to think some people on MN would fail English comprehension?

[HollyMiamiFLA]

Because they seem unable to understand exactly what someone has said, they interpret sentences differently and they seem to say posters have said something which the poster clearly hasn't.

Q: Can I leave my 3 year old to cry for ten minutes if she's having a tantrum?

A: it depends how old the child is, how long you're leaving them for and why they're crying. Please be specific OP!

Duckworth that is brilliant. It has a name and everything. I will bookmark that and use it a lot.

Sparkling ..... Not really. I think the university only gave it to me to make me go away.

I'm not sure it's always done deliberately - but it really irritates me when people don't read the OP properly (which is often compounded by posters not bothering to read the rest of the thread).

There was a thread yesterday about a poster wanting to leave her fiancé, and asking about how to do it/when to do it. She talked about doing it after he had been to his cousin's stag do. I lost count of the number of people who flamed her because they thought she meant his own stag do.

Sometimes it's due to rambling OPs that aren't clearly written, but usually it's subsequent posters not bothering to read the OP properly.

Agree, in the most severe instances it seems to be on school related subjects, and teachers who have bullied and wilfuly misread,or maybe just mis read and not comprehended

There would be no study of literature if people didn't read different things than the author meant into the written word!

I wouldn't fail. I'm about to fail doing a degree in it.

MNer11: oh look all the bullies on what thread.yet another example of Mnet at its worst.

It's the phrases that you are supposed to have said (or thought) which people come out with as absolute truth.

You then ask them if you said that.

And they don't reply. Or say sorry.

ROAR at SayCool, perfect precis, har de har

MNer1: You hate Christians.

OP: I never said that.

MNer1: Sorry, you're right. You never said that. I apologise for misreading.

Because that happens

Agreed, I'm often afraid to post on threads because I have seen people twist a quite innocuous comment

And I often write a huge post and then delete it!!! Very cathartic

(I paraphrase slightly a previous thread.)

Poster: The majority of DD's school intake will speak no English on arrival at school, won't this impair education?

Mumsnet: You are racist.

Poster: The issue is language...

Mumsnet: You are racist.

I once saw a comment that paedophiles serve a useful social function, in that they are a group even the society's lowliest can look down on/hate.

I think hunting racism on Mumsnet serves a similar purpose, it's a particular form of a wider phenomenon where some inadequate people generate self-esteem by espousing virtuous views. (I don't necessarily object to the views, it's the need to think you're better than others that's the problem.)

Fraidycat - so you're endorsing paedophiles now?

Won't somebody THINK OF THE CHILDREN??!!

Often I think there is a failure to precisely delineate the premise of the argument.

this means that before long people are arguing at cross purposes.

Also subplots and side issues develop.

Overwhelmingly I think the problem is that posts consist of rhetoric rather than rational debate.

I think this mostly happens on AIBU where people generally seem to come to have a go at someone. The rest of mumsnet seems ok more or less.

YANBU..... Was astounded yesterday whilst chatting on a "parking thread" to be abused and referred to as a b*h when I challenged.
Completely missed my point and regurgitated it wrongly in order she could get on her soapbox..... Don't know what happened to me last night but was so incensed with the posters references towards me being so irrelevant to the thread and so offensively wrong I just thought -ok let's play ball. Oh it was woeful .......

By the end of it she then whined about nobody else backing her up and being "disappointed to be considered my equal". Then peppered her following posts with lots of "Wtf?" , as if somebody disagreeing with her within a discussion thread was an affront to her personally. So tedious.

Quite simple posts often seem to get misread- why would you bother commenting if you hadn't read the thread?

Think some people do just fish for arguments too... Was a shame last night though as the thread got totally derailed and had previously been positive.

Fraidycat great post!

Rational thought takes mental effort, lots of us are lazy, many of us lack the intellectual horsepower to do the thinking in the first place

I think sometimes people have decided tht they are going to lay into the op before they read it. They just scan it for an excuse then let rip.

Exactly Pagwatch. It's really sad.

I get more frustrated by people who don't read the thread, and then miss something that would actually make a difference to what they are posting.

Not necessarily the OP, but someone else who has come along and said something relevant, that is then missed and everyone continues to erroneously post as if that was never said.