very good point, Bobby
The tendency to pile on and really attack people is very much an aspect of life in all forums, tho' it is less so around here than in many, thanks to Robert.
Much of it has to do with the two-dimensional, cut and paste aspect of our online lives.
A lot of it has to do with the fact that in our extremely polarized 'reality-based' world of today, many of us simply would never, ever have any social contact with people who don't fit into our very highly defined contexts of who's acceptable and who's not.
This is threatening to all groups. Every study over the last decades shows that Americans are living in ever more homogeneously stratified areas - the Internet and those family gatherings! are, for many of us, literally the only place we encounter someone who doesn't share our deeply held views on core issues.
Every single person posting here who met Chad has said he was a real person. Fighting some inner demons, I believe one person who hasn't posted said, but warm. I'm not arguing against Robert's position here.
I support Robert 100% in his decisions on this matter.
Chad unfortunately managed to upset a dear friend of mine here deeply. I don't see him piling on, and if anybody was hurt by this, it was he. I don't see Robert piling on, and he surely was hurt the worst of all.
We will continue to have our cliques, the splits left by the Austin incident will never completely heal-over. Hard as it is tho' (well, not for me, we all know I hold no strong opinions) this is also a chance to spend time with people we would otherwise never interact with. That's a good thing.
A great gift from Robert.
