# Diogenes the Cynic **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 9, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062 "2010-11-09T17:52:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/1 "2010-11-09T17:52:22Z")
What happened to you man? You used to be cool. Now it seems like you are some weird caricature of a crotchety old man. You speak in these absolutes that completely lack any sort of nuance of understanding of the world. You act as if your narrow black and white view of the world is the only one that is viable. It would be annoying if it weren’t so sad. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/2 "2010-11-09T17:55:46Z")
Is it Tuesday again already? I must get those storm windows down. ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/3 "2010-11-09T18:07:43Z")
I really don’t get why people freak out over **Dio** so much. He’s OTT a lot of the time, but he’s coherent and says interesting things. Many times, he has a good point. If you don’t agree, just say so or stick him on ignore if you can’t handle reading his posts. Then again, I didn’t get why people freaked out about **bjorn** , either. I thought his posts were rather poetic. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/4 "2010-11-09T18:07:56Z")
Link? ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/5 "2010-11-09T18:11:54Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Link? Who needs _one_ link when there’s already been [all these](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?searchid=5881688). ETA: And that’s just in the last 12 months. ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/6 "2010-11-09T18:13:19Z")
Well, the specific thread is [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=584795), but really it could be just about every thread he posts in. There is just something inherently a bit scary about a person that consistently speaks in such absolutes. Plus it really does seem like he has gotten worse lately. I am really getting this dementia type vibe off of him. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/7 "2010-11-09T18:13:31Z")
I joke about needing a sticky thread for him but what we really need is a support group for the rest of us. When someone feels an urge to respond to one of his posts we PM our sponsor who hopefully talks us out of it. By now we all should know how attempting to talk to him is going to go. We are tempted to reason with him hoping we might actually get through to him but it’s not going to happen. He is never going to say “I see your point”, it will always be “you all are wrong and I’m right and that’s that”. And whenever we do respond to him we just get rewarded with frustration and endless pit threads. We should pit ourselves for falling for it yet again. If not a support group then a panic button that will lock us out of posting for 15 minutes and send us to the lolcat site or daily squee. ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/8 "2010-11-09T18:15:17Z")
> [@C3](#): > > I really don’t get why people freak out over **Dio** so much. He’s OTT a lot of the time, but he’s coherent and says interesting things. Many times, he has a good point. If you don’t agree, just say so or stick him on ignore if you can’t handle reading his posts. > > Then again, I didn’t get why people freaked out about **bjorn** , either. I thought his posts were rather poetic. He’s just a know-it-all know nothing who thinks his opinions count as facts. The only problem I have with him is that once he announces his verdict, the thread goes to hell in a handbasket. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/9 "2010-11-09T18:15:55Z")
Ah. You guys love him, come on admit it. Sure he’s stubborn with his views. But is that such a despicable trait to have around here? One has to admit he’s well written, adds a lot of interest to this place - whether you agree with the particular view he’s touting at the time or not. eta, can’t believe I am agreeing with C3, that absurd wench who changes diapers on restaurant table tops. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/10 "2010-11-09T18:20:45Z")
> [@Who\_me\_1](#): > > He’s just a know-it-all know nothing who thinks his opinions count as facts. That describes 90% of the people on here. > [@](#): > > The only problem I have with him is that once he announces his verdict, the thread goes to hell in a handbasket. Only because some people react so insanely to everything he says. If they just said, “huh” and moved on, the threads wouldn’t go into trainwreck mode. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/11 "2010-11-09T18:22:48Z")
> [@C3](#): > > He’s \*\*OTT \*\*a lot of the time, He plays for the New York Giants? ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/12 "2010-11-09T18:23:22Z")
