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Old 07-09-2022, 01:30 PM   #953
Solecismic
Solecismic Software
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Canton, OH
For a while, I was in a Meetup group that had various social events in our area. I ended up helping to run it for a time, mostly organizing a bar trivia team (the core of that team outlasted the group itself, and we even ended up winning a good amount of money in trivia tournaments).

But they attract some characters. There were a couple of women like that who would show up at certain types of events. No graceful way to handle it - they don't understand "no" unless you're borderline rude. But it made me more appreciative of what women sometimes have to deal with, because they have the additional fear that the man who won't leave them alone unless they're borderline rude as well could be violent about it.

We had a rule in our Meetup (I think most of the ones that last more than a few outings have this kind of rule) that you can't make someone else feel uncomfortable. So there was discussion about removing these women. But since they never caused a scene or, as far as any of us knew, had any success in their pursuits, we just felt bad about what it must be like to have that kind of disability and not have a parent or a caretaker or group to help navigate the world.

We've come a long way since the days of asylums and forced confinement, but now we have the opposite problem of more and more mentally disabled people having almost no connection to anything.

As for the "Trumpian" man and his dog... I don't know. This is a new thing, this balkanization of social interaction over political views. My guess is that he recognizes that his attempts to poke the group to find like minds are not working and he'll stop. If he keeps poking and that makes anyone uncomfortable enough to stop going to events, that's certainly reason to remove him from the group.

As for the dog issue, I can't imagine confronting someone and implying he can't care for his pet. He's out walking his dog, which seems better than quite a large percentage of pet owners who think dogs are just fine out on their own in a yard, tied up and bored. Dogs are very social and walking them regularly is a sign that you care a lot about them. Every animal needs water, of course, but it seems odd that a group of people would talk about this guy behind his back like that. That doesn't seem fair, unless the dog is actually in distress (excessive panting, seeming reluctance to keep walking).

Of course, his message to you is probably the sign of some mental illness. Ted and Georgette could be some sort of reference to The Mary Tyler Moore Show (Ted was likely the inspiration for Ron Burgundy and Georgette was his ever-optimistic wife who saw him for what he was and loved him anyway).
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