I was responding to your last line of that post:
Jim
Where on earth are you getting this from? Have you even read the thread? It has nothing to do with MH’s conservatism or if he even is a conservative. It has to do with behavior on the part of many posters here that flies in the face of what liberalism has always professed to embrace; i.e., tolerance, pacifism, understanding, concern for the feelings of others. (I find it highly amusing that such outrage as is aimed at MH here seems to be totally absent when it comes to the criminal element, for example. Remember how I was excoriated for daring to suggest that murderers be denied creature comforts as an alternative to the death penalty…you know, given that they had deprived someone else of theirs, and all. No, I was roundly criticised around here as an evil, sadistic, would-be torturer who had no concern for people who - even though they might be murderers - were human beings nonetheless. Well, MH is a human being nonetheless. Where’s the same concern for his feelings and well-being that you would show to a convicted rapist/murderer?
Are those people in this thread. I am not sure what you said about the murders and their condition in Prison, but I am all for tougher Prisons with less comforts for murders and people who defraud on a grand scale and rapist and etc.
Jim
Since when are liberals always supposed to be nicey-nice? If someone’s an asshole, I’m gonna call him on it.
Well, doesn’t politics lie at the base of this thread…both as the reason for MH’s statements regarding the Dope and the resentment of them? Further, political orientation lies at the base of most of the threads I participate in. If you’ll notice, most of the time I don’t post to the “I pit Wal-Mart customer service” types of threads. 
I don’t know…I suppose general insults seem more superficial and therefore more diluted than specific insults aimed at specific people for qualities unique to them.
'scuse moi?
You’re kidding, right?
So, if Martin Hyde were a liberal, you’d be making the same posts? When reeder was the regular whipping boy of the entire pit community, other liberals included, were you in there standing up for him?
Sorry, SA, but I don’t buy that for a minute.
We’ve already dispensed with the tolerance nonsense. Pacifism? Liberals aren’t pacifists by any stretch. FDR wasn’t a pacifist. Neither was Clinton. And quite a few liberals (myself included) supported military intervention in Iraq, although we should have known better than to trust Bush to handle it competently. But even if we accept pacifism as a liberal trait, how does what’s happening in this thread run counter to that? Nobody is calling for an invasion of Hydistan, here. Pacifism doesn’t mean “be nice to everyone no matter what.” Understanding? I think we understand HYde perfectly well. That’s the source of our revulsion. Concern for the feelings of others? If you say so. Never been huge on my list of priorities, I can tell you that much.
I missed that thread, so I’ll take your word for how you were treated. I will point out two important respects where the comparison breaks down. First, nothing anyone says in this thread will have any physical effect on Martin Hyde, no matter how nasty the comments get. And secondly, Martin is free to leave any time he wants.
I’ll also echo the comment of a previous poster; is there any overlap between the people who gave you shit in the prison thread, and the people giving Marting shit in this thread? Because if there isn’t, well… is it really so hard to blame people for their own actions, and not the actions of people who are vaguely aligned with them politically? I thought you conservatives were supposed to be all about personal responsibility…
Bull shit and blather. Freedom of speech and tolerance does not ever mean that anyone is required to respect willful stupidity.
As for being polite to assholes, this is in the general vein:
If you have a right to respect, that means other people don’t have a right to their own opinions. - Thomas Sowell
As to Mr Hyde’s “opinions” and “thoughts” - and I use those terms loosely:
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. - William James
If being taken seriously means I personally have to pretend I respect horse shit, then I prefer to play the clown.
But then, as you’ve said: you’re a moderate. 
I think it started in the early-to-mid-sixties.
When did I ever suggest you had to be polite to him? There’s a big difference between calling someone an asshole within the context of general political rough-and-tumble and in saying he deserves to be “hated”, as was advocated by Merijeek.
If you look at my first and last posts in the recent six page pitting of Martin Hyde, you will see that I tried being respectful to him. In fact, look at my other posts and look at his. Which one of us resorted to the usual profane assault? (It doesn’t matter. Profanity doesn’t bother me.)
As you know, political affiliation doesn’t bother me one way or the other unless someone is an extremist or a bigot. As a teacher, I can be tolerant of a little slowness and I am aware that I am slowing down myself. Usually I am more patient with someone that I think is a little disturbed emotionally. So often that is just not the fault of the person who is mentally ill. Religious zealots and misogynists are too often victims of their own upbringings. But if there is anything that I cannot tolerate in others it is bold-faced lying. Martin Hyde is dishonest and he knows that he is dishonest.
