The usual bag of tricks.
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 6 comments link this postI really ought to have a place on my blog which allowed readers to see the most recent comments. This is because, periodically, comments are left on old posts that most people aren't going to think to go back and read, particularly if the posts are already archived.
One thing that I've always found interesting, somewhere between mildly irked and understanding it to be human nature, is that no matter what the post is about, there are people that can't leave their pet causes out of it.
A post about my general non-like for pork might lead a reader to leave a comment about hog farms, even if the post had nothing to do with that. A real, recent example can be found in my last post about wind. (I'll pick on Gene, not because I think he needs picking on, but because he won't go off in a huff.) Gene is into plants and trees. My post was about wind. Somehow, Gene managed to leave a comment that, though perhaps true and sensible, turned the discussion into a tree-based topic (with a sub-favorite topic of "stupid things rural people in the Dakotas do that I would not do" thrown in) rather than just a comment on the wind.
It makes sense in that we all carry around a bag of "this is what I think" and unload it when it seems applicable to us. That bag carries our expertise, opinions, facts at hand, rehearsed theories, and all that we are used to talking about. The mention of pork is, of course, going to make a hog farm activist unload that entire bag, whether it's the time or place to do it or not.
How annoying is it to talk about the book Charlotte's Web only to have someone snidely throw in hog farm comments? (That actually happened to me. I'll tell you how annoying it is: very.)
Let it go. Drop that bag.
This happens more than on blogs. You very likely know people who always steer a conversation to their pet topics, their usual bag of tricks. It is nigh unto impossible to get them to talk about anything else than what they are used to talking about, putting them in the unfortunate position of not realizing how they drive people away and make people desire to avoid talking to them at all.
I have, what with my tendency towards button-pushing, teasing ways, purposefully started talking on things as far from such a person's pet topic as I could, just to see how long they could swing it back around to the usual tirade.
Hmm. From "random" to "Bush is Hitler" in 8.3 seconds. Not bad, I'd think.
The downside of this, of course, is that people who drag that bag along and are constantly dumping it out and then putting the same stuff back in never get around to putting anything new in there.
Let it go. Drop that bag.
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 5/18/2007 10:27:00 AM
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6 Comments:
You know, in Marketing, we talk about a bag of tricks a lot.
I think that many marketing tactics are manipulative.
George Bush has been manipulated.
Politics suck.
By 
Todd, at
18/5/07 11:49
Impressive, Todd.
The perfect comment.
By 
Julie, at
18/5/07 12:35
Yeah I must have went to bed thinking about the high gas prices.I had a weird dream that I invented an alternative fuel made from bat dung. (bat poop)
By , at
18/5/07 13:04
Trees and Me.
When the only thing you own is a hammer, the problem and solution to everything looks like a nail.
I guess I'm a one trick pony.
By Gene Redlin, at
18/5/07 21:23
I like ponies.
By , at
18/5/07 22:23
yes, but hogs and ponies live where there used to be PRIARIE and we should get rid of all the hogs and ponies and RESTORE prairie and then there would be more spider WEBS and we could put WIND FARMS up over the prairies and make energy that would not contribute to GLOBAL WARMING that George W Bush caused there to be more of by sending us to WAR in IRAQ but the National Guard should come back home and work on PRAIRIE RESTORATION projects and then people would have more time to go to GALLERIES IN MINERAL POINT WISCONSIN to buy realy nice hand made original art some of which is about PRAIRIES and PRAIRIE PLANTS.
By plannedscapes, at
22/5/07 22:52
