My actual words:
What was attributed to me:
This was a small issue and I do not think RT was trying to intentionally mislead. I did feel his word changed the tenor of my intent so I very gently mentioned it. You might have gotten confused by what was within the SDMB quote tags and what was included within the quote marks withini his post.
Understandable. Thus, you are forgiven.
No problem at all. I only mentioned it as I do think it changed the tenor of my thoughts, albeit inadvertently.
Yeah, I see what you mean. Thanks for bringing it to my attention and giving me the opportunity to clarify my words.
Your’re correct. I was comparing the quote tag and not the later unattributed quote marks. I withdraw my whine.
I like Der Trihs. He isn’t diplomatic, but I think he explains his opinions well. My very much beloved brother just returned from Iraq, but I was never offended or upset by **Der Trihs **while he was over there. I understand where he’s coming from, even if I don’t take it as far as he does. His opinions are justified, and he’s not a coward. Within the context of his beliefs, what he does and says makes absolute sense. I thought most of the links in the OP were perfectly reasonable; maybe that means I’m a freak and everyone on the board should hate me too. I don’t know. I mean, I don’t wish US soldiers should die, but I also know that I mostly hold that belief out of personal bias. Also, I don’t like it when anyone dies.
I’m not posting this to start a fight or anything, I just disagree and I think someone should stick up for him, since apparently he won’t come in here and do it.
As I said, understandable.
Just for the record, I had a truly shitty time most of my school years, including getting picked on. I found something else to do with the feelings than DT did.
And I’m just wondering if there is some way of dealing with his venting of hatred beyond the hostility that we most of us (myself included) feel towards him for doing it? This is his outlet for venting it all; is there perhaps some way this community can give him a hand towards a more positive way of coping with it?
(Yes, I do have my rose-colored sunglasses on today. Why do you ask?)
Yeah, if the “context” of one’s belief’s is that anyone who thinks differently than one does is evil. He’s a loathsome individual who probably hates himself more than he hates his fellow human beings. He spouts nonsense that has no basis in reality.
A worthy task. Unfortunately I feel that the change must come from within. I’d bet that the people around him are unaware of the state he is in. While this outlet may have been healthy for him at one point, now I think it confirms his worst fears, as he repeatedly gets smacked and slapped (though not as much as his posts merit). He should just start over someplace else, or here under a different user name, and see how the discussions go if he started from a standpoint of thinking the best of the people he reviles instead of the worst. I think that would result in a more positve overall experience and he wouldn’t feel the need to entrench in deeper and deeper protective hate. Maybe he should try to engage in some real discussions with people he knows that are/were in the military. I doubt that he’d have such an easy time hating the military so if he had a few outings with **Airman Doors **or some other military types.
Ahhh!!! Your glasses are contagious.
miss elizabeth, with all due respect I disagree with you, rather vehemently.
I think that he’s got a tendency to generalize with a brush the size of a street sweeper, and that he chooses statements that are intended to produce the maximum reaction possible in his audience.
The fact that if his audience is inclined to disagree with him the very statements he chooses are the sort that will most make any moderate he hears react in completely predictable mule-headed stubbornness to avoid agreeing with the asshole doesn’t seem to matter to him.
Ergo, I believe he’s into flipping shit, mocking anyone who dares to disagree with him, and doing nothing to change the state of the world. He’s a vile, useless poser who doesn’t want to do anything with the anger he has towards the state of the world, and he doesn’t care that it continues to be a vale of tears. Just so long as he can add his own share to that quota.
Well, I think he is “Cyberian54’s” little brother.
Same here. I got lots of shit in middle school and maybe my first year of high school. I decided I should just try to love people, or at least not hate them. My last few years of high school were much better and even though I never became really popular, by the end I got along well with most of the people in my class, including those who had tormented me in the past.
Things got better after I let go of a lot of the anger and hatred I had.
I think there is, at least possibly. I don’t think he’s at the “shake the dust off your shoes as you leave” point, in terms of helping him deal with his hatred.
I don’t see the SDMB in general as having the patience or interest to do that kind of ignorance fighting.
I think if there is a way you could figure it out. Just keep on doing what you do that has a positive impact on people’s lives, or whatever it is that people here like you so much for.
