You mispelled “bigot”.
This would be the same Tomndebb who’s just about finished being pilloried for being biased in favour of his religion, yes? Goodness, it is difficult to keep track of who he’s oppressing these days. I have to say it’s less than surprising that you think this board’s problem is that it’s too tolerant of Islam; what is a little eyebrow-raising is that you had the balls to drop your usual turd mere sentences after claiming to be all liberal and tolerant. Nice.
Er, is this a trick question? “Pretty much all of them,” n’est ce pas?
Ach, elucidator, you used to be funny. 
Which is more than I can say for you, ** Dead Badger**, you stinking corpse.
Yep.
I’m ‘tolerant’.
I do believe in freedom, peace and happiness for ALL people.
Including non-muslims. [infidels, kaffirs, or what have you]
Errr: Go fornicate a goat, why don’t you.
This part is fairly close to true. The part about how conservatives are obviously wrong and have been defeated and driven off is self-serving.
You are confusing boredom with defeat. There are a number of posters who have nothing whatever to add to any political discussion except two things -
[ul][li]Bush sux and [*]Clinton was impeached for a blowjob.[/ul]And they repeat the same things in every fucking thread on the SDMB. Witness tagos’ near-instantaneous reaction to the mention of Bush’s name. [/li]
Now both the above points are opinions. The trouble with the Usual Suspects is that both are treated as received truths, and anyone who dissents in the slightest from either triggers the onslaught from those who cannot tolerate the existence of a post that does not contain these received wisdoms. And thus, by sheer volume, they seek to balance the Force. They are hoping that if they post often enough, magically these offending posts will cease to exist.
And Jodi’s point about the opinions of those you respect is a good one (of course). If I post “Iraq had links to al-Queda”, and ask if it is true or a lie, and it becomes clear that it is a lie if Bush said it but true if Hilary said it, then the opinions of those who agree are not worthy of respect. But that does not translate into infinite patience in posting, over and over again, that the genetic fallacy is a logical mistake. It simply means that I for one change my search from amusement thru rational debate into amusement in mocking those whose partisanship has made them look stupid.
Sometimes that’s all there is available. Some people are only there to serve as bad examples.
There are some intelligent folks here. They are often drowned out by the fuckwits, but they are still here. The danger is that the bad example of the fuckwits can drag the rest of us into stupidity. I hadn’t noticed pseudotriton ruber ruber much as a fuckwit before, but the bad example of misguided sperm seems to have turned him, at least temporarily, into another anti-religious troll. No doubt there are other examples.
I could pick my battles better, no doubt, but that’s OK.
The dogs bark, but the caravan marches on.
Scylla, I wonder what the board was like before 2000, when I joined.
Regards,
Shodan
I’m afraid I don’t know the Dutch for ‘troll’ or ‘moron’ and the following is such a pale substitute but it’s the best I can do for now. :rolleyes:
I think you meant to say ‘witness Tagos’ near instantaneous response to a pack of steaming shit posted by a cretin, with demands for a cite for said steaming heap of shit plus an explanation of why it remains necessary to kick Bush at every valid opportunity and confront his supporters with his massive incompetence, his massive stupidity and his overweening arrogance.’
The man is a miserable excuse for a human being who has murdered hundreds of thousands and put the USA’s reputation into the toilet and shat on it some more while parading the qualities that makes him the worst President in at least two centuries.
If a murdering, torturing un-american incompetent doesn’t deserve every harsh word under the sun then no-one does. Except maybe fellow-travelling aiders and abetters with a martyrdom complex.
“Jedediah’s impotent rage.”
It really works!
(For those unfamiliar with the movie, Jedidiah is a thumb-sized little cowboy with no bullets in his gun. See the similarities?)
Well, this is going well…
It seems to me that most conservatives here come down to this: either you trust the conservative “vision” or you don’t. Since exactly none of them have ever been able to adequately explain just why gay marriage is detrimental to the family, to use just one example, they lose credence with me. There are those who say that a true conservative (with no definition) doesn’t bother about stuff like that–but that’s just specious. Perhaps it just comes down to fundamentals-and at bottom, I don’t believe the whole “pull yourself up by your bootstraps, this is America” POV. Which is not to say I believe in some sort of Nanny state, either-there is almost no dialogue when the either sidesare drawn in such black and white terms.
IMO, this board just reflects (on more intelligent level) the polarization present in the country. Despite the lack of recent media coverage on it, it still exists.
It appears that what has your undies in a knot is the following exchange:
You: “My own ignorance is the ignorance I’m most interested in fighting.”
Me: “This is not my take-away from your posts in the area of politics. Your mileage obviously varies.”
That’s it. If that is your idea of “board-degrading sniping,” then that’s just one more area in which we fundamentally disagree. :rolleyese:
I agree with this, but that’s the down side to being the majority on the Board: A certain number of your lefty cohorts are going to be of the knee-jerk, spittle-flecked, tinfoil-hatted variety. I sympathize with this from trying to explain a moderate Christian perspective and being “assisted” by fundies – you very quickly want to say “Stop helping! Please!” But you can’t choose who’s with you in the lifeboat, you know? All of which is only to make this other point: Not only is it hard to hold your position when you are such a distinct minority, it also can be hard to wade through all the insanity and insults of the far, far leftist fringe (cf. RTA in this very thread: “All you conservatives can go fuck off, and I do mean all.”) This is obviously not the fault of any rational liberal who is actually interested in genuinely discussing a particular point. But the “signal to noise” ratio is another reason that conservative posters who are not masochists may choose to just stay out of political threads. That in turn probably does make it appear that the Board leans further left than may be actually true. I think it is accurate, however, to say that of people who care enough to discuss American politics on the Board (endlessly, repeatedly), the clear majority are blues, not reds. But given the number of members and the popularity of Cafe Society, MPSIMS, and IMHO, I think it’s also fair to say the vast majority of us either don’t care about politics or don’t care to discuss politics here. They are probably wiser than the rest of us.
