Maybe this explains what makes those folks in GD tick?

[SidneyCarton]

Courtesy of Cracked.com

"...When we're living in Text World, all that is stripped away. There's a weird side effect to it, too: absent a sense of the other person's mood, every line we read gets filtered through our own mood instead. The reason I read my friend's chili message as sarcastic was because I was in an irritable mood. In that state of mind, I was eager to be offended.
And worse, if I do enough of my communicating this way, my mood never changes. After all, people keep saying nasty things to me! Of course I'm depressed! It's me against the world!"

"That's over. There effectively is no "mass media" any more so, where before we disagreed because we saw the same news and interpreted it differently, now we disagree because we're seeing completely different freaking news. When we can't even agree on the basic facts, the differences become irreconcilable. That constant feeling of being at bitter odds with the rest of the world brings with it a tension that just builds and builds."

Read the whole article here:
http://www.cracked.com/article_15231_7-reasons-21st-century-making-you-miserable.html

[surrealAmerican]

1. That pretty much says it.

It's easy to forget just how much tone of voice and facial expression guide the meaning of what is said. Most people don't write well enough to be able to do without them.

[SidneyCarton]

2. I sure as heck don't.

And he's right, if I walk into GD pissed, then anything is fair game to take offense at. How we respond to posts says as much about us as it does about the poster we're responding to.

[PVnRT]

3. I think "fuckcamel" and "wangbasket" are my two new favorite words

I think point #6 is what drives much of GD.

[SidneyCarton]

4. prisoners of the outrage machine?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. We're all pissed, but we don't even know why anymore.

As to the insults, I had to look twice at some of them, I'm not sure they're anatomically possible, much less correct.

[PVnRT]

5. Anatomical correctness is really not the issue, though

They make me smile, so I like them.