I’ve got those rose-colored glasses too, but I think they’re attached to my face most of the time. Maybe when I get older they’ll fall off. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
Well, Der Trihs is annoying (although I must admit that the raw emotion in his posts sometimes gives me a sort of rush), but I’ll say that Left Hand of Dorkness has a point, and this point has also been made in the past: Der Trihs is constantly being pitted for wishing death on American soldiers in Iraq (for whatever reason, mainly because he considers that it is immoral for them to be there, even if they are only doing their jobs, because he considers that the war itself is immoral and doing whatever to help pursue it is therefore immoral). On the other hand, if someone wishes death on the insurgents, no one is going to say anything: they’re terrorists, and they’re scum, right? Not necessarily: even if they are terrorists (and I don’t think it’s always the case), they are basically fighting for the independence of their nation, or to protect their ethnic/cultural group, or some other cause. They are not “evil”, not more than the American soldiers anyway. But this is a war, and people die.
Der Trihs’s posts stand out because he is rooting for the enemy and not for our boys (well, your boys). And also because he is declaring that the US soldiers are immoral, something that I wouldn’t do, but also wouldn’t do for the insurgency either. But really, what is the moral difference between wishing that the American army in Iraq be destroyed, and wishing that the insurgency be destroyed? If there is one (and something else than “the US army is trying to bring democracy, which is good, while the insurgency is trying to destroy it”, since that’s not obvious and I don’t think I’d necessarily see it this way if I were an Iraqi), I’d like to hear it. Der Trihs at least reminds us of this fact.
As for the people who are suggesting he leave the country: not only does this sound a lot like “love it or leave it” (and congratulations to magellan01 for holding in his reflexes and pointing out that letting him talk is the American thing to do), but Der Trihs has already said that he doesn’t want to move to another country since he’d hate it just as much as he hates the US right now. So why bother?
Pitting the target of the OP is a complete waste of time. You’re dealing with an individual who’s firmly convinced members of the US Armed Forces are immoral and have no will. Pointing out fact to the OP’s target is like urinating into the wind. It may relieve the pressure but it leaves you in a stink. In other words, pure frustration.
Bloody hell, if you’re going to pit someone could you at least quote the relevant evidence rather than chucking in a load of links. That way it’s a bit easier to work out if your pitting is valid.
I know that Der Trish has pissed off many a person, but frankly the links you give aren’t great justification. The strongest support for your position probably comes from your first link:
“What is your attitude towards military enlistees”
“Contempt. Hatred. They are fools and scum, and I hope the Iraqis manage to kill them before they kill the Iraqis.”
Der Trish believes that the invasion of Iraq was wrong, and effectively was an unprovoked invasion of another country. There’s quite a lot of evidence to back up his stance. Surely on that belief it’s logical and moral for him to prefer to see the invading bad guys die than the people defending themselves?
And further, where does the belief come from that the invading guys should live, in preference to the people defending themselves? Can someone talk about the principle at work there?
And so is reading his posts. Come on, people. What’s the best way to get rid of someone like that? Just stop paying attention. I mean, I agree with much of Der Trihs’s politics and his views on religion, and I find reading his posts to be totally pointless. I just scroll past them. I very much doubt I miss anything that way. Now you go do the same.
Ehh. Der Trihs says everything I want to say in those Iraq/military threads, so I don’t have to say it. I say he’s fulfilling a valuable, if unpopular, service, and let’s leave him to do it.
But… but… you’re the one who said it was a problem: “The problem, of course, is that as soon as someone joins whose son is a member of the Iraqi insurgency, the admins face a problem”. I thought you and I were agreeing that the decision on what is acceptable speech and what is hate speech is essentially arbitrary. Now, I’m just confused. 
Not that I wish death on anyone but Trihs is consistent in his belief that the Coalition are the bad guys and so he wishes for their defeat. Those who support the coalition are quite happy to wish all insurgents dead.
Some of you cheer on their killing and you shrug your shoulders and say ‘shit happens’ when Coalition forces wipe out wedding parties and inflict other ‘collateral’ damage.
By taking sides in any conflict we implicitly wish death and destruction on the other side. That some people here have friends and relatives serving over there cannot make his comments hate speech without it cutting both ways and stopping all discussion, debate and pit ranting.
This is just a pile on of someone whose views are unpopular. I’m not that keen on them myself but at least he has the courage to follow the logic of his convictions.
Which would prove what? You seem to be implying that he’d get the shit beaten out of him, and that you’d be ok with that. When did “things that’d get you hospitalised for saying in a local bar” become the standard for what’s an acceptable viewpoint?