But I just want to so I'm going to do it anyway.
This is long so if you don't care, or just want to get back to the draft, I wouldn't bother reading it.
The danger here is that I'm going to come across as lecturing or holier-than-thou.
What I want to do is make some observations based on my own thoughts about Herd discussions over the years.
Specifically as it relates to the optimist/pessimist struggle.
Here are things that I think would help.
There are different types of posters here, but I think at least one of them is mostly fictional.
I'm talking about the "negative nellie" that never even
wants to find something positive to say. I don't think that poster exists here. I think accusing people of that is just a way of being dismissive.
Just last night I saw a poster who has been accused of that say some very positive things about one of the picks.
If the Rams would just do some winning for a while, then maybe we could actually see if we have any "negative nellies", but until they do, even unrelenting criticism has to be acknowledged as valid. I know some would disagree with that.
I think we all want the Rams to win. And we all love the Rams. And for many fans, that makes criticism irritating. It's like criticizing their kid. Or at least their dog. We identify with the Rams, and criticism of the Rams is criticism of a part of ourselves. That's all very understandable. It is. And I feel it, too.
But I think that tendency (to be irritated and dismissive) needs to be resisted. Because the critics are often giving us valuable and grounding information, even when we don't want to hear it. But yes, at the same time, critics, it is possible to beat a horse way too long after it is dead.
Related to all that: Optimists, it would help if you would just
acknowledge the history. Like it or not, the pessimists have been right for years and years and years. They've been right through multiple regimes of coaches, and GM's, and owners. Give them their due on that. Don't react to them as if none of that ever happened.
Pessimists, we need these optimists! We absolutely need them. Think how dreary this board would be if everybody just moaned all the time about the mistakes that the Rams make (and boy do they make them!) The ability to keep hoping and encouraging and believing is what lifts this board up emotionally. I never want these guys to go away or get discouraged. When the optimists give up, then we're really in trouble.
I'm going to mention one guy by name, because I've tried to take him as my example. This is a guy who somehow manages to be passionate about the Rams, sees the good and the bad (mostly the good), and yet never offends anyone, to my knowledge. That's JamesJM. How does he do it? I don't know. I wish I could be like that. Sooner or later I tick somebody off, and I know it's usually my fault. I've never seen that happen with James.
The fact is that it's just not humanly possible to care passionately about the Rams, to be a fan, and at the same time to be completely and coldly objective. For some that comes out as frustration that this organization just can't seem to get it's act together, and for others it comes out as what seems like a very irrational belief that
this time it will all be different.
Brothers, love one another.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/2017 06:21AM by Saguaro.