No excuse to be rude (a dick)

What is wrong in this day of age?  We have a wonderful resource where human beings can reach out and be a part of someone else's life in an instant.  Like minded people finding each other at the speed of <insert your connection speed here> or to be more accurate <insert whoever has the slowest connection speed between yourself and your recipient>.  We can communicate whatever is on our minds and colaborate to construct a greater mound of intellectual property.  If everyone did this then the knowledge stored out on the web/net/interwebz would be astounding, but what really goes on out there?

I guess it can be compared to a few things which kind of share a common ground.  Lets try to relate to some demographics here and please forgive me if I skip anything but I'm not here to cover ground, I'm just here to state a point.  When a sport is played on the television you may have someone in your family which is known for yelling at the referee/umpire which as an act is pretty useless because he cant hear them.  They may also do this if they were at the event itself watching it live but for the sake of this we'll assume they're at home and see something which they find disagreeable.  They may stand up and yell and even say lots of harsh to-the-point statements which insult the ref/umpire.  Would they do this as quickly if the situation were one-to-one and though for a second that the ref/umpire could hurt them?  I'm not saying that they wouldn't do it one-hundred percent but I'm quite sure that the odds would be lower than if they were in the comfort of their own home or under the anonymity of a crowd.  Okay lets move this to another situation which we're all guilty of, or at least those of us who can drive a vehicle.  We sit behind our windshield and stare onto other drivers and criticize their ability to do what we are doing.  Suddenly you get cut off or someone is tailgating you or their brights are on as they pass you in the opposite direction.  What happens? well you get pissed off and yell and it happens very quickly.  Again this happens because we have this level of anonymity and we use this excuse to act out in a form of self righteous justification.  If we were face to face with whoever we are pissed at then I'm certain that the outcome would be different.

As human beings we have evolved with the form of face-to-face communication, or voice-to-voice if we use a phone.  both of these methods of communication offer more-than-words when conversing with the other party.  These non spoken words tell us how the other person feels while carrying a conversation and keeps it civilized.  Now flash forward to the end of the 20th Century, we have stripped the face-to-face and voice-to-voice from communication and now the primary form of conversing falls heavily upon the shoulders of the English language.  Now I'm not speaking for any other language other than English because this is where my experience falls, I'm sure that there is a language out there which is designed to be more explicit or sympathetic to where you can fully express yourself to another without (as-much) ambiguity.

I'm not going to talk about how ambiguous the English language is because it is not my desired focal point.  What I am trying to project is that hiding behind text on a webpage gives people the excuse to express themselves negatively in a short minded self serving release of emotion.  "Thats Shit" "You suck" or one that happened recently which I felt that I need to get involved in was

"its not the programs fault that you are too stupid to market it properly.".

I added the underline as to show the direct statement.  I saw this and was a little shocked.  This was in reply to a bad review of afiliate programs and upon reading this I felt that this comment provided no use other than to insult.  And the only reason that this made it out of the mind of this person is that he his hiding behind his screen and will never see the repercussion of this statement on a personal level.  This stuff hurts people and serves no purpose otherwise, not only that but it is a direct message without opinion.  Well I posted the reply of

"Wow what a rude statement.. I wouldn't have stated anything like that.. I would be less blunt and less rude by saying something along the lines of. "<name removed>, I think your post makes you look like an a-hole" and then offer some constructive criticism like. "to stop looking like an a-hole try alternative words from 'too stupid' to 'lacked passion at time of execution' or maybe ask some questions as to why it sucked. Compassion goes a long way and stops one from looking like a dick."

Which got a more positive response than his message.  See that is the point there.  He disagreed with one message and acted in a way which only served himself in a small attempt to spread negativity to make himself feel better than thou.  When I disagreed with his message I did not directly label him but I directed myself to his action, and then I offered a means of change for the better.  This got a far better response.  Just because you can act like a prick, does not mean you should act like a prick.

I wish that people didn't feel like they can get away with acting this way, I mean I find it pretty easy not to name-call or put down anyone for the sake of taking pleasure from someone else's misery.  Nobody responds well to insults or shouting.  I know its easier to do this and it is probably because the sudden rise of emotion will fade and you feel like you have to act upon it before you calm down.  But when you are calm is when you are the most rational.  So please, before you post anything just live the situation from the other perspective or perspectives or learn how to accurately play scenarios in your mind like a game of chess with the winning move being a resolution which benefits all parties.