Just want to cast another vote for “kinda like the guy”.
[QUOTE=Giraffe]
My impression of Der Trihs is that he has the potential to make compelling, intelligent arguments. That he frequently chooses to instead demonize those he disagrees with to such a ludicrous degree is a shame, as he ends up being worse than useless in changing anyone’s mind or having any sort of positive or meaningful effect. The net effect is that he makes positions I agree with look ridiculous and he’s annoying as fuck.
I’m sure he feels that by basking in the absolute righteousness of his convictions he’s adhering to some high standard, but really he’s just masturbating. (Not literally. I hope, anyway.)
[/QUOTE]
Why? Are you some kind of conservative religious tightass who thinks masturbating is sinful? Just like your idol, Ashcroft!
[QUOTE=Waverly]
You have your opinion and I have mine. My opinion is colored by a habit of posting knee-jerk histrionics with little regard for the facts of the matter. When liberals melt down, that seems to be their favored path. Conservative apologists, who I don’t like any better, seem to melt down with an equal disregard for facts but with vague rationalizations in place of histrionics. Liberal nutters pay for their passion by making slightly more spectacular fools of themselves than their conservative nutter brethren.
[/QUOTE]
An interesting post that made the thread worth the while.
“…make slightly more spectacular fools of themselves…” wins the thread.
Okay, I feel better now.
[QUOTE=magellan01]
Without being to direct and asking you to betray a sort of confidence, may I ask you three questions to check if my theory as to his true identity is correct?
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Is he in prison?
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Does he have a swastike carved into his forehead?
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Is he responsible for one of the greatest quotes of all time when asked about the newest crop of murderous madmen: “Crazy? I was crazy when it meant soemething to be crazy.”? (Forgive the paraphrase.)
[/QUOTE] -
If he is, the State of California has been very liberal in their internet allowance.
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I understand it was supposed to be a shamrock, but someone messed up.
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He plays City of Heroes. Honestly, I had no clue he was Der Trihs for several weeks. What with the lack of calling anyone even slightly to his right evil.
[QUOTE=Omegaman]
Many say here what they fear to speak in the open.
[/QUOTE]
And more’s the pity.
I don’t mind Der Trihs’ posts though. No weak, vacillating, jello-fied opinions for that dude.
[QUOTE=Giraffe]
My impression of Der Trihs is that he has the potential to make compelling, intelligent arguments. That he frequently chooses to instead demonize those he disagrees with to such a ludicrous degree is a shame, as he ends up being worse than useless in changing anyone’s mind or having any sort of positive or meaningful effect. The net effect is that he makes positions I agree with look ridiculous and he’s annoying as fuck.
I’m sure he feels that by basking in the absolute righteousness of his convictions he’s adhering to some high standard, but really he’s just masturbating. (Not literally. I hope, anyway.)
[/QUOTE]
Din ding ding and perhaps it is just my experience in the debate world (competing- like many Dopers I’m sure- and now coaching), but the #1 sign that someone has lost the debate is that they start floundering- grasping for whatever insane argument they can find, no matter how silly.
I’ll be honest though in that Der Trihs had been completely off my radar for the most part, except for his “ALL THE TROOPS SHOULD DIE!” speech he likes to prance out once a week or so. I’d read the threads pitting him, but as I didn’t pay much attention, I was indifferent. Until we got into a little snit ourselves in this thread.
The thing that still gets me is that he was contending that rape and other horrible things are damn near every day occurrences for women in the service, offering only a “cite” of a guy who asked 20 female service members (after a bit of proding from everyone around for a cite). After a bit of back and forth, I offer him the retention statistics for females in the Armed Forces (or perhaps it was just the Army, I can’t quite recall at the moment) and pointed out how the numbers reallly aren’t significently different than those for the males. Logically, if every woman was being raped and the victim of equally horrible crimes, surely most wouldn’t reenlist, right? Further, I was totally ready to eat crow when a Doper much smarter than me would pop in with a better cite than mine, putting me to shame. Hey, I’m far from one of the smart ones here, we all know that 
.
Yeah, he ignored that point and only later came back to the thread to spew his scripted bile about the downfall of America the Evil. Even after I again asked him for a cite, he gave some lame excuses and that was that.
Like John Mace said in that thread:
[QUOTE=John Mace]
Eh. You’re just dancing around in circles now avoiding the logic of your own assertions. No point in debating with someone like that.
[/QUOTE]
Amen. I learned my lesson. OP should, too.
What sucks about Der Trihs for me is that it seems like he and I have enough things in common, I would like to chat with him. Get into his threads, and talk about groovy stuff.
Sadly, since he called my brother a murdering lying sheep, I can’t really get past that.
The only good thing is, you know he’s not doing this stuff in the real world, 'cause he can still post, and presumably walk and breath.
