Posted: Apr 25, 2017 2:48 pm
PensivePenny wrote:
I appreciate the benefit of the doubt. But, consider that maybe I'm not projecting. Consider that on a forum, with nothing but text as a clue, no facial expressions, no hand gestures, etc, words can be misconstrued. I accept that. I also accept that maybe NO-one is getting worked up. I could very much be wrong... but the last several pages would suggest otherwise purely by the volume of posts about minutiae.
I don't need any of the clues of facial expressions or hand gestures to determine if you are projecting. If you assigning behaviours or motivations to others that are otherwise not manifest (as you have been doing), then you are projecting. It really is that simple.
For me to consider you not to be doing that, you'd have to not be doing that.
PensivePenny wrote:I started a thread in a theology forum. Naturally, any members are welcome to post where and what they like. My personal motivation to participate in this thread is for the reasons stated in the OP. The only explanation my brain could conceive as to why anyone would continually post in a thread, once it got off the rails, is that they are "worked up." That's a general term that can be used to describe a whole variety of emotions. If that's wrong, then okay. I apologize.
Yes, the key thing is that it is your brain which has come up with the explanation for other people's behaviour. You have then projected that behaviour onto other people.
I didn't say it was "wrong," I said it was unhealthy. Because projecting emotions onto other people means you're then responding to what you've projected, rather than what they've actually said.
PensivePenny wrote:But I have to ask how anyone here can be so certain that the other members AREN'T worked up? I am not certain they are, but some probably are. Seems rational to me based on what's been posted.
You don't know. So why act as if you do? Why attribute emotional states to people that they do not hold? What purpose does that serve other than to unnecessarily muddy the waters of discussion.