Happy Festivus! Airing of Grievances 2024 Edition

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

I get what you and others think is technically wrong with it. But if the intent was not to hurt anyone and no one in fact would have been defrauded no matter what the outcome, I'm not understanding the magnitude of the grievance. I mean the OP is calling it the worst thing that happened in the hobby all year and maybe you agree. Again, IMO, it's a complex problem with various interested parties and without a great solution, but applying simple moral platitudes is not necessarily the best way to look at it I don't think.

"Grinds your gears"; it might be this one even though it is nowhere near the top of the pile of things that are 'wrong'. For example, the robberies. But robberies don't 'grind my gears', because I take that as an unfortunate part of humanity that is not going to change. There will always be theft in civilization, and there will always be a small number of people operating outside of the law or decency for a quick take. It's materially worse, but it's not like I expect better from those people. A few shitbags are always going to commit theft, utopia doesn't exist.


The ML incident was so frustrating/funny because of how people who knew perfectly well exactly how and why it was wrong for others to do (again - you all, 100%, know exactly why and how it is wrong for me to do - and thus you know perfectly well why it is wrong for someone else as well), rushed to carry water for Memory Lane with blatantly and openly double standard opinions. Usually when an auction house does something wrong, somebody goes 'my bad', and it ends with a mixed 'well they shouldn't have done it, but we mostly recognize that' to end it, usually with great reluctance to criticize very much, but not endorsing the act. This one was just so transparent an example of the broad hobby impulse to justify anything corporations or 'authorities' in the hobby do, even if it required blatant inconsistency and absolute bullshit (like the obviously fictional insurance policy that could have forced them to run a fraudulent auction so many in that thread clung too - no such policy has ever existed anywhere in human history). That's the gear grinding element - the transparency of the wagon circling of utter bullshit by the vast majority of this board and the double standards while pretending they couldn't figure out why anyone would even object. The act itself doesn't get anywhere near the list, but the response was pretty bad. This response would have been entirely different if it wasn't an organization that it was desirable to defend. If some person or group undesirable did it, it would have been unanimous or near-unanimous against, and it wouldn't even be mentioned in this thread, much less immediately become the central focus. To this day you all are still pretending it's perfectly acceptable and fine - but only for the right people, of course. That will always grind gears, and always has. It's not the original thing that was done, but the circle of bullshit trying to justify what was obviously and transparently wrong.


We even had blatant screeching and religious discrimination (seriously!) and shitting on the doors (or I guess anyone poorer than the poster) in an obvious effort to get it locked to shut down conversation (credit to the board for not censoring it) from corporate suck-ups. I received more angry emails for being against this farce, for the blatantly obvious reason that it is dishonest and a lie, than for the covid thread, the thread where I advocated reading bills and read the Florida bill, and any other time I've had an unpopular opinion. Still amazes me that that was the one that made the most people endorse deception, fraud and lies - even as 100% of them know exactly why it was wrong. That's the gear grinding - the transparency of the extreme dishonesty from people who did not need to be dishonest or endorse this cynical display of dishonesty.