this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
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Why are you called Green_Mouse when you’re not a green mouse?
ETA: I didn't realise what community I was in when I replied to the OP. Apologies for not being more community appropriate in my approach to OP's question.
Can I ask you something? It's been bothering me for a while, really... why did you just edit the comment instead of apologizing directly to me? I mean... I asked a historical straightforward question in a historical community, I expected a straightforward answer, but instead I got such a rude response, and even if it wasn't a historical community, it doesn't justify this attitude.
You're right, I should apologise to you. If you'd allow me a moment to explain myself?
A lot of people ask this kind of question in bad faith. I suppose they believe it to be some kind of 'gotcha', a "If social democracy is so good then how do you explain the Nazi's being socialist?" kind of thing. Not that it excuses my behaviour but the thread being mostly downvoted would indicate I wasn't the only one to make this assumption of your question.
With that being said, it was wrong of me to assume right out of the gate that you were asking in bad faith. As such I am sorry, to you personally, for my behaviour.
Just a quick edit as I realised I didn't fully answer your question: I apologised to the community first as I was still under the assumption that you were asking in bad faith and it felt more appropriate at the time to apologise for not following etiquette than apologising to someone whom I, wrongfully, assumed wasn't being honest with their intentions.
One last edit as my ADHD won't leave well enough alone: This is 100% a character flaw of mine that exists purely in an online space. In person I always give someone the benefit of the doubt but for some reason that tends not to translate to my interactions online. Perhaps I've had too many negative interactions in the past.
Your follow up question, where you tell me my first reply to you has been bothering you, would lead me to believe you are being genuine and likely always were. Therefore it's clear I was in the wrong and that the right thing for me to do is apologise and try to get back into the habit of giving people the benefit of the doubt, even online.
Thank you, I accept your apology, and I don't hold any grudges against you. I thought that maybe because of the poor wording, people misunderstood me, and it looks like it's true. I am not a very good talker and I am a rather shy person with a lack of experience when it comes to communicating with others and expressing my thoughts.
I appreciate you being vulnerable and sincere with me. I regret that I stole the opportunity for us to start out like this, this has been a humbling interaction, truthfully.
If I could offer a small piece of advice: when approaching topics like the Nazi party or other such historical and contemporary groups, it can help to clearly signal your intent, but I’d steer away from phrases like “I’m just asking questions,” as those are often used disingenuously by people looking to provoke. While I don’t think there’s a need to be overly verbose, I do often find it helpful to over-explain my position so there’s less room for misunderstanding. You may have already noticed that about me, haha.
I know that in a community like AskHistorians it’s completely reasonable to expect straightforward historical responses, but unfortunately, the current political climate doesn’t leave much room for open and good-faith discussion on certain topics without people immediately being on guard.