#oneaday Day 392: Drama Llama

I honestly have to wonder if human beings have some sort of inexplicable, natural tendency to gravitate towards drama. Particularly online. Because I'm struggling to think of the last community I've been a member of that wasn't, at one form or another, rocked by utterly pointless drama that served no purpose whatsoever.

I say this as a Discord server that I'm a member of — not the rather quiet and peaceful MoeGamer one, I might add — has erupted into a couple of people yelling at one another for frankly rather unclear reasons, leaving everyone else not really feeling like they want to talk "normally" lest the nonsense spill out and derail further discussions.

I have no idea what caused this because everyone only talks about it in vague terms. At least one of the people involved has the unfortunate complication of self-pitying victim complex and the tendency to fly off into a rage whenever anyone points out that he might have contributed to the situation with his attitude. It makes it difficult to resolve and move past.

It's a colossal waste of time for everyone involved, and said people involved tend not to think about the broader consequences, which is that other people might no longer feel comfortable in what had, up until that point, been a place they enjoyed hanging out.

This is by no means exclusive to the online sphere, sadly. I'm sure at one point or another most of you reading this have probably had the misfortune of coming into contact with "office politics" — it's exactly the same sort of thing there. I've lost more than one job by being caught in the crossfire from this bullshit, where people just inexplicably decided to start treating their peers like absolute crap, making the environment unpleasant for everyone in the vicinity, not just those directly involved with the drama in question.

Perhaps you grew up in a small town or village, like I did. It happens in small local communities like that, too; I remember hearing all sorts of "he said, she said" stories from my parents when I was a young 'un — though in most cases there, everyone involved was generally old enough to know better than to linger on pointless nonsense. I recall the Village Pantomime often having a bunch of people all complaining about one another, though.

I do my best to not get involved with stuff like this, but it's a big ol' bummer when it involves communities or spaces that I've previously considered to be pleasant or "safe" places to hang out. I hope this latest episode in particular peters out soon, otherwise I think I'll be finding other places to chat with friends during quiet moments!