Reply #5: seemed like a well worn flame war to me [View All]

smokers vs. non smokers. Standard arguments 1) automobile pollution is as bad or worse, 2) some smokers live a long time, 3) some non smokers get cancer or Lou Gehrig's disease, etc.

It's a very touchy subject for smokers. Some people, and perhaps their friends, took umbrage at your joke last night. Apparently you needed the :sarcasm: smiley although it was quite obviously a joke to me. Perhaps there is another underlying dynamic going on with the fact that your return was celebrated and the ruling silverbacks felt threatened.

Once it became personal, and I am not sure who drew first blood there, but you fanned the flames as well. Counter attacks like "get over yourselves" are never going to be appreciated. Another example would be here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=5919881&mesg_id=5920312

haruka's comment to you was not nasty, but your reply was.

But I have to stop because I clearly have little knowledge about how to make friends as my "end road work" thread showed with it's two whopping replies, but one way to avoid a track is to let your detractors have the last word. Some of it is the perception thing. Once people have decided that they do not like you, they will find something to not like in anything you say. "If you like somebody, they can dump a plate of spaghetti in your lap and you will laugh. If you don't like somebody, the way they hold their fork infuriates you."