Quote:It has zero to do with me. I can't influence anyone on here.

I couldn’t wait to expand on this when I got back in town from the Magic game last night.

 

Trav, I don’t want you to take this personal, or as me being sarcastic, in fact im going to preface this as me not even painting you or myself in any particular light. What I am about to say is purely genuine and authentic as I can get.

 

In all the years I have participated in various forms whether its sports, news, social, etc, I have never personally witnessed a person who is a message board member with such great appeal to influence those who he come into contact with such as yourself. Again, this isn’t a jab or a slight towards you and it shouldn’t be ensuiated as such.

 

Throughout my history, there have been people whether its on here (or on other boards ive participated in) that surly stirs debate, or brings put certain emotions in others which can be good or bad. Those people will always come and go and will always be a part of the fabric of a message board culture. What I have never seen is a person who has great influential measures who can consistently point and say “Look guys, this has always been his agenda”, or “Now people have seen the light” when describing another message board member’s actions or intentions.  I say it has power because when people are able to not properly decipher agreements and disagreements in a discussion but solely focus on just the disagreements alone because of emotions (or assumptions) they have about another member caused by someone’s influence, that carries significant weight.

 

Again, as I said earlier this is not a attempt to paint you or myself in any light. I am just looking at what you have done as a amazing tactical feat. The reason why I consider it as such is because you (whether others want to publicly admit it or not) have gotten poster’s to compare me to another member TMD, who ironically from viewing his discussions on here has a trait (expressing different POV’s) that you (or someone you have convinced) have convinced other people that we share. This is by no means is an attempt to play myself as the victim, as being ostracized, or yourself as a bully which I want to clarify.

 

One of the other reasons why I wanted to acknowledge your influence is because of different stances have had regarding social issues that have been discussed on here. One thread I am going to reference in particular is the RG3 Cornball thread from a few years ago for a few reasons.

 

I posted in that thread with my beliefs on how I feel about (Rob) Parker’s comments on RG3, and how it pertains to race relations is America, you disagreed with my stance and that turned into a discussion that was appx 13 pages in length with both sides containing healthy dialog albeit disagreements. Another person who gave his stance in that thread was Dakota. I disagreed with him as well. The reason why I brought him up will come later. My point is that since the first discussion we had about race resulted in stark contrasts, this was a build up for you to convince people who I am as a poster, hence the “this is his agenda” line.

 

I stayed back and observed just theoretically coming up with questions as to what are you trying to build up, or who are you trying to convince. Even though I was a long time lurker, at that time I had only been officially registered with the board since July 2012.I didn’t know who had “issues” with who, etc. I viewed it as someone who has a stark contrast to your opinion, but somehow its turned into my agenda.

 

As time went on we had our share of agreements and disagreements. I never took any of them personal, as I stated such.  Fast forward to now and the CVS thread.

One of the things I think frustrated you (and a few others) was how I handled my own discussions. The belief was that I am not willing to reconsider my position on certain topics and I disagreed with that notion. All it took was someone being able to take that step and understand where I was coming from, even if they disagreed with the format of my argument, or my whole argument altogether, while maintaining a respectful response. In my disagreements with you, I had a hard time meeting you in the middle because when others would chime in with their disagreements, you would not respond to me with dialog, but rather influence them with “what my agenda is”.

 

When Dakota gave his response, TBH I was genuinely surprised, but more elated at the fact that someone could actually put a respectful response together, and maintain their disagreements with me.

 

I understand everyone is not like him and is different, and will have different reactions to what I post, but I have agreed with things people post on here who probably have me blocked.

Again, the point of this response is to just say I am in awe of your influence, and please don’t take it the wrong way, or assume it as me underlining you on here.

 

Quote:Yes. Is what I said not true? Because that's exactly what you're doing. 

 

You're shying away, once again.

 

That's your opinion.

 

I guess you were blinded by the fact I agree with you on the rappers being released from jail in the other thread.

 

Anymore questions?

 

Quote:Right. Ignore valid points, backed with statistics, because I didn't answer a post. I don't even know which one you're referring to; it isn't as though I've ignored your opinion.

 

I've addressed the ones I've seen, but you haven't even answered these simple questions.

Quote:You talked extensively about the low number of black head coaches. I disagreed. I said that they outnumber their percentage in the US population. 

 

James, you're better than that. I'm not a liar. I used the numbers from the US census. I had to do the math myself, but it is correct. They may be off by a fraction of a percent or something. 

 

I didnt ignore your points, I just disagreed with them and saw no value with what im discussing with regards to black head coaches and the population of black men in america.

 

Listen, JagN, I am not going to change how I feel. 

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