. But hey ho, each to their own. Different strokes for different folks and all that. I'll try and rebuild my shattered life and move on. I can't really take issue with it. When I joined, I made a lot of noise, but chose to try and be funny and amusing. I've no doubt that annoyed just as many people as what Brucie did, but I would hope that it didn't offend.
Incidentally, different opinions have nothing to do with it. Opinions are fine, it is how you state them. Brucie could easily have said what he wanted to positively, perhaps stating he had a preference for young attractive ladies of a certain dress size. He didn't do that because it would not have got anywhere near the response. It may have been his different opinion, different take on attractiveness, but it was stated in a deliberately inflammatory, hurtful and controversial way designed to provoke and annoy. It worked well on that score, but to justify it as being "different opinions" is a bit lame. It's like saying Stalin had a different opinion to Lenin, or Hitler to Churchill, Gandhi to the Raj, Jeremy Kyle to most sane, reasonable people...
I could say my opinion is that all thin girls are anorexic drug addicts. Or that all black men are pimps all Bisexual people are just stupid and indecisive. I'd be shot down in flames for that and rightly so. But it is the same. An opinion. Just a different view of the world that some people don't agree with, which is apparently their problem for rushing to take offence, rather than mine.
In the end though, the Forum is a happy place, Brucie saved the world, some people love him and want his babies. Others hate him. Conflict breeds posts. Job done and it seems most folk are happy with it. The majority holds sway. Life goes on.
I just feel sorry for those folk who have basically been told "Yeah, you took offence or disagreed with what was stated, but please shut up and stop biting back at him. He's gorgeous don't you know!" For them to be cast as the pantomime villains of the piece, or slated as being "a forum bore" is, in my opinion, wrong and unfair. People have a right to express their opinion, even if they are supposedly fat and ugly.
It's that general perception, far moreso than Brucie's posts, that has bothered me a little.
But that's perhaps my problem and I've dealt with it and did so without feeling the need to lash out at a person or group of people to state it. That may seem paradoxical given that I've stated this here, but I'd hope that this comes across as intended, a gentle rational explanation of my feelings on the whole topic as raised by Mrs B and how events of the last few days have unfolded, rather than an attention seeking blast aimed at one person or a cross section of the forum.