This rant is a bit late because I had not seen the travesty that occurred in a discussion I was involved in a little while back. I’m putting it in the pit because this is where complaints and personal judgements go, and this contains both.
I was shocked earlier to see what had transpired in the forum during my absence:
From Israeli Refusedniks are courageous and right
First of all, I bow to the awesome power of moderators and follow their will. Since I do not recall being previously warned in my years arund here and I have reason to believe that my conduct is good in spite of my occasional lack of patience for stupidity, I wish set the record straight.
Gaudere, would you kindly explain why you warned me for edging near direct personal attacks right after the board’s resident troll directly accused me of prejudice? I didn’t say a single untrue or inapplicable word in that entire thread, even after I was accused by The Moron. When December accused me of prejudice (which anyone who knows these boards understands December is rife with) I slapped back. I didn’t tell December that he was an idiot who was deliberately misunderstanding the argument in his regular trolling efforts. I told him what is quoted above, for which I got slapped on the wrist.
Perhaps such a response as mine is too harsh when one is called prejudiced, or bigoted, or racist, or anti-Jew, or any other label based on the irritating unfounded claims of a confirmed troll? If I were discussing this with someone I know is capable of objective discussion, and if I hadn’t been accused of prejudice, I could understand the warning.
But everyone knows December’s debate tactics hinge on discrediting and disinforming first and arguing second, while all the time “writing for bites”. He is happy accusing the media of a liberal bias every few weeks with shoddy evidence, or he issues yet another unsupported (in fact, if not in appearance) “Conservatives are good, Liberals are bad” piece of shit proclamation, or he claims that European leaders are anti-Jewish, or he equates Arabs and Nazis, or he accuses me of prejudice without grounds.
And I get warned for it?
I fully understand that I am subject to loss of patience like most other humans, although there too I think I have not done too poorly. But in a case where my patience held after being (rather idiotically) accused of prejudice by someone clearly himself prejudiced, and after I restricted myself to writing down the simple truth rather than ad hominem attacks, it seems that the dark forces of idiocy and injustice have been upheld at the expense of even-handed reason.
It’s interesting to note that I have always been quite patient with December considering his average output, and the comment for which I was warned was probably the most “extreme” thing I ever wrote about him in spite of his vigorous trolling efforts. Talk about biting the hand that fed diet pills to the undercover troll.
