From this thread.
Can I offer to buy you a new canvas or two? Maybe some more cans of paint? No? Because that brush you’re using on religious people is the size of a couple of planets or J-Lo’s arse, you make your comparison.
Get it out of your own and lay off already.
Huh?
I think she refers to post #19, here in part:
Same shit, different poster, y’know?
Sorry. Some quotes:
Has he called you a sociopath yet? That seems to be his standard term for anybody smarter than he is, or anyone who might have a different philosophy.
You’re only just now noticing that Der Trihs is the SDMB’s most vocal exponent of “religion is all-bad all-the-time”? By now I’ve learned to just shrug and say to myself, “Oh yeah, that’s his schtick.”
Der Trihs takes it to his very own level though–with him, it’s like the same shit to the same shiteth power.
You guys are just jealous of his red shirt.
I would just like to say that I for one am totally embarassed by being associated with him, since he seems to strongly identify with the left. Just wanted to get that out before anyone accuses him of speaking for ALL of us godless commie bastards here on the boards.
LIke **Guin ** said.
On a different thread, I saw his points of what would the (religious) right do after a nuclear attack in America.
We indeed could expect the erosion of our rights, but not the strip mining of them like in the items he mentioned, really unlikely even with Bush at the helm.
This will probably alienate me even more than I’ve already alienated myself, but I side with Der Trihs. Is he a little extreme? A lot extreme? Yeah, he is. But some of the stuff he says needs to be said. We all (him included) know he’s puffing a little into it to make it stand out the way it needs to. There’s nothing wrong with a little exaggeration to make a point–and his exaggeration is more of a “broad brush” sort than a “make shit up” sort. Could his argument be made without the exaggerations? Yeah, but then nobody would listen except those who already agree with him. On the contrary, Der Trihs has religious folk at least thinking about other peoples’ viewpoints. I think such an extreme attitude is needed to combat the ridiculously extreme ideas being put out on the other side; I wish it weren’t necessarily, but I think it is.
I don’t see how it’s necessary at all here. And for the folks that could use some thinking from other perspectives, such a confrontational approach will get you nowhere. Using extreme examples is what the religious people that you’re attacking do, with the “you’re going to burn in hell” thing. Lots of people have said things on this board that have made me rethink my views, and none of them used tactics like that.
Yeah, Der Trihs has always been like that. At first I considered pitting him, but decided to just let him dig his own grave with his words. His political views are just as nuanced as his views on religion, BTW.
Well, I didn’t see his anti-religion comments (I wonder if he feels so strongly about pagan and other non-Christian religions?), but this thread certainly makes clear some of his reactions to the Bush Administration…
I agree with Fetus on this one. While Der Trihs and I are on opposite sides of the political spectrum and his disgust with his fellow Americans (a worthy pitting) wants me to suggest to him to live somewhere else for a while for him to see that they aren’t actually as bad as people are in most places around the world, but his take on what the core of religion is about and how atheists are perceived is pretty close to the truth.
U of Minnesota poll (topic of a GD discussion)
Many religious types disagree as has been noted in the linked thread in the OP, but then their grasp of reality is questionable anyway.
I agree with fetus and Uzi. Der Trihs can come off as abrasive (understatement?) but I think the message is spot on. Religion and religious differences are at the core of many of the problems we face in society today, from “Rapture Politics” to “Global Terrorism”. Having an open discussion about it couldn’t hurt.
The guy (I assume Der is a guy) is a complete loon. Its hard to believe that there are folks who are defending him to be honest. 
His anti-US rant is so far beyond the pale that usually there aren’t enough rolley eyes available to express the proper take on his posts. I mean, I have no problem with people ranting about the US…but keep it grounded in reality, please. To say that the invasion of Canada by the US would be easy for a right wing president (as he said in a recent GD debate) not only to envision but to actually push through to reality, selling it (somehow) to not only Congress but to the people…well, thats pure fantasy. Might as well speculate that the government will be taken over by brain sucking space aliens bent on conquering Canada to steal all their snow and beer…
I used to think like a few of the defenders, that Der was not REALLY serious in his rants, but was simply exaggerating to make a point. A lot of posters use hyperbole to make a point after all…including me. After seeing him in a few threads though, I have to say that I think he’s completely serious (well, mostly serious). He has his own take on reality, and he doesn’t want no stinking facts to get in the way of his rant.
Oh well, to each their own I guess. Personally, if we are going to talk about a love-able ranter, someone who while taking exaggeration to new heights and having nearly sublime rants, I’ll take the sadly missed Alde. At least HE was amusing sometimes, and while his anti-America schtick could be tedious, it could also be highly amusing. ‘My post is my cite’…THATS classic!
Anyway, YMMV…
-XT
You give him way too much credit. He is a schmuck and one of the most predictable assholes on these boards. I used to get pissed at his rantings about religion and how our military men and women are scum murderers, but now they’re amusing. Just about every time I see he’s posted something I try to imagine what it could be. Then I build in my head some nine-layer conspiracy linking pedophilia, the Da Vinci Code, world conquest, The White House and people horrible and dumb enough to serve in the military, but still his reality outdoes my fiction. So, I either entertain myself if I’m in the mood for complete nonsense, or skip over his post having a pretty good idea of the general tenor.
The only thing I wish upon Red Shit is that he could actually live in a world of his grand design. Anything else is insufficient justice.
By Jeez, you’ve got it xtisme. The reason that sounds so ourtlandish to us is that it hasn’t happened to us. But, I see it all now, brain-sucking aliens are trying to take over. They’ve already started. I have proof. And that proof is: Der Shit.
shrug Der Trihs exists in order to make Clothahump’s views on religion look moderate and reasonable.
I also find it vaguely amusing that he believes there are a host of female rapists out there who strangle men in order to force them to have erections. Thirty years ago when I had more testosterone than I knew what to do with, just being naked in the same room as a woman would have given me a hard-on whether I wanted it to or not.