Ever read your own old threads?

[Drazzil]

I was going through my own old threads, because I'm a bit of a narcissist, and because it's fun to see what I was thinking decades ago. Wow. I was angry. I posted things in the most abrasive way. It really went a long way towards people flaming me for my ideas. If I wade through the bulls--t I find that I was remarkably on the dime for certain things.

Does anyone else read decades old stuff and take a trip down memory lane?

[Drazzil]

Wow. Re-reading stuff I had to sort through a lot of s--t to find a few bits of corn.

[Kraken]

I don't have any threads I think of as mine, or at least none with legs. But yeah, after posting here for 15 years I occasionally said things that make me facepalm now.

I did re-read the whole "economic turmoil" thread a couple of years ago, and watching myself go from nonchalant to worried to desperate and back was not a fun trip down memory lane. We damned near got demoted from the middle class. With a combination of deft management, scrounged jobs, and government benefits we got through it without even raiding our retirement accounts, but it got pretty hairy for a year.

[dbt1949]

No, but every once in a while I come across an olde thread I want to read and come across something I posted. Usually I just go "meh" to something I've post but occasionally I think, "what the hell was I thinking?!"

[Drazzil]

No, but every once in a while I come across an olde thread I want to read and come across something I posted. Usually I just go "meh" to something I've post but occasionally I think, "what the hell was I thinking?!"

Ayup.

[Blackhawk]

Now and then I'll wonder, "What was I playing a decade ago today, and what was I thinking about it?" or "What was I thinking about ten years ago?"

Then I read through them and usually wonder why I was such an idiot back then.

Then I realize that a decade from now, today's posts will look the same way to me.

[Alefroth]

I don't have any threads I think of as mine

Ditto

[Jaymann]

Exclusively. Wait, what am I doing in here?

[dbt1949]

If I look at my olde posts ten years from now it will be from hell.
I guessing that it'll be okay to visit OO when I'm in hell.

[Drazzil]

I had a good laugh about something I posted in 2003 on another forum. It was about a gaming company going under and how I was overjoyed that it would free the immense talent and IP within to pursue better opportunities elsewhere.

I posted it in such an abrasive way that I was basically flamed by the whole forum (and Da-ek Sm-rt!) because of my idea.

Seventeen years later I can say that in that instance. I was absolutely right, but I was *such* an asshole about it.

I can also say that when I go back to my threads I can sort of notice that I really only paid attention to my own threads, and when I posted in others threads, I wasen't the nicest about expressing my opinions.

I think I'm going to have to make amends to OO soon. It's kind of only on review of my entire list of threads that I can realize what an asshole I was.

[Holman]

When someone necros a long thread I'll often go back and see if I posted anything in it.

I'm frequently surprised at how pretentious I was. It's an ongoing lesson.

[YellowKing]

The only time I ever do is when I accidentally run across a post in an ancient thread and realize I had already replied to it...........10 years ago.

I particularly refuse to wade back into R&P, because my political views did a complete 180. That would be like reading the words of an angry stranger.

[Drazzil]

The only time I ever do is when I accidentally run across a post in an ancient thread and realize I had already replied to it...........10 years ago.

I particularly refuse to wade back into R&P, because my political views did a complete 180. That would be like reading the words of an angry stranger.

Without getting too deep into R&P, I am of the opinion that a lot of very conservatives had to re evaluate their beliefs not because they had some grand Saul of Tarsus moment. It's because their party lost it's f'ing mind.

I had some pretty hard line right wing views and even voted that way a few times before I realized that.

That said. I was an asshole here. Quite a few times I was to people just trying to help. It turned a lot of people off my threads, denying me good advice and council when people here write me off.

[Blackhawk]

I won't read my old stuff in R&P either. I'm politically naive and I know it. I work to change that, but any time I catch some old comment of mine, I'm embarrassed at how ignorant I was (and still am.)

[Kraken]

My politics have shifted throughout my life. One must adapt as situations change and as one experiences life. I imagine our current political milieu is affecting a lot of people that way. I hope so, anyway.

[Zarathud]

Due to Fireball's sig, I read through some threads about Obama's first primary campaign -- for Senate and then President. What missed opportunities, and it reinforced how far we've sunk. And how hopeless the Republican dogma has become.

[dbt1949]

When OO first started I didn't know what a libertarian was.
Now I think I am one.

[Kraken]

I think I used to be more moderate, or at least less obsessed with politics. Remember when you could go weeks or even months at a time without paying attention to the news out of Washington? Things followed predictable tracks, without daily drama. Seems like a long time ago.

I know I was more optimistic. Remember the seemingly endless Quinn discussions? I defended the position that civilization will muddle through, because it always stays one step ahead of disaster. Yes, individual societies and civilizations have collapsed in the past, but those were comparatively simple closed systems. We've never had a global civ before, nor one so driven by science and tech and downright ingenuity. Just as one can point to the ashes of failed empires, so can one find constant predictions of famine and disaster that didn't come to pass. The same tools that created the mess we're in now would lift us out of it (I thought)...creating new problems in the process, sure, but our descendants would deal with their crises just as we're dealing with ours.

I no longer believe that, because we aren't dealing with ours anymore. If I were to read those old arguments, I would seem naive. I couldn't foresee that our political system would actively dig society's grave rather than fight to save it. And yet, here we are -- racing headlong toward a cliff while tromping on the accelerator, surrounded by warning lights and klaxons while the kids bicker in the back seat. If it were only happening in the US, I might still hold out some hope that the rest of the world will be alright. But the rot is rising everywhere. I no longer believe that it's going to be OK.

[dbt1949]

Yes, but there's always Canada.

[Isgrimnur]

Jerry Jones is still the devil.