There can be a certain degree of obnoxiousness involved in expressing a strong opinion, sometimes purposely, sometimes because the person is unskilled.

I sometimes mention race on my blog (usually not consecutive posts unless my knickers are really in a wad :grr:), and it’s such an inflammatory topic that some people deem it obnoxious if EVER mentioned. The same with politics, religion or bad words.

I do get understand that feeling when sometimes you just want to get that person a martini or chocolate or something to chill ‘em out.

(Okay, I admit it, I steal smileys from people’s blogs. Is this a crime? :worried:)

*trots off to find Bekke*

and yes, I def. want a WTF smiley

It’s not the different opinions/revelations that bother me at all - I’m all for people having opinions and I’m for variety, which I think is what I’m begging for. The every day barrage of everything’s wrong in every book, in the genre, in the publishing world, in my life, is a lot to take - I don’t see the variety in that and as I said above - I can’t tell where the person’s real passion lies if it’s an everyday, everything’s wrong kind of blog.

I’m a big girl and I have my own set of opinions, so if someone really wants to get their opinion through to me - I don’t really want it/need it smashed in my face in a - if you don’t believe this, you’re stupid - kind of way.

Some of my favorite bloggers are known for the controversy they create, even when I don’t agree with what they say - but it’s spaced out…does that make sense?

I find it uncomfortable to criticize a person’s revelations or opinions that they feel strongly about, but may not affect my life. For example Barbara Striesand dares to post her opinion about politics on her site. She also puts up confrontative “truth alerts” about what she feels are lies, usually concerning herself.

I’m sure she gets a lot of flak and would please more people writing about the songs she recorded, her musical process or what she sang that day.

But should she?

Some people live vanilla lives, love thier status quo, and have few opinions. Their blogs reflect that.

But some people are different.

If people become afraid to voice their opinion for fear of offending whomever or being criticized, few opinions will be voiced and it will be a more vanilla world.

Vanilla is a nice flavor, but personally, I really like to have the variety available.

And Sasha - am LOL - you’re def. not part of the backstabbing *g* And it’s not so much the backstabbing stuff (and no - I haven’t seen a ton of it - it’s usually just a post or two that runs wild) - it’s more the constant opinionated, I’m better than you, barrage of posts, usually from an unpubbed, which always makes me scratch my head like, huh?