This is interesting to me. I do often struggle with inference based questions.
Clearly. This isn't an insult, it's just a statement of fact, but it sure does make arguing with you difficult.
I do want the statements to be read literally and I don't think you are reading them literally.
Then don't write statements that don't accurately match what you want to say.
If you were, then when I said "I did not mean that" you would take me at my word.
Imagine I say that I think that we should talk to people about topic X.
You say it won't help to just talk to them.
I tell you that I didn't mean just TALKING to them, I actually meant we should talk to them.
Again, you point out that that isn't helpful.
I tell you again that I didn't mean we should just talk to them, but that if you actually paid attention we should just talk to them.
Repeat ad nauseum. This is what this discussion has been like for the rest of us.
Instead you accuse me of having hidden meaning behind my statements or condescending attitudes etc.
Condescension:
I think it's cute that the people raging about victims of bullying are the ones using insults and name calling to try to get their point across.
If you'd stop being outraged long enough to consider what I'm saying, I think you'd see what I mean.
Condescension
and repeating that you're being misunderstood when someone takes what you say at face value:
This is exactly what I am talking about with emotional pleading. You quite obviously are not stupid and can read. So you know that is not what I am saying.
Condescension, passive-aggressive dismissal and poisoning the well:
If you want to continue pleading emotion and drama and victim speak that is pretty typical and I accept it.
Condescension and abuse:
And again, why the appeal to emotion? What anecdotes have I used to justify your self help group sympathy rant? I've shared my experiences as evidence to explain my own personal perspective. You are throwing yours down as some sort of evidence. The evidence for me is that its the same pattern over and over again.
Condescension and abuse directed at me specifically:
It's interesting. I'm not responding to the other post but it is so long. But one of the other things I'd mentioned is that some people are anti social and this can also lead to them being bullied.
So far your comments have simplfied what I have suggested to a ridiculous degree, suggested I consider myself a guru, name called and insulted and also told me to shut up and that I was stupid, evil twisted etc. Now you are using that sarcasm on someone else.
Gee I wonder why people don't like you?
Further, the absue in the above case is not only attacking my character, but implying that this character flaw you see is the reason I was bullied.
In addition to that your choice of words and the addition of the smiley you used implies absolutely that the bullying I received was valid and justifiable. I imagine that isn't what you meant, but that is how it reads.
Yet more condescension:
Obviously you are not going to see the value of this since you don't understand what I am saying.
More, with added insult and misrepresentation:
I'm sorry that you think educating the kids would be akin to watching "Revenge of the Nerds" and sending them on their way. That's really over simplifying what I am saying.
I've noticed several of you have done that on here and it's because the only way you can put down the idea is to make it into an ineffective gesture.
Condescension and an outright lie (in
bold, for evidence look at the other things I've quoted):
I have already stated this several times in the thread itself. You wrote to me in a rational way and I responded in kind. If you compare the comments in that section you will notice that I didn't have to change the way I've spoken to you as you did to me. I didn't have to do that because I've always spoken to you the same way.
No matter how many times I've state I only mean what is written you insist on interpreting it in an inferential manner and inferring things that are not there.
No, we're responding to what you write and you assume there's inferrence because you're communication is pathetically bad. If lots of people aren't understanding what you're saying, it's far more realistic to assume your communication is poor than that they are stupid, or as you seem to be implying, out to get you.
This is very interesting to me. When you go back and read what I have written you will see that I pretty much repeat the same statement over and over again
Yes you do. You later said somethign different and we understood you. Funny that.
and keep insisting I'm not saying what you THINK I'm saying. I'm only saying what is written on the page.
You have this bass ackward, as they say. The problem with our misunderstanding was that your communication was poor.
Only after you choose to believe that do you actually take my words as literal statements.
So you're accusing us of ignoring your point to intentionally misrepresent you, yes? Why the hell would we do that? It's more likely, again, that your communication skills are abysmal.
This is quite interesting to me
You keep saying that but your communication skills aren't getting any better.
since I teach test prep and we always discuss the differences between literal and inferential comprehension. Inferential comprehension requires you to look at "emotions, clues and details" to infer meaning. Literal comprehension means "what was actually said."
Oh look, more condescension!
Sorry to derail, maybe we can get a thread on this, I find this fascinating.
Also one of my best skills and what I do for a living is teach test prep for a living.
Then why is your grasp of English communication so poor? I'm not trying to be horrible or insult you here, it really is poor. Your grasp of grammar and syntax is limited and your complete inability to recognise inference and use it yourself, despite your professed grasp of the theory, is very strange.
But as a challenge, perhaps I'm mistaken, I think I've said the same thing over and over again. It is only when you took my statements literally that you got them. Is that the case?
No. You kept repeating the same thing over and over again, we all took your words literally, then you made a new post which was different to what you had been saying previously, but close enough to make it clear that this second post was what you were originally actually driving at and then we understood.
Also with regard to Chaos, obviously I did infer that he was hinting at that.
Really? Then why did you say:
Wow please stay away from high school teens if you plan to tell them that their only two options in life are to get the bully to stop or to kill themselves or move away.
That's seriously messed up.
That reads, taking it at face value, like you believe him to be serious, and you are appalled at the inference that some kids should kill themselves.
Come on, you've been awful at understanding inference in this very thread, let alone in past threads on the JREF, so why should we accept that you understood his meaning when your own response suggests that you didn't?
In fact...
But I think its a ridiculous assertion to make. You can clearly survive bullying without dying or moving away.
That wasn't what he was saying at all. He was saying that the bullies should be stopped. He wasn't discussing the victim later in life or suggesting they should absolutely move away. Again, your reading comprehension is sub standard for a native English speaker. Are you a native English speaker?
I think what is interesting about many of the people on this thread is that they have created a high drama surrounding their experiences with bullying. Yet all of you survived and got on with it.
Define "got on with it" because "severe mental and social anguish that persists to this day and impacts my day to day living on a regular basis" doesn't count and that's what I've got.
You either cannot have read the post where I discussed my experience or you did not understand it, because the only alternative is that you are lying about what I said for some reason, and I don't think you're that kind of person.
Seriously, I don't mean to sound like an ass or big myself up, but it took some serious balls to write what I did, and your glib dismissal of my deep psychological trauma as "getting on with it" is starkly offensive and, yet again, remarkably condescending.