Newer member. Nominally conservative. Reasonably intelligent. As other posters have mentioned, I don’t have time nor the inclination to get in big long drawn out debates on politics, especially when no amicable, sincere debate is possible. (Let’s use tagos last post for a cite, shall we?) I can expect a pile-on tout de suite if I do not hold the popular position of the day. I don’t mind evaluating and entertaining other points of view. I don’t mind citing my information, I can take shit, and dish it back out with aplomb. I actually do like to learn about other points of view and have been known to change my mind at least once. I don’t need to have my beliefs reinforced, nor do I need to be surrounded by like minded people. But having virulent hatred rained down without ceasing for no other reason than I disagree with the majority of the board, to me is a exercise in futility that I am not willing to partake in. I’d rather just throw in a comment or two about miscellany, hell, I’d rather read the cat threads. (I’ll squee your damn cats.)
And contrary to popular opinion, not all Minnesotans resemble** elucidator.**
I’m sure I’m more blind to it than I would be if the tables were reversed, but dammit I just don’t see the incidence of “having virulent hatred rained down without ceasing for no other reason than I disagree with the majority of the board…” that some here talk about.
I also do not see any of the backslapping posts that Jodi and others talk about. I know that there may often be a “pile-on,” but this is almost exclusively the result of many different members bringing up different points of contention that they would like to discuss or debate.
The number of times that someone posts anything along the lines of “Right on, elucidator!” or “You really nailed him, rjung!” is exceedingly small, in my opinion. I’m speaking of Great Debates, in particular. In the pit, it may be a bit different.
Honey, of course you don’t see it. (That wasn’t snarky, don’t misinterpret.)
If you went to a message board where you were in the minority, hung out for a week or two, you might see things a little differently. This is the only one I read, I might be wrong, but human nature being what it is, it would surprise me if the dynamics were any different.
Jodi has made several extremely valid points much more eloquently than I ever could. Perhaps you could reread her posts in this thread.
One of the reasons I like the 'Dope is the mods, and the general tone of civility, with a healthy dose of smartassedness. But on some issues, I just ain’t going to even try.
Well, I’ve seen people congratulate** elucidator ** for an apt bon mot.
But you could take the Straight Dope and pulverize it and sift through it like breadcrumbs for the rest of your natural life, and you would never, ever, find…“You really nailed him, rjung!”
Note: Of course I realize that now there are two such examples, so my quote is no longer strictly true, but still…
This post has been mauved by the mauvderator!
Yeah, I don’t think that’ll work.
I have read them. I disagree with them. Rereading them wouldn’t change the fact that they are her opinion, which is, like mine, colored by her own biases. Why would you assume that re-reading her opinions would change anything?
Further, isn’t it ironic that in the midst of complaining about a liberal horde mentality that spawns sycophantic posts, so many arguing conservative positions wish only to ditto what Jodi said? Here you are doing so subtly, and here is a example of a fawning sycophant.
She isn’t the first person to say this. Most conservatives here like to portray themselves as Errol Flynn, buckling the swash right up the mizzenmast against a dozen liberal henchmen and dispatching them with aplomb.
Of course, because 900 people are saying something contrary to you does not mean they are correct. It does not, on the other hand, necessarily mean that you are correct, and all things being equal, tends to suggest otherwise. (And how about the idea that anyone here has ever shouted down 900 foe? Yikes, how’s that for hyperbolic excess?)
I will, however, keep my biased eye out for examples of “Sic 'im” type posts in GD, and when I see one, I’ll be sure to feel some pity for the besieged hero.
(bolding mine)
I think this will definitely happen. Consider how many people on this board simply voted against Bush during the last election. It won’t be the same in 2008, and I think you’ll find that there are actually more conservatives here than liberals. The board liberals are just more vocal because they’re angry and it’s certainly justified given what they believe. Why would mainstream conservatives on the board get involved in some of these discussions? Their guy won.
I can see comparing the ‘Freeper site’ with Daily Kos or Dem Underground but this board isn’t dedicated to 24/7 politics. There is no reason to believe a general interest board like this one with so many members would lean either way.
"Are you trying to discourage conservatives from staying at SDMB?"
A similar post was made by a few people at another board I’m a part of. It was no secret that the Amin and a few mods at this board are dems. In the interest of being open we renamed the political forum “To the Left”. There were still complaints so we opened a “To the Right” section and no one posted at all. That’s when we realized that it wasn’t that they felt picked on or that the board was leaning one way, they just wanted us to shut up.
my emphasis
Aah, great, hate-speech now? Around here, that’s just not a nice word.
I think you’d be hard-pressed to find any post where I’ve even attempted to “portray” myself anything like this. IMO, this is a great example of the extent to which people see what they want to see. Very often in political threads, it doesn’t matter what you actually say because some folks will only hear what they want to hear anyway. Yet another reason not to bother with them.
John, I think I love you, but I have to kill you. Hint: it is not because you are conservative.
I apologize if I mistook your meaning when you discussed trying to deal with ElvisL1ves and 899 sycophants.