Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
People just care about their own reputations too much.
Its the biggest flaw of the human race, and leads to fake people/fake personalities/fake phrases.
Its vanity.
And its a waste of life.
With all the hateful comments to be found online, now we have to critique people who offer 'thoughts and prayers'? So what if it is a slightly trite response......to me it just shows someone who commiserates with the situation and wishes a good outcome.
I'll take that over some of the horrible comments I've seen online.
Honestly, I think sometimes it is a thing people say when what they really mean is, "I feel for you, I feel helpless, I wish I could fix this."
I'm sure some people say these words as casually as they breathe, but I also know that for others, thought and/or prayer is part of the process of deciding what concrete action to take. I do not want to get into details right now, but I have been the recipient of an act of great generosity that was preceded, on the part of the giver, by a period of thought and prayer. I've been a lot less hard on these folks since then.
With all the hateful comments to be found online, now we have to critique people who offer 'thoughts and prayers'? So what if it is a slightly trite response......to me it just shows someone who commiserates with the situation and wishes a good outcome.
I'll take that over some of the horrible comments I've seen online.
I, for one, am not really critiquing---just joining in the discussion as I have often thought that "thoughts and prayers" is an overused expression, find it interesting that no one ever says "prayers and thoughts" --it's always "thoughts and prayers", and see the phrase spoken by some who do not appear to be the praying type.
Saying "I'll pray for you" or "I'll put X on my church's prayer chain" appears to me to be more thoughtful than saying "you'll be in my thoughts and prayers"--- and I think it's because I see "thoughts and prayers" as being overdone and something that people just say without thinking, just repeating what they've heard others say. That's just my feeling though. Some may find these words very comforting.
When someone asks me to pray for them, I respond by saying something along the lines of "I'll be thinking of you and hoping for the best possible outcome".
I don't criticize people who post "thoughts and prayers" (although I find it comically trite, I keep that opinion to myself). The point it, people never hesitate to criticize me for NOT posting "thoughts and prayers," but rather applying critical thought to the situation and questioning what happened, as if that's taboo. I simply wonder what thought process is behind this phenomenon.
WHO is "suffering"? I seriously doubt if those personally affected by whatever tragedy are spending their time trolling through strangers' social media comments. As for the commenters themselves, they're not personally affected. So who's being bothered by reason?
What prompts people to post this in response to (usually) a Facebook post, but also to online news articles? It seems to me if you want to "think" and "pray," you can do that without posting it for public consumption; my assumption would be that the victim of whatever tragedy is being recounted in the story isn't reading Facebook posts. Which brings me to part two: why are others attacked for asking perfectly intelligent, pertinent, and logical questions about the incident INSTEAD of just posting "thoughts and prayers" like everyone else?
To show support and offer empathy. The victim isn't reading, necessarily, but, especially in local news stories, family/loved ones sometimes are.
I've never seen anyone attacked for asking questions...unless the questions being asked are blatant trolling, in poor taste, criticizing and/or blaming victims, or personal soapbox-standing disguised as "perfectly innocent questions." That kind of thing.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
