Gossiping about people you don't even know.

Akrasia

I've just heard this conversation between two people of the fairer sex

Gossiper: 'Do you know that girl with the blonde hair who sits over there, I don't know her name?


Gossipee: 'No, which girl?'


Gossiper: 'She's tall, I think she's Polish or Ukrainian or something'

Gossipee: 'Eh, I think so, eh, yeah, I know who you're talking about'


Gossiper: 'I think she's just gotten engaged'

Gossipee: 'Oh really, wow! I can't believe it!'



......


I don't get it.

Akrasia

And before anyone points it out

Technically, I was just gossiping about two people I don't know because they were gossiping about someone they don't know....

20Cent

what's he like?
Did he get down on one knee?
Did he ask her father?

Need to know!!!!

conorhal

A) Women


If women stopped gossiping about people they don't know or never met half the magazines in the market aimed at them would go out of business in the morning.

stoneill

Was it you they were gossiping about?

Akrasia

20Cent wrote: »

what's he like?
Did he get down on one knee?
Did he ask her father?

Need to know!!!!

Don't know any of that, but I think he used to go out with Claire from Accounts!

smash

That's all well and good, but I heard that Akrasia is a compulsive liar!

Sam Kade

Does anyone know the op? Must be an awfull eejit starting silly threads on a Monday morning

Akrasia

Sam Kade wrote: »

Does anyone know the op? Must be an awfull eejit starting silly threads on a Monday morning

I just want the weekend to never end

Akrasia

smash wrote: »

That's all well and good, but I heard that Akrasia is a compulsive liar!

So you mean his penis isn't 9 inches long?

MilesMorales1

I despise gossiping of all kinds. Completely mean spirited, and pointless, and the people that engage with it need to find something better to be doing with themselves if they're so uninteresting they need to crawl through the underbelly of someone else's life.

Kev W

Wouldn't the "gossipee" be the person being gossiped about?

Graces7

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

I despise gossiping of all kinds. Completely mean spirited, and pointless, and the people that engage with it need to find something better to be doing with themselves if they're so uninteresting they need to crawl through the underbelly of someone else's life.

Always reminds me of the wartime slogan, " Careless talk costs lives." I lived many years on a small island where lives including mine were wrecked by gossip; ie lies disguised as truth... I never believe anything I hear now. Unless I know it as fact. Some here have spread terrible gossip about me when i was a newcomer with an unusual life style. It can have devastating effects; even led to an assault on me. Thankfully the local Gardai know truth and know that if anything happens I will call them. Small communities can be lethal and surely they seem to have nothing better to do. I feel really sorry for them . truly I do.

cowboyBuilder

Look at that guy over there with no shirt on ..... dick!!

The Backwards Man

Nothing wrong with gossip as long as it isn't malicious or intentionally untrue.

What would we have to talk about it we couldn't talk about people?

Graces7

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Nothing wrong with gossip as long as it isn't malicious or intentionally untrue.

What would we have to talk about it we couldn't talk about people?

:rolleyes:

Akrasia

Kev W wrote: »

Wouldn't the "gossipee" be the person being gossiped about?

Or the person being gossiped to, the recipient of said gossip

The addressee is the person a letter is sent to, not the person the letter is about...


Anyway, I made up the word, I can use it any way I like :P

Akrasia

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Nothing wrong with gossip as long as it isn't malicious or intentionally untrue.

What would we have to talk about it we couldn't talk about people?

Sperm whales?

Face mites

Ballooning spiders

phagocytosis...

Shrap

Graces7 wrote: »

Small communities can be lethal and surely they seem to have nothing better to do.

I think it happens in every small community in the world - human nature! Was a newcomer here over 20 years ago and there was a daft rumour floated by my (also blow-in) landlady that I was a heroin addict! She based this on the two tea-stained silver plated teaspoons that I hadn't polished before moving out. I blame my mother, as she did the last bit of washing up in that house! I confronted the old bag of a gossip on that one.

Another one that "grew arms and legs" was that I was pregnant again (I had just put on weight, is all...) and that one lasted 18 months! The last person to ask me outright got "do ya think I'm having an elephant, or what?".

You have to grow a thick skin pretty quick in a small town.

maudgonner

Akrasia wrote: »

Sperm whales?

Face mites

Ballooning spiders

phagocytosis...

I hear that new wan down the road has face mites...

There was one in work recently.

Gossip: "See him now, he's going out with that blonde girl from x department"

Others: "oh really?" (I don't know either of these people so I just shrugged).

Gossip: "Yeh, they came in this morning together and then they had breakfast together"

Another: "eh, he's engaged to the other girl from xx department".

Gossip: "Oh right".

Fcuk sake like. Spreading untrue rumours based on people sitting with each other at breakfast!

MilesMorales1

Deleted User wrote: »

There was one in work recently.

Gossip: "See him now, he's going out with that blonde girl from x department"

Others: "oh really?" (I don't know either of these people so I just shrugged).

Gossip: "Yeh, they came in this morning together and then they had breakfast together"

Another: "eh, he's engaged to the other girl from xx department".

Gossip: "Oh right".

Fcuk sake like. Spreading untrue rumours based on people sitting with each other at breakfast!

Well quite. Absolute nonsense. There's tons of things you can discuss with people that doesn't involve being mean and malicious. Tv, films, sports, weather, what you did at the weekend, what your going to do at the weekend, etc. Can't think of anything to say? Say nothing.