> [@C3](#): > > I really don’t get why people freak out over **Dio** so much. Because once he comes into a thread, he never. _EVER_. shuts. the. fuck. up. Seriously, in the thread that prompted this, once he came in at least 50% of the posts have been by him and a vast majority have been by him or ABOUT him. He’s a fucking troll and a fucking attention whore, and unfortunately lots of people around here can’t resist rising to his bait and they allow him to totally overrun a thread. As one of the posters in that thread said: > [@Boyfriend spanked my son without my permission. Advice on how to chew him out most effectively?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boyfriend-spanked-my-son-without-my-permission-advice-on-how-to-chew-him-out-most-effectively/559934/125): > > Forget it. This thread has been **Dio** ’d. Any nuanced discussion is now impossible. better luck next time, OP. Game over. DtC came in and now it’s totally mutated into the Dio Show. Just like every other fucking thread he comes into. ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/13 "2010-11-09T18:24:08Z")
> [@C3](#): > > That describes 90% of the people on here. > > Only because some people react so insanely to everything he says. If they just said, “huh” and moved on, the threads wouldn’t go into trainwreck mode. Yeah, he is a lot like Liberal used to be in that regard. I think that it is because a lot of the time he seems like he is a rational human that is hard to not engage with him. It’s like you think that you can have a conversation or something then WHAM! Echo chamber. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/14 "2010-11-09T18:30:23Z")
> [@C3](#): > > Only because some people react so insanely to everything he says. If they just said, “huh” and moved on, the threads wouldn’t go into trainwreck mode. I disagree. He’s a huge know-it-all blowhard, but that’s not the problem. If he just tossed his opinion into the mix, even if people disagreed and spent a few posts commenting on why they thought he was wrong, no problem. The problem is that he immediately goes into posting mode, commenting on every comment on his comment, usually in the same absolutist blowhard style. It’s a style guaranteed to take over almost any thread. Look at page three of the [spanking thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=584795&page=3): almost every other post is from Dio. Now, to Dio, this is of course as it should be: how can we possibly expect him not to respond to a comment on one of his posts? But when thread after thread ends up as an everyone vs. Dio conversation, it’s pretty fucking annoying, given that this is in fact a message board and not Dio’s blog. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/15 "2010-11-09T18:33:58Z")
Again, I have to side with Diogenes here. Is there any better way to pad your post count than in a spanking thread? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/16 "2010-11-09T18:38:57Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > He’s a huge know-it-all blowhard No he’s not - check his title under his Username: he’s a self-proclaimed “Expert” That’s all we need to know - as far as \*\*Dio \*\*is concerned, he is The Expert We should all recognize that there is no arguing with The Expert and stop trying. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/17 "2010-11-09T18:44:33Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > Now, to Dio, this is of course as it should be: how can we possibly expect him not to respond to a comment on one of his posts? But when thread after thread ends up as an everyone vs. Dio conversation, it’s pretty fucking annoying, given that this is in fact a message board and not Dio’s blog. So **Dio** is the new **Liberal**? Looking at post counts, I see it’s true: **Diogenes the Cynic** : 50,915 posts **Liberal** : 39,401 posts I thought **Liberal** was overchatty. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/18 "2010-11-09T18:45:41Z")
I have [three fennec foxes](http://cheezdailysquee.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/21fc06d8-8f03-4f36-8658-86a669e69a81.jpg), your argument is invalid. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Understander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3da27b/32.png) [@The\_Understander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Understander)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/19 "2010-11-09T18:49:40Z")
When I read a Diogenes post, it’s like hearing an old protest song: “We shall not, we shall not be moved…” It seems that in an age where consensus is relegated to the result of upbringing and open-mindedness is taken as a code of weakness, Diogenes is simply expressing his views in a manner that will be taken as ‘strong’, because no one will change them. Hardly a unique phenomenon, I should say. It takes much strength to incorporate points of view other than one’s own and yet not see this as being a doormat. Not everyone has this strength, especially when so many people seem to espouse the point of view that incorporating anyone else’s point of view, or trying to, is weakness. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062/20 "2010-11-09T18:57:31Z")
I think he’s having a tough time realizing that he’s becoming conservative. Middle age is rough. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diogenes-the-cynic/560062.md?page=2)