Both

Sometimes the mental abilities of people in Skypeland just boggle the mind. I was in a cast and someone kept picking on me because of my accent, saying I was from the US or Canada. I was asked several times where I was from. At first I said it didn't matter, but they continued. I said I was from both Canada and the US, and they continued to ask where I was from. I said it again and somehow it did not sink in. I am a dual citizen and I am from both. This is such a ridiculous minor point, and was not at all relevant to the discussion, but they persisted in badgering me. And so the discussion descended into chaos. However, in this instance I will admit to having encouraged this descent. I just get tired of pointless badgering...Who wouldn't?

In everyday life one has to put up with it, because one cannot really respond. In Skypeland, however, one is free to respond, and tell someone who is displaying a particularly astonishing lack of reason, and is a bully in addition, exactly what one thinks of them. It does create a certain ambience...

However, what is valuable is that this environment reveals some of the true underlying feelings. This milieu has a way of tapping into certain undercurrents, and exposing more honest exchanges. I have had maybe 200 or more people tell me I should be killed because I live in the US. I have heard dozens of Sunni tell me that all Shia should be killed, and a few Shia tell me the same about the Sunni. I have heard almost all Sunni and Shia tell me that all Sufis should be killed. Almost everyone in the Middle East says that Israel should be destroyed and all Jews killed. Many Muslims in Europe tell me at great length how they hate their adopted countries and want to kill all the people who gave them refuge there. People tell me they want to hunt Mexicans and Blacks in the US with guns and kill them. Some of the nastiest things about the US are said by people from the UK. I have had many Serbs tell me how evil the US is for stopping the killing, since it is their right to slaughter their neighbors in Bosnia and Croatia and Kosovo. I have had several Russians tell me that it is their right to kill people from Chechnya since they hate the Chechnyans. I have had people tell me that they are sure that they know more than anyone with an education and they hate educated people (shades of the Khymer Rouge I guess). And on and on, in an endless parade of ignorance and hate for their fellow man (and woman).

Few if any of these sentiments would be normally expressed in normal discourse. However, in Skypeland, one gets to hear them all; crude, unvarnished, angry, petulant, aggressive, arrogant and resentful. When I hear people optimistically saying that "all people want the same thing; they just want to get along and it is all the fault of the media or Jews or politicians or Bilderbergs or bankers etc." that people do not get along and hate each other or go to war with each other, I wonder. I also am optimistic that people can live together in peace, but there are deep streams of visceral hatred flowing, and they need to be addressed. To do otherwise is really naive...