Graces7

When I was new here some really nasty gossip was started. It amounted to allegation of criminality and the Gardai were involved. Which I was fine about as we were able to authenticate and affirm truth at a high level. In spite if this, years later, there is still hostility and suspicion. Poison pollutes. Very recently I was chatting with a tourist at the beach and this women gets out of a car, comes over and attacks me verbally and viciously with all the old gossip. I was shattered. Should have had the wit to say, eg Oh dear; you have not taken your meds today!..... Or referred her to the Gardai who have had to sort a few folk out all because some nasty folk decided to start evil rumours years ago.. Needless to say I do not go to that village to shop and am only there once a week in summer for business purposes.. Putting a question in a separate post. but my rule is; if you cannot say what you are saying to that persons face do not say it to anyone else. There is nothing in me, in my life etc that cannot be seen and shown without shame.

ScumLord

Graces7 wrote: »

Small communities can be lethal and surely they seem to have nothing better to do. I feel really sorry for them . truly I do.

Small towns run with gossip even when they know it's blatantly untrue. Nearly every nit of small town gossip ends with "but you know yourself, it probably wasn't anywhere near as bad" It's taken for granted it's over hype.

The city folks seem to completely buy into their version of the small town gossip, newspapers. The poor city folk just have no experience with this type of news. Most newspapers are exactly the same as small town gossips, they take a bit of truth and turn it into an elaborate story that they could have only made up.

Graces7

A question for you on this! What do you do when.if someone starts talking to you about someone who is not there in less than approving terms? Are you scared to front up to them lest they start on you? Or to lose their approval? Do you just listen and say nothing? It is difficult I know. But gossip only thrives if it is listened to and spread.

Neyite

Akrasia wrote: »

I've just heard this conversation between two people of the fairer sex
Gossiper: 'Do you know that girl with the blonde hair who sits over there, I don't know her name?
Gossipee: 'No, which girl?'
Gossiper: 'She's tall, I think she's Polish or Ukrainian or something'
Gossipee: 'Eh, I think so, eh, yeah, I know who you're talking about'
Gossiper: 'I think she's just gotten engaged'
Gossipee: 'Oh really, wow! I can't believe it!'
......
I don't get it.

Isn't this just an Irish Mammy thing? Telling you a big story about nobody you ever heard of before?

Akrasia

Neyite wrote: »

Isn't this just an Irish Mammy thing? Telling you a big story about nobody you ever heard of before?

Do all Mammys do this? I thought it was just mine

In fairness to my mother though, her stories are often about people who I actually have met before but I'm so terrible with names that I have no idea who she's talking about.

Shrap

Akrasia wrote: »

Do all Mammys do this? I thought it was just mine

All do it. I'm doing it now to my kids..."Do you know yer wan, who used to be going out with that fella with the hair that you know...yeah, him....well it's her gran I'm talking about"

Akrasia

Akrasia wrote: »

Do all Mammys do this? I thought it was just mine

In fairness to my mother though, her stories are often about people who I actually have met before but I'm so terrible with names that I have no idea who she's talking about.

Ah you do know her.

Remember Pat from down the street? Well she was married to Henry, who was Pat's Brother in Law that came over from England.

Ah you do.

Ha, snap Shrap :P

Neyite

Deleted User wrote: »

Ah you do know her.

Remember Pat from down the street? Well she was married to Henry, who was Pat's Brother in Law that came over from England.

Ah you do.

"Well. She died."

Sleepy

Eleanor Roosevelt wrote:

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

Eleanor Roosevelt was obviously a smarter lady than our mammies!

Knex*

Maybe I'm a self absorbed ass hat, but I am thoroughly uninterested in the regular day activities, or social habits, of pretty much everybody that I work with.

I totally zone out when people start gossiping.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

If, as the thread title says, it's people you don't know then I either just say I don't know them or have no interest in them or that it's their own business or suchlike. If I know the person I quickly let the gossip know I know the person lest they thought I didn't. If the gossip is just news then fair enough it's only chatting. If it's rumour mongering I'm inclined to dismiss it until proof positive arrives. If I know it to be wrong, I just tell the gossip so.

Gossip or chat or news - a very thin line at times. It's a universal thing though. I heard as much gossiping in the Boston, Berne and Perth, while working there, as I do in the parish here at home now.

K-9

Us men do it for football stuff mostly, transfer gossip, today being transfer deadline day and all.

Knex*

Don't believe K-9. Apparently he wanders through the politics forum, talking to himself, and he eats Bran Flakes with no milk.

Knex.

Knex. wrote: »

Don't believe K-9. Apparently he wanders through the politics forum, talking to himself, and he eats Bran Flakes with no milk.

I heard it was weetabix.

Shrap

K-9 talks to his weetabix? Well I'm not surprised. I heard something about him getting political about milk too, so there ye go....must be true :eek:

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

New neighbours moved in beside my boyfriend's parents a bit back, young couple with a baby and another on the way. Long story short, the man seemed a bit unstable and annoyed a few people around the place, then he died in a road accident. My bf's mam was in the shop a few days after and over barrels local Cnutyface McGossipsalot asking at the top of her voice 'what was the story with them, I heard they weren't getting on, he was an alcoholic was he', until bfs mam told her to stfu. No consideration of the fact that the man's family, the partner's family or whoever could have been in earshot.

To be honest after exposure to how nasty and poisonous small town gossip is, I've nearly a soft spot for the purely boring stuff, seems so benign!