# Dopers who stay away from train wrecks and dogpiles. Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 20, 2013, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dopers-who-stay-away-from-train-wrecks-and-dogpiles-why/656209 "2013-04-20T10:47:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dopers-who-stay-away-from-train-wrecks-and-dogpiles-why/656209/61 "2013-04-23T02:38:43Z")
For a minute there, I thought **Taomist** said “Semitic wordplay” and was wondering what speaking Yiddish had to do with anything. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dopers-who-stay-away-from-train-wrecks-and-dogpiles-why/656209/62 "2013-04-23T04:31:12Z")
Surprisingly, I steered clear of the recent JOSH train wreck threads. I don’t know why. If I had to give a reason, I’d say there was something a little too unsavory coming from both sides of that mess. My contribution would have added nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dopers-who-stay-away-from-train-wrecks-and-dogpiles-why/656209/63 "2013-04-23T04:35:33Z")
One thing is I’ve got older and can’t be bothered any more. Another thing is that I’ve been there done that: there aren’t as many new topics that I am both interested in, and have never played out in debate before, as there were ten years ago. A further thing is that it can be poster specific. We have, as the saying goes, a few total dipsticks. The worst of them are posters who have unshakeable confidence in their strong and stridently stated opinions, little capacity for rational thought, little capacity to absorb or assess facts, and no qualms about doing whatever it takes to preserve their views. The Dunning Kruger effect comes into operation which means they have difficulty recognising they may be wrong so they will not back down or slink away. When challenged by contrary arguments and facts clear enough that they are in danger of understanding why they are wrong, they avoid the mental pain of cognitive dissonance by utilizing the full panoply of logical fallacies and debating dirty tricks to try to convince others - and I suspect more importantly themslves - that they are not as obviously wrong as they are. This incenses or irritates their opponents leading to vituperative exchanges and a trainwreck, which appears from the outside to be two pigs rolling in the mud. Of course, to make it worse, sometimes there are pigs on both sides of the debate. This is a lesson it took me a few years to learn. There are a few poster/topic combinations (to be found for example in our trainwrecks _de la jour_) which pretty much instantly cause me to conclude the thread won’t be worth posting in and will trainwreck: the fact that the topic is worth discussing and that many reasonable posters will attempt to do so is as nothing to the fact that the thread is going to be dominated by one (or more) of our resident dipshits. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dopers-who-stay-away-from-train-wrecks-and-dogpiles-why/656209/64 "2013-04-23T04:40:29Z")
> [@deltasigma](#): > > Main motivation there though was that I happen to have a soft spot for obvious trolls who manage to skirt the letter of the forum’s rules _while butt-fucking the spirit of them._ > [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > Surprisingly, I steered clear of the recent JOSH train wreck threads. I don’t know why. If I had to give a reason, I’d say there was something _a little too unsavory coming from both sides of that mess._ My contribution would have added nothing. Butt-fucking can be like that sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dopers-who-stay-away-from-train-wrecks-and-dogpiles-why/656209/65 "2013-04-23T04:50:14Z")
I’ll watch what happens with the group of villagers brandishing torches and pitchforks, but I won’t join them. I’m not a team player, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dopers-who-stay-away-from-train-wrecks-and-dogpiles-why/656209/66 "2013-04-23T21:32:08Z")
Several reasons: 1. I can’t allocate the time necessary to continually follow up on any particular thread enough to stay involved in a long “conversation” 2. They invariably devolve into “depends on what the definition of “is” is, jerk!” 3. Bye Opal! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dopers-who-stay-away-from-train-wrecks-and-dogpiles-why/656209.md?page=3)