meadowlark | @hafid.alghul

What you're describing is gentrification.
What I'm describing is going in and taking out the elements that make that neighborhood unsafe. Not the small-time crooks trying to make bank.
But the rapists, the murderers, the drug dealers targeting children.
Unless you're going to argue that they're vital parts of the community too?

yes, damian, obviously.

do you have a plan for how you're going to differentiate carlos the guy pushing crack because that's the only way he can afford life-saving medication for his grandma from don the douchebag who's loan sharking the kids who need money to survive because their parents got snatched up by the una for breathing the wrong way on social media? both of those exist here, by the way.

nobody's "trying to make bank" when they're broke. they're trying to survive. you can argue all you want that you're trying to make neighborhoods safer, but the drug pushers don't get peddlers to walk their stuff if the peddlers can afford rent and groceries and keep the heat on. things get better when people have help.

you're not the only former vigilante walking the block here. your way or the highway won't cut it for most of us.

Investigation, obviously.

Do you sincerely think that unrepentant, incorrigible criminals give a single damn about sick grandmas? Do you think that their motivation excuses them from all of the harm they cause? That they shouldn't be stopped and allowed to do whatever they want because they have some sad, sympathetic backstory that exonerates them?

yeah, actually, i do think that even the shittiest people have someone they care about. serial murderers still love their family. the wild card who can't form attachments is the exception, not the rule.

what kind of sheltered life did you lead that you don't already know that?

Should we start with the psychotic clown that murdered eleven million people, and his little girlfriend that went along for the ride because she loved him so much? Or how about the psychopath that hunted women for sport? The drug kingpin that got off on torturing the families of his rivals?

What kind of sheltered life did you live where you think everyone capable of atrocities thinks the same way you do?

the whomst, exactly? those aren't real people in my universe or this one.

[ thank god. ]

this is why no one wants to follow you, damian. you don't want to listen to anyone who won't just yes man you to death. you really should have just texted your clique and gone on with your day.

I haven't done a god damn thing, Johnson!

I asked a question.

You immediately jumped down my throat with assumptions and insinuations about my motivation and how I'm going to handle things. Nothing is formed. There is nothing to compromise on. You don't know what I do or don't listen to.

If you want to discuss something then discuss it, but don't expect me to just take it.

you asked a super vague question that ensured people either beg you for clarification or give their instinctual answers up for your judgment. you notice that the only people going along with your shit are your buddies? i'm not the only person who has. you can blow everyone off, but it's no less true just because you don't like the way it sounds.

if YOU want to have a discussion, actually put your thoughts to the table. there's a huge range between "one sentence non-specific question with no follow-up" and "here's my thesis statement, no discussion or argument allowed". maybe practice finding it.

That isn't what I DID.

"perception is 9/10 of the truth"

maybe you need a pr manager.

Maybe.
But this has been absolutely enlightening. I'm glad to know what you really think of me.

oh, please. don't be so melodramatic.
i think you're being a shit on the network. i never said you were a bad person, damian, don't get your latex in a twist.

this is why no one wants to follow you, damian. you don't want to listen to anyone who won't just yes man you to death. you really should have just texted your clique and gone on with your day.

okay, but am i wrong? this is how you're behaving. anyone who comes at you with anything other than "i agree 100%" is getting this kind of attitude.

you're alienating people who not only want to help the world as much as you do, but people who care about you in the process. you want sycophants and loyalists? keep going the way you're going. you want people who will call you out when you're going about things with good intentions but bad approaches? then knock it off.

you're not going to say "my way or the highway" and get people who want to work with you. despite the fact that it seemed to work in whatever hell universe you came from, it doesn't work for most people, and it certainly doesn't work here. you're smart enough to know that.

I don't want sycophants and loyalists. I want dissent and discussion because that is what drives improvement and holds people accountable.

If people want to discuss this with me in good faith and not read into motivation that isn't there, I'll hear them out. As I have been here. As I did before.

I have tried, time and time again, to do this, and have apparently failed every time.

then maybe it's time you let someone else handle the pr side of things, damian. because this isn't it.

Whatever.
I'm done trying.

[ those feelings he Definitely Doesn't Have are all kinds of hurt. ]

that's a great way to show you're open to feedback.

Okay, what the Hell do you want from me Johnson? You just told me to have someone else do it.
I have done my damnedest to take in every piece of feedback from every catastrophic discussion.
I have tried to ask people for context and to elaborate on how they feel, and to ask questions to be certain I understand, and this is what happens.
I cannot win. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Are you happy? I don't get what I'm doing that other people aren't.

for one, i'd like to be spoken to like we're friends, not like i'm your misbehaving employee. i've told you that.

second, if you want to have a discussion, actually open up the table for it. it's not that difficult to start a conversation with something beyond a vague generality. "i'm interested in forming some kind of vigilante squad to deal with the problems that the uapd/una aren't addressing. what do other people think?" is not a difficult pair of sentences to write.

when people ask you for clarification, don't blow them off. "it's obvious." no, it fucking isn't. if it was obvious, i wouldn't have asked you a question.

this might be the most important point: don't take it so goddamn personally when people disagree with you. "i'm glad to know what you really think of me" as if anyone here is insulting you personally. if i really didn't give a shit about you, damian, i would have opened this post, closed it, and gone on with my day. i would never have bothered to even have this conversation.

i do care. about you, about this goddamn city, about the displaced. i care a lot, because i'm not leaving. but i don't think forming the revengers hit squad is the way to do it.

You insulted me personally. Your digs were personal. You want to be pissed about how I talk to you, how about you take a look at how you were talking to me? Disagreeing wasn't the problem. What you said was. I am CONSTANTLY being shit on for how I speak, and believe it or not I am doing my best here. Shocking, I know, admitting that it falls short of whatever expectations are held for me.

Impersonal and formal gets called defensive, normal gets called aggressive, I can't WIN.

And where did I say it was going to be a hit squad?

you can't win, no. you're not winning. you are the equivalent of the kid throwing a temper tantrum on the football field because your team lost the big game right now.

take a futuristic xanax, take a breath, and try a different approach next time.

that's it.

Someone else will handle it.

[ he's throwing in the towel. he's pretty done. nothing else to do but go vent his frustrations in his favorite abandoned warehouse. ]

@hafid.alghul

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