I think he’s a wonderful provocateur, and this board is better for him. He’s like, say, Lib. I don’t think he’s a troll: he means what he says, and he doesn’t do it just to get a reaction, but his views are strong enough to be little conversational hand grenades which get things going.
What are his extreme views, really? The quote in the OP is a bit too slippery slope but I don’t see it as completely off the deep end: I think it is naive in the extreme to think that if the fundie movement were to achieve its present political goals it would wind up its political operations and announce mission accomplished. I think it is much more believable that it would set new goals that would be even more extreme than its present goals. And so on. How far the fundies will ever get is debatable, but the basic idea isn’t fundamentally goofy.
The whole “US troops in Iraq are the baddies” thing gets up a lot of noses and no doubt Der Trihs isn’t the most accomplished at supporting his own points. But his basic point is sound, and needs saying. There’s not too many others saying it.
There are two viewpoints that you can easily sort everyone in this thread by.
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Der Trihs is an aggressive, idiotic, eccentric asshole who doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about, and he’s basically a big shit stain on the boards.
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Der Trihs is an aggressive, idiodic, eccentric asshole who doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about, and the boards are better off because of it.
I’m in group 1.
No, neither 1. nor 2. describe my position on him.
::Sees thread title, sets watch::
Yeah, where is Stoid? I miss her.
[QUOTE=John Mace]
Don’t kid yourself.
Whoooooosh!!
[/QUOTE]
Noooo actually.
I was agreeing and pointing out the disparity betw – oh never mind. 
I like the guy but I’m a sucker for over the top rhetoric. There are worse things in the world then a passionate asshole. Like mealy mouthed wishy washy ones. We all know where the guy stands.
Then again I still miss Collounsbury and December and that arab “my post is my cite” guy whose name escapes me at the moment, but who was surely great nonetheless.
I wouldn’t draw any real world inferences from his posting style. In meetings with people I’ve known from the net I’ve often been struck at how the most rabid posters who I imagine have been pounding at the keyboards in a drool inspired demented frenzy have turned out to be mild mannered and quite personable face to face.
[QUOTE=Eolbo]
There are worse things in the world then a passionate asshole. Like mealy mouthed wishy washy ones. We all know where the guy stands.
[/QUOTE]
Amen to that. I like Der Tris, too. There are plenty of reasonable people on both sides of the aisle around here. We need the extremes.
Without the gutters, you’ve got no lane.
[QUOTE=Liberal]
They’ll probably make women eat their own aborted fetuses, and then wear clapboards around their necks, proclaiming “I ATE MY BABY”.
snip
[/QUOTE]
I believe that would be “The dingo ate my baby”.
Y’know, I wouldn’t mind him so much except that he never notices much of anything anyone else posts. He just talks past you.
[QUOTE=Princhester]
I think he’s a wonderful provocateur, and this board is better for him. He’s like, say, Lib. I don’t think he’s a troll: he means what he says, and he doesn’t do it just to get a reaction…
[/QUOTE]
I agree that a useful provocateur is a good thing, but I’m not convinced he DOESN’T do it to get a reaction. If he wants to say U.S. soldiers are the bad guys in Iraq, well, that’s an opinion held by millions of people, many of them decent folks, and maybe the US-dominated SDMB could use a bit of a reality check with regards to how the world sees them. If he wants to say religion is a colossal plague, well, he’s got a lot of pretty smart allies in that argument. He’s kind of a dick about it, but you can’t deliver those messages and not be thought of as a dick here.
My concern is the same as smiling bandit’s, which is that he never seems to respond to anyone except to simply repeat what he said the first time. If Der Trihs said “American soldiers are the bad guys in Iraq, and I’m not at all upset if they get killed” and then actually responded to people who disagreed by explaining his position, providing evidence and comparisons, considering alternative opinions, and all the other things we associate with good debate, that would be a valuable contribution. But I can’t offhand think of a case where he ever engaged in actual discussion; it’s just the same words, over and over, without regard to anything else being said. There’s no indication he even bothers to read anyone else’s posts beyond scanning them for trigger words. You could replace him with a reasonably well programmed DerTrihsBot, programmed to post about eight stock posts.
That’s what pushes him from “provocateur” into “troll” territory.
[QUOTE=Liberal]
Biased towards the USA? Towards? Against is more like it. I mean, I’m not all gung-ho about the patriotic crap, waving the rah-rah rag, and all that. But Der Trihs is like an atheistic Fred Phelps about it. God-or-whatever hates America.
Me too, actually.
[/QUOTE]
Yes I meant against :smack:
[QUOTE=Eolbo]
I like the guy but I’m a sucker for over the top rhetoric. There are worse things in the world then a passionate asshole. Like mealy mouthed wishy washy ones.
[/QUOTE]
I can’t rebut this post without Godwinizing, so I’ll just assume you all can see its obvious flaws.