Sitting On the Fence - Classic or Dud

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Not taking sides. Can you dig it?

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 13 March 2003 15:47 (twenty-three years ago)

All too well, sometimes.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 March 2003 15:49 (twenty-three years ago)

I am constantly wobbling on the fence with a fencepost up my arse, it seems. It's probably dud, to be honest, but I would find it difficult to stop being diplomatic. I come from what would be melodramatically called a broken home, and my entire adolescence was built on not taking sides.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 13 March 2003 15:56 (twenty-three years ago)

What a ridiculous question. If you dug it, the fence would collapse and your sphincter would splinter.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 13 March 2003 15:57 (twenty-three years ago)

(Heh. On first glance I thought the title was "Sitting on the Face-Classic or Dud)

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 13 March 2003 16:06 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm undecided.

― Matt (Matt), Thursday, 13 March 2003 16:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Me too. Is it a nice fence?

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Thursday, 13 March 2003 16:12 (twenty-three years ago)

If I'm thinking of sitting on the fence not as a diplomacy thing but more of a 'not my problem, couldn't give a shit' thing... which I've experienced a number of times in the past from alleged 'friends'...

DUD.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Thursday, 13 March 2003 16:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Not as comfy as sitting on the dock of the bay, involving more of a balancing act. Often I'm not quite sure of the ground the fence is built on, making it difficult to decide which way to jump.

< /laboured metaphor>

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Thursday, 13 March 2003 16:38 (twenty-three years ago)

I am constantly wobbling on the fence with a fencepost up my arse, it seems.

Archel, you and your bizarre fetishes! The Famous Five, Buffy, and now this!

― caitlin (caitlin), Thursday, 13 March 2003 16:48 (twenty-three years ago)

It's okay, I mean I could take it or leave it really.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 13 March 2003 17:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Hmmm... I am really opinionated about some things and others I just don't want to bother with. I'm from a "broken" home too and got sick of arguing. My sister was always the devil's advocate. I just watched (if I had too).

― Sarah McLUsky (coco), Thursday, 13 March 2003 18:39 (twenty-three years ago)

BTW, I think sitting on the fence *is* okay in some instances. I was talking specifically about people who claim to be friends but just can't be bothered if it requires any kind of effort.

I probably have my context wrong. This belongs in the 'bitter bastard' thread, I guess.

Thinking about it, I've politically sat on the fence all my life, i.e. I've never voted. Not once. I probably *would* vote, though, if the choices weren't uniformly rank.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Thursday, 13 March 2003 18:45 (twenty-three years ago)

i have a friend we recently renamed 'swiss' cause he never takes sides. as far as he goes it seems to be a power-brokering strategy and while it's smart cause it means later down the track he can always call on both parties for favours, it's also not that great being his mate (in this regard only - otherwise he's the best type of mate one could have) cause you don't feel you can rely on him to stick up for you, which is really one of the primary tenets of a friendship. and strange for him cause he used to be utterly reliable in the stick-up-for-yr-mates stakes. i'm really uncomfortable sitting on the fence and tend to make other people uncomfortable when i jump over to one side cause i do it with such a thud.

― Clare (not entirely unhappy), Thursday, 13 March 2003 20:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Dud and I think people on fences should be shot at.

― Marika (marika), Thursday, 13 March 2003 22:42 (twenty-three years ago)

i was so close to starting the very thread oops thought this one was. i have since changed my mind. feel free to relax now

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 13 March 2003 22:44 (twenty-three years ago)

I am a middle child.

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Thursday, 13 March 2003 23:05 (twenty-three years ago)

There's nothing wrong with sitting on the fence when it comes to moral issues. People who despise those who do so more than those who take an opposing view are complete arseholes, in my experience. If you can see both sides of an argument and don't want to arbitarily come down on one side rather than the other just for the sake of 'sport', that's the responsible position to take.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 14 March 2003 00:03 (twenty-three years ago)

This is the best thread ever if you do go ahead and follow the lead given us by oops and esoj by mentally substituting the sitting on the fence metaphor with the sitting on the face metaphor.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 14 March 2003 00:10 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah, good point nick - mebbe one of the only times when it's the best option. (does that make me seem spineless?)

now i think about it i change my mind so much i might as well be sitting on the fence - i'm always jumping it and if you averaged-out my motion i'd probably hoovering right on top of it.

― Clare (not entirely unhappy), Friday, 14 March 2003 01:45 (twenty-three years ago)

"for the sake of 'sport'"

Yeah, for 'sport' taking a side is very classic. But other than that staying in the middle is classic.

― A Nairn (moretap), Friday, 14 March 2003 01:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Or what I often do (which is probably annoying to my friends) is take the opposite side just to balance it out.

― A Nairn (moretap), Friday, 14 March 2003 01:56 (twenty-three years ago)

not to be contrary? friends always like that.

― Clare (not entirely unhappy), Friday, 14 March 2003 02:07 (twenty-three years ago)

no, i mean the opposite side from the one they take.

― A Nairn (moretap), Friday, 14 March 2003 02:37 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm Canadian and it's been elevated to an art form at home, especially by our elected officials. However, I refuse to declare it either Classic or Dud until we form a parliamentary committee to debate the merits and drawbacks of both sides - or until Washington tells us what we think.

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Friday, 14 March 2003 08:51 (twenty-three years ago)

What N said. The number of times I've been called a 'fucking woolly liberal' for trying to see both sides of a story... I do it in friendships too and sometimes worry that people will see me as manipulative/two-faced like Clare's friend upthread or those few hapless Big Brother contestants who try to keep the peace...

I do vote and I do have some strong opinions, but not just for the sake of it.

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 14 March 2003 11:09 (twenty-three years ago)

There's a difference between trying to see both sides and sitting on the fence. I think that it's important to be able to understand as many sides about an issue as possible AND to actually have a sense of where you yourself stand. And you really DO have to stand somewhere at the end of the day, 'cause fence-sitters tend to lend inertia (and thus the status quo) a hand.

I am, for instance, left extraordinarily cold by folks who say "Ooh, I'd be against this war, but the anti-war people are making such lousy arguments and are such WANKERS!" The Ian MacKaye in me wants to hit these people over the head with flowers.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 14 March 2003 11:19 (twenty-three years ago)

I am against the war but the anti-war arguments make me want to fling the missiles myself.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 14 March 2003 18:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Take THAT, Perry. (Annoints yer bean w/ giant sunflower.)

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 14 March 2003 18:07 (twenty-three years ago)

MMmmm, sunflower seeds. Thanks!

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 14 March 2003 18:08 (twenty-three years ago)

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