# Devil's Advocate vs. Stirring Up (Marley23) **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 11, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devils-advocate-vs-stirring-up-marley23/532138 "2010-03-11T18:51:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devils-advocate-vs-stirring-up-marley23/532138/1 "2010-03-11T18:51:01Z")
> [@Sexual orientation, Virginia universities, and the new AG](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-orientation-virginia-universities-and-the-new-ag/532008/50): > > **Bricker** , playing devil’s advocate and asking questions is fine, but stirring people up is not encouraged. Please make sure you stay on the right side of the line here. > If this is to continue, take it to another forum. My defense of the first point was raised elsewhere in the thread, before I saw this post. I said: > [@](#): > > Here, I made a claim about the usual behavior of leftists, and, when asked to prove it, asserted that the responses to this very thread would provide the evidence needed. I grant you that such a statement may be inflammatory, primarily to those leftists uncomfortable with facing the facts, but it is neither extraneous nor off-topic, since the topic was precisely that. Now, of course, since all you said in your post was that this was an admonition to “Please make sure you stay on the right side of the line here,” and there does not appear to be a warning issued. So infer from this that while you believe I was on the right side of the line, you thought my position vis-a-vis the line was tenuously close. And that’s all. Yes? The second point is a bit more troubling. I don’t want to sound like a “He started it,” schoolkid, but in my view, **Hamlet** digs at me were sharper (and more frequent) than what I said to him, which was simply that he was taking personal swipes at me. If you see it differently, I’d appreciate the chance to discuss it. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devils-advocate-vs-stirring-up-marley23/532138/2 "2010-03-11T19:04:16Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I don’t want to sound like a “He started it,” schoolkid, but in my view, **Hamlet** digs at me were sharper (and more frequent) than what I said to him, which was simply that he was taking personal swipes at me. I was not simply taking personal swipes at you. I explained, in detail, why the position you took was patently wrong and bordering on the absurb. I thought a textualist like yourself would be the first to point out the flaws in your thinking and said so. If you want to take it as a personal attack in GD, I’d be more than happy to have the moderators delete the sentence you snipped from my post (leaving the rest unchallenged). ETA: Excepting the complete lack of a substantive response, I had no problem with you comparing me to a junkie. I have a thick enough skin that it didn’t bother me in the least. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devils-advocate-vs-stirring-up-marley23/532138/3 "2010-03-11T19:05:08Z")
Would you please provide a link to the thread and posts in question? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devils-advocate-vs-stirring-up-marley23/532138/4 "2010-03-11T19:08:01Z")
[Here is a link to the thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=555361) > [@Bricker](#): > > Now, of course, since all you said in your post was that this was an admonition to “Please make sure you stay on the right side of the line here,” and there does not appear to be a warning issued. Correct, there was no warning issued. > [@](#): > > So infer from this that while you believe I was on the right side of the line, you thought my position vis-a-vis the line was tenuously close. And that’s all. Yes? Yes. Especially because of this post: > [@Sexual orientation, Virginia universities, and the new AG](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-orientation-virginia-universities-and-the-new-ag/532008/7): > > No, I just figured I’d drop the thread here and let the SDMB’s Left prove my point. > [@](#): > > I don’t want to sound like a “He started it,” schoolkid, but in my view, **Hamlet** digs at me were sharper (and more frequent) than what I said to him, which was simply that he was taking personal swipes at me. He made some personal comments, but that wasn’t how I saw it. The worst he said, as I saw it, was that you had chosen the wrong side in this debate and that (in his view) you knew the law did not support your opinion. I thought the ‘heroin addict’ post was going to cause things to escalate further, so I commented on that. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devils-advocate-vs-stirring-up-marley23/532138/5 "2010-03-11T19:19:13Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > He made some personal comments, but that wasn’t how I saw it. The worst he said, as I saw it, was that you had chosen the wrong side in this debate and that (in his view) you knew the law did not support your opinion. I thought the ‘heroin addict’ post was going to cause things to escalate further, so I commented on that. Fair enough. I was trying to come up with an analogy for an extremely difficult habit to break. Seldom are such habits positive traits: I could have said an alcoholic thirsting for a drink or a smoker on nicotine withdrawal, I suppose, but we think of sober alcoholics and folks successful at quitting smoking much more readily than we think of someone kicking heroin. But I withdraw the comment, and simply say that this isn’t the first post, nor the first thread, in which a subtle, not-so–subtle, or overt dig has come at me from **Hamlet** -town. But that’s that. Thanks for the clarifications. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devils-advocate-vs-stirring-up-marley23/532138/6 "2010-03-11T20:29:19Z")
I saw **Marley’s** post in that thread and was taken aback. It seemed to come out of the blue and was totally unnecessary. Perhaps he was just trying to put a little pressure on **Bricker** to make that debate a little less lopsided. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devils-advocate-vs-stirring-up-marley23/532138/7 "2010-03-11T21:10:53Z")
**magellan** has a boooooooooyfriiiiiiiiiiend ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devils-advocate-vs-stirring-up-marley23/532138/8 "2010-03-11T23:31:36Z")
He better not go to a Virginia public university, then. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devils-advocate-vs-stirring-up-marley23/532138/9 "2010-03-12T15:51:22Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > I saw **Marley’s** post in that thread and was taken aback. It seemed to come out of the blue and was totally unnecessary. You take-a that aback! I wasn’t posting in that thread and I didn’t read any of it until some posts were reported. I had no interest in putting pressure on anybody. I responded because **Bricker** comes close to taunting people with that post and I thought the thread needed a nudge back on track.