Blade I think you are āunrealā, and I didnāt call you a liar, I just donāt believe you.
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Ah ha more semantics then. Well itās not exactly grounded in reality on a forum in the ether is it. Thank heaven 
Is it just me thinking that the World has gone madā¦ 
Iām not enjoying this dinner party one little bitā¦ 
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Unstoppable force met immovable object. 
Me neither Stella, Iām obviously sitting at the wrong end of the table. 
Weāre fortunate to have a little community that knows and trusts one another and can take contradictory, and often informative views onboard without offence. But generally the comments have substance.
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I know itās hard for some of you, but I really recommend the mute button for continuing to enjoy being on Survive France. Itās a huge relief to discover (a) I do not have to have a view on everything that is posted here (b) I do not have to read everything that is written here.
Over the years I have learnt to mute (coolly, calmly with no fuss) whole threads - mainly political - and certain individuals. For me it works.
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Seconded. Iāve also taken to waiting a few minutes before responding to inflammatory posts. Quite often the trash can gets clicked on rather than reply.
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I mute topics which simply do not interest meā¦ seems reasonableā¦
and it makes it easier to keep track of those threads which I can enjoyā¦ those I can perhaps learn from and/or offer my own experiencesā¦
And, I do wonder about folkā¦ when there seems to be a barny going-onā¦
Perhaps I should mute them, but I suppose itās my inner-self longing to see things turn out alrightā¦ that keeps me peeping from behind the sofaā¦
Iāve always longed/hoped for the āhappy endingā 
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Obviously there are occasions when someone is going through a tough time or one can see that their mood changes as the evening wears on (when I lived in Brazil I discovered I got fighting mad after a rum and coke - shame, I liked it). But also Iām learning I donāt have that many days/hours left in my life so Iād rather use them wisely and quite frankly watching a rather bad soap opera with a badly written script is not my idea of using my life wisely.
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In my teens, I discovered that gin makes me weepyā¦ so I gave it up.
Thankfully, sloe-gin (which I discovered much later in life) is delicious and doesnāt have the same effectā¦ 
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I havenāt forgotten someone being extremely rude to another SF member, and when questioned declared it was too early to be civil. But it was obviously ok because they have been getting away with it for years. 
Itās the nature of forums, you will always get people that like to stir, provoke confrontation and be obtuse, I have run a few big forums in my time, mostly car related and when you finally get to meet the ones that went out of their way to be a royal pain in the bum, they usually were the quietest, most shy mousey person at the back of the room, keyboard warriors exist on most forums and that is what the mute button is excellent for.
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There are those in life who are not able to understand the difference between argument of an issue and plain argument.
However, there is really no excuse for rudeness or name calling.
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Is this a 5 minute argument or the full half hour?
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in your teensā¦ gin, Stella?
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My first alcohol drink was during my last year at school. Rum & Coke. Threw up through my nose and never touched either beverage again.
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Oh yesā¦ I was drinking before the legal age to do soā¦ but not in the town where I was living with my parents, as all the landlords knew (and respected) my Dad and wouldnāt have dared serve meā¦
I do have firsthand experience of some of the follies of youthā¦ but came through remarkably unscathedā¦ (thank heavens)