Durp
It didn’t take
You weren’t deserving of the attention before and aren’t so now.
I say Congratulations indeed! I raiseth mine goblet and salute you Sir OP. Many years of good fortune and health upon you and may your goat never be a cunt.
I’m glad you’ve come back. The Dope needs varied opinions.
But yes, stay out of the Pit. The rules of GD/Elections force a certain level of civility, which in turn encourages debate.
[Piper puts on the theme from “Welcome Back, Stringbean!”]
Can’t blame you. It’s really hard to find a forum even half as good as Straight Dope.
Who are you?
Stringbean does not provide one of those varied opinions, though. That was what we pointed out when he pretended to leave. He only posts to antagonize.
Even this thread is just him trying to make a big splash. He was literally already back. He’s replied in several threads before this. And literally none of them were “intellectual responses.” Now he’s inviting people to do the very thing that he claims is why he left.
And I don’t know what post you guys are reading, but nothing in that post read like an actual apology. An apology would be something like “I’m sorry. I’ve been a jerk. I really need to work on that.” And even longer than that, to show you really mean it. But here there’s no admission of fault. No sign of actual remorse. No sign of actual changed behavior.
And I say this as someone who is very, very keen on forgiveness. But you don’t get it by making some giant announcement thread about how you’re coming back. You don’t apologize for your drama queen post while making another one.
You want to get forgiveness? Show it. Don’t come in and tell us how you’ll be better. Be better. You want to engage only on an intellectual level? Do that.
If Stringbean goes a few months without being a jerk, then I’ll not only treat him like his jerk behavior didn’t happen, but also defend him if other people bring it up, since I think that’s just shitty.
But you don’t get to be a huge jerk, whine about how everyone treats you like you treat them, flounce out and then just come back and then suddenly everyone’s supposed to be nice to you.
The only reason I’m not actually flaming him is that I’m pretty sure that’s what he wants. It would give him an excuse to attack people back.
Imagine if every asshole who didn’t post for a week started a thread about it. Ban the silly bitch.
No, he did not.
If you’re still reading, Stringbean:
The problem isn’t your positions. It’s fine to have political positions that disagree with other Dopers (even if conservatives tend to get a lot of pushback, including some personal insults that I think is usually inappropriate). It’s that (according to your flounce-post, at least) you aren’t willing to assume the same about your critics that you want them to assume about you. You’ve stated that you don’t believe liberal Dopers (at least the majority, I assume) argue in good faith. You’ve stated that they/we don’t debate honestly.
Well, most of us do. Most pushback and criticism of you and other conservative Dopers don’t include personal labels of racist, bigot, alt-right, or the like. Most of it is honest debate, even if it can be impassioned. Yes, there are asshole liberal Dopers, and asshole-ish posts, and that’s a shame, but they will always be there.
If you debate honestly, and assume that most of the pushback is also honest debate, then you’ll be fine. It is a mostly liberal board, and in a mostly liberal board conservatives will get more pushback than if it was a moderate or conservative board. This says nothing more about Dopers than that we’re human.
Your moralizing grew tiresome a long time ago. In fact, I believe you irritate more people than the OP. Until this thread I really wasn’t aware of hir. I don’t remember reading any of hir posts nor that s/he/it had flounced. I remember lots of threads featuring your flatulent, pompous sanctimony though. You’ve irritated so many people so many times that “Shut up, Big Tard” has replaced “Hi Opal!” Why don’t you stick that wagging finger up your ass and lose the delusion that you are the board’s conscience, you neurotic basement-dwelling windbag?
Once. For twenty minutes.
I wouldn’t recommend un-flouncing.
You know, cavities and all that.
Leaving aside whether liberals or conservatives (on this board) are more likely to exhibit those negative traits, the real issue is the extent to which that subgroup influences the overall discussion. Even if it’s the same on a percentage basis, the liberal cohort is a far greater force in shaping the board dynamic, due to the number imbalance.
So a theoretical person who has issues with that isn’t making a statement about the majority of liberals on this board. Only that there are enough “bad” ones that make it unpleasant for that person, regardless of the rest.
That’s possible, but that’s not what Stringbean was saying, at least by my interpretation of his words. He seemed to be indicting the whole board, or at least most of it, by my reading.
This is a boring thread. I think we need a good, weapons grade, full retard, melt down on the part of the OP.
I didn’t know that Green Bean had left. 
Welcome back.
Regards,
Shodan