Without pointing fingers, I see that two Dopers have been suspended recently because of comments they addressed specifically to me personally, and presumably “my kind”. Not only because of their statements to me, of course – but the ones pointed at me seem to have been a straw that broke … um, something or someone’s … back. And I’ve been Pitted 4 times that I know of, for pretty ridiculous things IMO.
Yes, I’m a shameless liberal. And yes, I post utter nonsense just to show off my self-assessed genius of language and wit. The aforementioned two items are not necessarily related. Yes, I can be obsessive and stubborn as a mule about things that other people find trivial.
I am guilty of all these things on occasion, in fact pretty frequently. But I am verklempt. I don’t say things to anger people, I say things to amuse you or myself (mostly me), or because I have some passionate beliefs and I don’t really care particularly whether you agree with me or not (like mandatory sterilization of all children and also cutting their vocal cords, but I digress). I find it amazing and somewhat disturbing that I evoke such responses from others. OTOH, perhaps I am the litmus test, the canary in the mineshaft, or some other equally inappropriate example of a test of the character of other posters. I think there are a bunch MORE assholes who should be banned from here, and maybe I can play straw and camel again without even knowing it.
I think you’re hilarious dude. I imagine an IRL meeting between the two of us would end up in drinking a few beers, lots of laughing, and talking about all sorts of interesting things.
As far as your online persona here, I’m not the one to ask by any means. You and I may have called each other various names in the past, but I have no recollection of it. I find it very hard to hold a grudge of any kind.
We seem to have similar political beliefs, so I doubt we would have sparred much about any topic.
You seem like a pretty cool dude to me.
With the understanding reason and restraint don’t come naturally to me anyhow, no man, you don’t bug ME at all. In fact, I could have written your post with the exception of the being pitted part and posters getting banned for aiming remarks at me. I’m evidently so obnoxious I’m ignored by half the board. But no, I like your style.
Upon reading the thread title and seeing who posted it, my thought was, “Really? Seriously? I don’t remember any torch-wielding mobs coming after Boyo Jim. What’s that about?”
Yeah, I think you’re pretty innocuous. I wouldn’t even necessarily know who you are, except for the fact that you’re one of my two (count 'em! Two!) board “friends”.
But now that I know you’re an unwitting catalyst of hate and ill-will…
But no, I like your style.