# Beating the clock to poison the well?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-the-clock-to-poison-the-well/768699>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [October 16, 2016, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-the-clock-to-poison-the-well/768699 "2016-10-16T13:49:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 8

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-the-clock-to-poison-the-well/768699/8 "2016-10-17T11:47:25Z")

</div>

Conveniently, between the time I posted that then and how I’m posting this now, the following example popped up:

> [@What can truly be done about "Trump supporters"](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-truly-be-done-about-trump-supporters/768328/127):
>
> No, actually, we just treat the people willing to enthusiastically back Trump as complete retards. Because those people are either intellectually or morally bankrupt, and we prefer to assume people are stupid rather than evil.

Now, that’s maybe not a _great_ example, since he goes on to specifically comment about a particular poster: “You’re on the latter side. So you’ll have to excuse me if many of the proposals on what to do about people who are either _stupid_ or _evil_ or _both_ sound just a little bit condescending. It’s because they are. This isn’t a case where discourse is needed.” (He then adds – in case we missed it – a “The only question is, why would you self-identify into that group?”)

But that’s the sort of language I had in mind: a poster flatly declaring that folks who enthusiastically back a particular candidate are intellectually or morally bankrupt; are ‘stupid or evil’; and are to be treated as “complete retards”. If a remark like that comes in _before_ a self-identified Trump backer posts, would it be reportable?

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-the-clock-to-poison-the-well/768699)._