The art of turning a discussion into a word war

As children, many of us are taught a simple golden rule - If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all.

Many seem to have thrown that golden rule out of the window, backed up and ran over it.

Constructive discussion and feedback are healthy in our society.

However, name calling, personal attacks and intentional hateful comments are becoming more and more acceptable, especially on social media.

Most of us have seen a post or comment that has turned into an all out word war.

People reading a word war, even if they don’t have a strong opinion one way or another, usually have an over all negative feeling afterward.

No one is perfect, and sometimes, we all need to just rant and complain. However, doing so by insulting others and making others feel bad about themselves, is just not cool. Usually, this kind of behavior reflects on the attacker and ultimately draws attention to their own insecurities.

Go ahead, have strong opinions, voice them, even get into discussions about them. Just try to stop short of the personal attacks. Once typed, or said, those hateful words can’t be taken back.

Negative words and feelings lead to a negative life. Even if others are being negative, keep a little positivity in your step and you will come out the other side as a better person.

We don’t have to agree on everything, or anything. That is one of the greatest things about freedom.

We may not be able to control the words people say to us, but we can choose how we let them influence us.

It is still okay to just have nothing to say.