Tyler+G’s+OpEd+Article

====I hate elitists almost as much as I hate catching myself acting like one. I really like the fact that the world is such an opinionated place, I love hearing people's opinions on topics and contrasting them to my own. I enjoy debating people because I like to be able to fully understand the thought process of somebody who's beliefs are opposite of mine, not because I like to put them down and bask in the glory of extreme narcissism (which is sort of what I am doing in this OpEd piece, there I go being a hypocrite again although I find it a little bit necessary in this instance). However, it has come to my attention that more and more of those around me find the latter description more appealing, especially when behind the shield of the internet.====

====It saddens me that I spend more time cringing than marveling at the wonderful diversity of AmEx when I am reading through the blogs as of recently, so I now generally avoid reading posts from others users. I feel as though the whole original intention of the blog has devolved into a huge competition of who can shout "I'M RIGHT AND YOU'RE WRONG **[INSERT DEROGATORY WORD HERE]**, I WONT EXPLAIN WHY, BUT I WILL TRY MY HARDEST TO MAKE YOU FEEL BAD AND/OR STUPID!" the loudest, all the while patting themselves on the back with one hand and rigorously flipping through a thesaurus with the other. I'm equally susceptible to these urges to let your frustrations take over (with the preceding sentence as evidence) but the line between ranting and blatant bullying is a surprisingly fine one. This is both good and bad, on one hand it is far too easy for posters to lose control and escalate their opinion to the point of seemingly malicious intent, but if we all collectively can acknowledge this line and how important it is for us to respect its boundaries we can hopefully not only avoid public embarrassment (i.e. blogs being pulled) but also I hope that the AmEx environment can once again become one of learning as opposed to hostility, both inside and out of the classroom.====