It’s a different situation because of how we compare ourselves to Edison and Einstein vs. how we view Trump. The question is asked of Edison and Einstein in a context of “wow that’s amazing that they accomplished so much and could have had this disability!” We’re taking ourselves out of the conversation.
When it comes to Trump it;s “OMG He is so stupid because of (situation) I am so much smarter than him he must be illiterate lololol”.
It boils down to trusting the motivation of the poster. I’m sure there are people on this board who are curious about Trump and his actions from an intellectual observer point of view, but the absolute overwhelming majority of posters are just spewing hate about it. Even if the question is serious (it does say it in the title after all) it will only be a matter of, what, 2 posts before someone says something pointless and crass? Which inevitably sparks a fire that just ends up being the same old same old.
“But T-Cups,” you might say “That’s talking about the thread itself, not the fact the thread is in IMHO.” You’re right, but it’s a symptom of a larger cause. The opinions you’ll receive on a thread like that are no different than if you were posting it in GD, so just do it there in the first place.
Because I enjoy reading through the Elections Forum, I don’t want to see it cluttered with all the Trump threads; for me it works out to have them scattered across the boards. So far the best suggestion for control, over and above the current controls already in place, would be a sub-forum suggested in a thread here at ATMB that was closed recently – something along the lines of a “Current US Administration” thread. We go through this every four years or so. Maybe not to this degree but it happens like clockwork. It wouldn’t be a terrific solution but it would probably work.
But that’s not his complaint. By this point in the thread he was complaining that people were mocking Trump’s stupidity in threads in IMHO and MPSIMS. That’s a much smaller set. I think he’s only mentioned one example. That’s easily dealt with.
The larger issue of a separate Trump forum is different and as I’ve said I’ve come to agree that we need one. But if it doesn’t happen, Trump’s difficulty with reading isn’t much of a forum spoiler.
No, Martini is right, that is my main complaint. I was only using the mocking Trump’s stupidity threads as examples of unnecessary threads in IMHO and MPSIMS.
It seems that the threads that are created solely to mock him are legion, and they’re clogging up the threads that are made to be an escape from the political crap.
I won’t rail you too badly on it though since you think there should be a Trump forum, and you’re therefore on my side
Exactly. It’s generally accepted this board skews to the left and pretty much everyone on the left disapproves of Trump.
IMO there’s not much reason to create “President Trump is a noob” threads except to get everyone to agree with the OP; basically a point-and-laugh exercise.
The vociferous dislike from so many folks on the left means these threads aren’t going to stop - people are unironically talking about themselves as being part of a resistance movement, for smeg’s sake - and there’s a definite sense of people seeing who can be the most outraged.
It’s not healthy, it’s not constructive, and I remain astounded at the reluctance to simply rename “Elections” to “Politics” and put all the Trump-focused stuff in there.
My first page of IMHO 62 threads, 3 Trump related, less than one out of twenty. The one about his possible functional illiteracy mostly not “making fun” of him despite the claim that it would be (oh a few snide comments but some real discussion about what the term means and what the evidence is or is not). One questioning what defines “bubble” in demographics, not making fun of him. And one sure, should be in GD, Elections, or The Pit.
GQ 65 threads, 1 Trump related, asking a GQ level question about whether being CIC qualifies one as a veteran such as for where one can be buried. Not mocking him.
CS no Trump threads whole first page.
MPSIMS 134 threads, 7 Trump related, just over 5%, some of which might have been better located in The Pit or Elections or maybe GD. One of which was making fun the SDMB becoming “All Trump, all the time” … Take that out and less than one in twenty.
So the claim that “…the threads that are created solely to mock him are legion, and they’re clogging up the threads that are made to be an escape from the political crap.” is really without support. Less than one in twenty to none on the whole first page, depending on the forum, is scarcely clogging up the works.
As I have pointed out, Trump’s thin skin is his Achilles’ heel. (He can’t even get that right.) Hate is the best temporary weapon until we see if the resistance can take the form of grass roots election victories. Hate makes him stupid and careless and pointlessly reactive. He doesn’t have to get to the point of alienating his core supporters, an acknowledged impossibility. But it doesn’t seem unlikely that those who held their nose to vote for him, or voted because they hated Clinton, or thought a non-politician was the answer can be dissuaded by the fetid sinkhole he can create to wallow in.
Unending mockery of Trump is therefore in fact the healthiest form of protest. You would prefer violence? We’ll see if it becomes constructive. My definition of constructive probably differs from yours, though.
You know I don’t live in the US, right? I’m actually not a huge fan of protest generally, but that’s something for a different thread, I think.
My preference is that people dial back the “I don’t like President Trump” stuff on the boards, in conjunction with the creation of a Trump or Politics forum. Everyone either agrees with (generic, Anti-Trump) you or isn’t going to post a counter-argument because they’ll get an angry mob coming after them with metaphorical pitchforks and burning torches.
The boards are (generic) your very own anti-Trump safe space now, OK? Nothing constructive is being acheived by playing “Everyone come and agree with me about this awful/silly thing Trump has done” on the boards. Seriously, if people want that, Buzzfeed, Tumblr and Reddit are right over there.
So while again, the complaints of so much Trump mockery clogging up IMHO, GQ, CS, and MPSIMS is so much hoohah … just not there … this is a particularly silly comment.
IF continued mass public mockery of Trump, humor, is an effective form of protest, and maybe it is, then whether or not Trump reads one particular person’s comments is immaterial to the tactic’s efficacy. Mass protests do not rely on one person. The “Women’s March” would have been just as effective or ineffective if the several individuals who I know who went had stayed home and that informs naught as to whether or not the protest had any impact.
Satire and humor has its place and can be an effective form of protest. And certain fora are not appropriate for protest as a general rule. A couple of MPSIMS protesting Trump may be better placed elsewhere. A huge number of such protest threads clogging up the works outside of the Elections, Pit, and GD fora that they belong in though is an imagined event.
ETA: of course this forum is not to me the best protest forum either.
Tone is the toughest thing to discern on a message board. I often find it difficult, if not impossible, to read the tone of your posts. Mine have been misinterpreted, I know.
This particular case isn’t tough. When Martini Enfield complains that “people are unironically talking about themselves as being part of a resistance movement” and I say “I am unironically ecstatic at that.” I mean I am ecstatic. Elated. Enthusiastic. Euphoric. Joyful. Overjoyed. Rhapsodic. Thrilled. Flying. In exaltation. In seventh heaven. On cloud nine. Pleased as punch. Tickled pink.
That’s my tone. Attitude. Disposition. Feelings. Makeup. Mentality. Mindset. Mood. Nature. Standing. State of mind. Temper. Vein.
It’s not that easy to keep Trump out of anything at present. According to this article in the New York Times Trump may well be the most covered person in human history. The reporter tried for a week to ignore anything mentioning Trump and found it practically impossible.
He goes on to cite mediaQuant, “a firm that measures “earned media,” which is all coverage that isn’t paid advertising.” In January Trump shattered mediaQuant’s record, soaring past Obama and Hillary at their peaks.
I really don’t think we’ve seen anything like this before.
And this is, respectfully, why we need a politics forum. I can’t recall a previous US president where people felt this way about them on the boards - people got annoyed at Bush and Obama, definitely, but there was never a feeling that they had to go on some sort of crusade or join a resistance movement to oust them. Especially not a few weeks after they took office.
