Forum:Coping with Irrationality

After stumbling upon this site for the first time a few days ago (subsequently enabling the addictive traits of my personality), I must ask: how do fellow readers, and those who graciously spend hours meticulously contributing, cope with the themes presented? My gay atheist qualities, coupled with growing up in a remote, far-right countryside locale with wildly conservative parents who daily read the Daily Mail, has rendered me unable to read such controversy without being left angry, depressed and almost hopeless.

What techniques do you use, if any, to tolerate such "bullshit"? 17:13, 23 June 2014 (UTC)


 * At a trying time in my life, I saw a piece of framed embroidery on someone's wall. It said, "Living well is the best revenge." Cliché, perhaps, and not very specific, but still... as an overarching principle, it works for me. At about the same time, I started sitting with a nearby meditation group. That didn't hurt, except for the sore knees from folding up into half of a lotus... kind of like sore fingertips the next day reminding me that I've practised the mandolin. These sorts of things come and go.


 * If you can, finding like-minded companionship helps.


 * About once a week I visit an elderly fellow for music-making and conversation. Neither one of us is a great musician, but we have fun with it. Many's the time I've heard him parroting a talking point he got from the right-wing US media. (The sun's cyclic activity is causing the earth to warm up, taxation funds charities he never chose, that kind of thing.) I smile and don't push back very hard. He may be gullible enough to believe that kind of stuff, but he's not dull-witted&mdash; I've changed the subject often enough that he no longer goes there so much. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 17:38, 23 June 2014 (UTC)