Golden, you can't scream about civility and then be rude to the regular
posters here. Why don't you start cutting out your own insults and
setting an example?
Don is quite insulting in a different way. He couches his insults in
objective-sounding language, but you're right, he doesn't directly call
people cursewords. He does make belittling statements, continually
questions the competency of those who disagree with him, and makes
outrageous statements like users who care about the quality of their
images only do X, Y, and Z, as if the rest of us who don't follow his
advice are too stupid and incompetent to determine image quality for
ourselves.
After being annoyed at him for a while, I no longer feel that way, as I
don't think Don is *able* to understand that he is being insulting, why
people react negatively to him, or how others think and feel. I think
his exasperation about other people behaving irrationally and
emotionally is a good clue that he doesn't operate the same way at all.
The same with his exasperation about people "reading into" his remarks
and finding meaning in the subtext. I think the guess above about a
neurological disorder may well be the case, and while it's impossible
to diagnose over the net, I'm thinking Asperger's. This is not meant
as an insult, but maybe to help people better accept him for the way he
is and make this forum more pleasant. "Normal" folks can have the
below traits to a lesser degree.
"Persons with AS show marked deficiencies in social skills, have
difficulties with transitions or changes and prefer sameness. They
often have obsessive routines and may be preoccupied with a particular
subject of interest. They have a great deal of difficulty reading
nonverbal cues (body language) and very often the individual with AS
has difficulty determining proper body space. Often overly sensitive to
sounds, tastes, smells, and sights, the person with AS may prefer soft
clothing, certain foods, and be bothered by sounds or lights no one
else seems to hear or see. It's important to remember that the person
with AS perceives the world very differently. Therefore, many behaviors
that seem odd or unusual are due to those neurological differences and
not the result of intentional rudeness or bad behavior, and most
certainly not the result of "improper parenting".
By definition, those with AS have a normal IQ and many individuals
(although not all), exhibit exceptional skill or talent in a specific
area. Because of their high degree of functionality and their naiveté,
those with AS are often viewed as eccentric or odd and can easily
become victims of teasing and bullying. While language development
seems, on the surface, normal, individuals with AS often have deficits
in pragmatics and prosody. Vocabularies may be extraordinarily rich and
some children sound like "little professors." However, persons with AS
can be extremely literal and have difficulty using language in a social
context."
http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/aswhatisit.html