Further, he attacks me for knowing. That is just one of many things that make him a jerk.
I must have read more into it than you meant. I seem to do that sometimes.
Why, yes, if you (and conservatives as a whole) support a ban against gay marriage, are anti-affirmative action and the like.
Don’t like the label? Try swallowing be called a traitor to your own country, repeatedly by conservatives. Try being accused of hating America because you dare to criticize the current administration. But that’s apparently OK, because the conservative side makes no bones about being intolerant of anyone who doesn’t share their worldview. Your premise is ridiculous. This was NOT a political thread–but again, a conservative has managed to turn it into a “liberals, explain yourselves!” castigation. This is bullshit. I took martin hyde as an example of the worst of the conservatives here–you have not only not convinced me otherwise, you have lowered my opinion of the rest of the conservatives here. You take disingenousness to a new level.
If I understand you correctly, no liberal is to ever disapprove of any statement made by a conservative. To do so implies an intolerance that, since the Dems “stand” for tolerance, is hypocritical. This is utter nonsense. Show me where the conservatives support equal rights for women, minorities, gays and transgendered. Show me where they care about the poor and (now, thanks to them) struggling middle classes. Show me where they have invested in the future, ie the children thru education and preventative health care. Show me where they have NOT been bigots–show me how they are attempting to woo the African-American vote (hint: they’re not–they’re concentrating on Hispanics–you know, the new blacks). Show me where they, via their party platforms, are not the party of intolerance, divisiveness and party before country (hell, profit before party at that). Show me. I stand by my call. You show me different.
This has turned into one weird thread.
On second thought–forget this. I tried to do the decent thing and feel not only whooshed somewhat, but also deliberately baited by Starving Artist.
Enough. I am not about to apologize for the strong feelings and opinions engendered by Martin Hyde and his ilk. My mistake was in treating another poster’s concerns with respect and fairness that I would want. Upon rereading these last pages, I doubt that any of that matters. I feel baited and mocked.
Have your fun. I have found nothing here to change my already low opinion of conservatives in general. That does not make me intolerant, btw, it makes me frustrated.
You can’t have it both ways. Surely we can agree that {b]Martin** is not typical.
You’re right–the first one should have said the worst of the conservative sector.
But, I am not so sure that **Marty ** is not typical. I listen to the conservatives in my RL and am appalled by what comes out of their mouths. Now, they are not here, so perhaps I should try to keep the two separate. MH sounds very like the RL ones that I know, though, so it just gets reinforced. I have asked SA to show me examples of tolerance by the conservative side. I ask that straightfowardly.
Zoe, again, my comments really aren’t directed toward MH’s behavior and whether or not he was acting wrongfully in what he said; rather, they were aimed at the over-the-top, almost gleeful orgy of intentionally trying to wound him as much as possible, and in a deeply personal way, that was going on at the time I came into this thread.
And on preview, you’re taking this way too personally, eleanorigby. I’m sorry you feel baited and mocked. Such was not my intention. There is a lot of rough give-and-take that goes on around here, and IMO I’ve merely been giving as good as I’ve gotten from you.
However, like you I’m getting tired of this thread. Most of the meat has been picked from the bones and what is left really isn’t worth the effort.
Regards.
Sorry, bud. I’m not taking much of anything about this thread seriously. It is based on ridicule, after all. And I didn’t intend to give the impression that I doubted the sincerity of your post. But I really did find the earnestness of your little lecture to be a bit sanctimonious. I was flashing back to some of Liberal’s greatest hits. 
As for the aside about pushing buttons, well Merijeek’s follow-on response fit your prediction so well, I could but stand and gape at your prescience.
Wow I go away for a little and this became the Starving Artist show. SA your schtick got old a long time ago. This is not about politics it is about an asshole. BTW I get a kick out of a conservative asshole like you calling himself Starving Artist. Its kind of ironical…
Whose bones? What meat? gah. tcha.
I happen to believe in my values quite strongly. Didn’t realize it was all a game to you et al till too late. As our illutstrious President tried to say once, “fool me once–well, I can’t be fooled a second time” or something like that. It’s hard to paraphrase a complete moron.
Martin Hyde remains a jerk and my view of conservatives remains dim.