Well said, Max.
I have been called confrontational because I have a very strong impulse to speak out when I see something isn't right or injust or to try to get a point across.
One thing I am learning that helps is to try to figure out if it is my place to say something and then when I say it to try to say it objectively and leave out my personal feelings about the issue.
It's not easy, though, because most people don't like being challenged and a lot of time they are objectively being something that sounds like an insult.
I'm mostly so unconfrontational that I'm almost 2-dimensional. I'm rude, but not consciously so. I guess I'm non-aggressive but that I can come across as being very assertive at times, especially when I know what I'm talking about. A little besser-wisser I guess.
This to me is all about wether you want to speak to someone to start off with, i'm not a believer in small talk just for the sake of it.
I worry that i'm just talking rubbish or about something that people are not interested in. My conversation topics with people are quite limited as a rule.
Because the majority of the people you are speaking to there would not want to do that together as a group, thats not to say there are not people who have an interst in birds but as a group activity it's not seen or perceived as a social thing.
Perhaps you should go and just take someone with you who is interested instead of doing a group thing that might not interest you.
Natalie - I see the concern there. Could it be that people just want a break, like I have my interests but if I get chance to get away somewhere I would do. Can things not be combined even?
Natalie, I would have loved to go look for ivory-billed woodpeckers or any other kind of wildlife or rare plant or even cloud formations or geological formations but most of the people I went to uni with wanted to go on pub crawls or nightclubbing.
One woman told me when I got excited about finding a little lizard, "put that down, it's dirty". I just mumbled "whatever" and got snitty.
Some people where I work talk about the most boring things like diets, "the biggest loser", "survivor", clothes and hair. Luckily there are also some others who have some more cerebral topics to talk about.
Sounds more fun than stuff with snow. The only snow worth anything is the one that's falling. Unless you could have it in technicolor.
Pakrat! Are you into clouds?
and did just remember your photographs...
So when do you do things relating to animals and nature that these peopel are supposed to be excited in?
I don't think I set out to be confrontational, but will fight back if I think something is really unjust or if I am pushed far enough.
Natalie, then they ae a bunch of *****, sorry but it is true. And you should report them for claaiming false allegience to something.
I used to be a lot more of what could be described as 'confrontational' - but to me it was speaking the truth (or my opinion of the truth). And even when I learned to say it in a very gentle and kind way unfortunately a lot of people don't want to hear it/can't handle it without taking it personally.
So I hold back now until it's really important or asked for... which is REALLY hard when people you love are hurting and complaining about stuff going on in their lives that is a direct result of decisions they are making and things they believe that aren't true.
Ultimately, I could be confrontational, but I figure, what's the point, nobody believes anything they don't want to believe anyway... It's so hard though.
Natalie, I've heard this theory about venomous snakes interbreeding with non-venomous snakes. Last year, someone at my workplace was saying with all seriousness that brown snakes (poisonous) were interbreeding with carpet snakes to produce venomous carpet snakes. I was rather sceptical and thought it was just one of those urban legends but didn't say anything.
Chergh, if you are confrontational on the internet people will snap back at you. I don't like to start disputes but if pushed far enough, will certainly defend myself. It's strange that I can do this in writing but fall apart in person if the same kinds of things are said to me. Has anybody told you that you look a bit like Maxwell Smart: "missed it by .... that much".
Thanks, that's what I suspected and yes, it was a carpet python.