But statements like this put you in the same camp. You think their minds have to be changed ‘for the good of America’. That means you automatically think they are wrong.
That’s not what I’m all about at all. I’m about hanging in a place where there is a vigorous debate from all sides. My problem with this board is that there is a chilling effect on the conservative viewpoint. From Collounsbury’s abusive behaviour, to the December pile-on parties, and now the banning of december himself, the message here is, “conservatives are on notice. We’ll only tolerate you if you play very, very nice.”
Yes, december made mistakes. Many of the charges levelled at him here are accurate. That’s not the point. The point is that similar behaviour on the other side goes unnoticed.
Wander over to Great Debates right now, and have a look at the threads started by Aldebaraan or Reeder. They are far worse than anything December did. December could at least be counted on to offer cites with his opinions. Those two just publish rants. Sure, some posters are getting on their case for it, but to nowhere near the degree that December got slammed.
Go do a thread search for my buddy ElvisL1ves, and get a feel for just how much he contributes around here. Yet I’m sure most people would consider him a ‘respected’ poster. He’s more gadfly than contributor, dropping into threads to take cheap shots at people he disagrees with. See, this is how bias works - it’s not that the mods are biased, but that behaviour by people who agree with the majority flies under the radar while behaviour from those who don’t gets noticed. If I followed ElvisL1ves around and attacked him continually like he does to me or did to december, a dozen posters would come to his defense. I’d be smacked down quickly. If I persisted, I’d be in the pit, I’d be warned by the mods, and eventually I’d be out of here. But he’s been doing his schtick for years with impugnity.
Bias is not something overt. It’s not a cabal of liberals going, “Which conservative can we get rid of next??” The mods aren’t going, “Oh, man, I just need an excuse to dump those rotten Republicans!”. It’s the same way with bias in the media. It’s not a conspiracy - it’s a culture that feeds on itself and is blind to its own faults. When you’re slightly to the left, extreme viewpoints on the left are moderately extreme, but with a grain of truth to them. The same extremism on the right is just nutty. A troll. Baiting. And the same goes for the right. If you’re already over somewhere on the right, the extremists are just a bit over the top. But the extremists on the left are insane, and need to be shut down ‘for the good of America’.
December’s posts never struck me as pure trolling. I recognized the arguments. I saw them as being something that a fair-sized chunk of conservatives took seriously. I was often surprised at the vehemence fired in his direction.
Take the OP about opposition for war helping terrorists. This is at least a debatable position. If the goal of terrorists is to break the will of America and cause it to back down, then it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that there might be something to the argument that marching against the war or criticizing your own government plays into that and may encourage them. Of course, you can make lots of counter-arguments as well, but the point is that the subject is worthy of debate. December’s OP just called for debate. He was even clear to say that he thought people had the right to protest, and that there could be other factors.
The response to that OP was essentially howls of outrage. Plenty of messages to the tune of, “How DARE you insinuate that I support terrorism!”. Much wailing and gnashing of teeth, interspersed with plenty of personal attacks on December himself.
Those responses were all in violation of the written rules of Great Debates. Yet, the mods chose to not go after the people hurling insults, but the guy who was the recipient of those insults.
There is no doubt a business question here. When a poster comes along that continually agitates 80% of your message board, it’s a pain in the ass. The decision may have been made that December was damaging the SDMB by continually riling up the people here. And it’s true in that the endless december-bashing threads created an awful lot of noise. So they made a decision to put the guy on a short leash, and cut him loose at first opportunity. That’s their right.
But let’s not pretend this is about fighting ignorance. It’s about getting rid of an irritant to the majority. That it will cause an even further skew to the left, and therefore make it even harder to fight ignorance (not because the left is ignorant, but because of lack of balance), seems to not matter.
The proper solution to the December ‘problem’ would have been for the mods to police the threads a little better. Pile-ons should have been dealt with quickly. The ‘don’t be a jerk’ rule should have been enforced on those who routinely personally attacked december. And in turn, december should have been asked to tone down at least the frequency of his posts, if not the content. I believe this whole mess could have been avoided.
It also could have been avoided if those who constantly attacked december would have opened their damned minds a little and acknowledged that december has a right to an opinion even if they disagree with it, and that civility is even more important when people with disparate viewpoints come together to debate each other.