I really should just shut up

And once again I get to see just how long it takes me to piss off and alienate people, just by being myself and attempting to interact with others like something approaching what normal people do.

Not very long at all, apparently.

I need to stop pretending I'm actually capable of being social, even online; because I will invariable screw it up, usually in the worst possible way. And hurt someone else in the process.

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[Bad Horse]

This is an especially difficult time, and fimfiction is an especially flammable venue. Pony has brought together people of different political views, who don't normally associate anywhere else on the Internet that I know of.

I'm terrible at not offending people. I've found the only way to act sane is to write out my entire reply to someone, then not post it, but save it, and then go back to it the next day, when I've calmed down enough to recognize how offensive what I've written is.

Of course, I rarely do that; it takes too much time.

I think I'm getting better. At a high price; I learn only from disasters. And I seem to be much more stupid about this issue than I think of myself as being, as I make the same mistake over and over.

I've decided that my goal isn't to avoid making enemies. It's to make friends faster than I lose them. Keep the new-friend pipeline full, to replace the people you lose along the way. And keep talking to the friends you have. Friendship requires maintenance. Another thing I'm bad at.

Really it's a lot like dating. Scary, and usually ending in rejection, but necessary to most people for life to feel worth living.