# I Pit Babale **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 7, 2025, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738 "2025-04-07T14:59:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/301 "2025-05-06T16:13:43Z")
LHOD asked about “prominent progressive thinkers”. I think the “prominent” part is the more important here. If I say “MAGAs believe the Jews control the weather with space lasers” and am challenged to cite a “prominent MAGA thinker” who believes that, I think “Marjorie Taylor Greene” is a legitimate response, even though in almost any other context I wouldn’t be likely to describe MTG as a “thinker”. Not looking for academic philosophers here, but people who have a public voice that some nontrivial number of people take seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/302 "2025-05-06T16:14:06Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Where is that happening in practice? Douchebag, you don’t get to lay off the rofls for a hot second and think I forget. You’re a toxic shitbag who won’t stay civil for the length of a Drake track. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/303 "2025-05-06T16:15:57Z")
He constantly claims that he is on “our” side…much like the friendly person on the other side of the poker table that has one goal in mind. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/304 "2025-05-06T16:16:53Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > Not looking for academic philosophers here, but people who have a public voice that some nontrivial number of people take seriously. Oh! Now I get it. You mean like [Dean Withers](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Withers), a progressive activist with over 3 million subscribers? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/305 "2025-05-06T16:17:55Z")
“Look! Over there!!” Where is Dean Wither’s political power? How often does he appear on the national news? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/306 "2025-05-06T16:18:58Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Douchebag, you don’t get to lay off the rofls for a hot second and think I forget. You’re a toxic shitbag who won’t stay civil for the length of a Drake track. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’ve been unfailingly polite, while I have been nothing but rude. Civility is not some virtue in and of itself. When you present faux civility while being a disingenuous piece of shit, I’m gonna call that out. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/307 "2025-05-06T16:20:10Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Look! Over there!! How _dare_ I change the topic by bringing up the original subject of discussion! ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/308 "2025-05-06T16:21:27Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Civility is not some virtue in and of itself. When you present faux civility while being a disingenuous piece of shit, I’m gonna call that out. You halfwit, you’re calling me out when I’m perfectly sincere, because you’re too busy tonguing yourself to notice sincerity. There’s zero chance that your arrogant fuckery will ever allow you to hold a rational conversation. My error has not been in “faux civility,” but in repeatedly running at the football you hold because I think this time you’ll not pull it away. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/309 "2025-05-06T16:21:51Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > If there are dumb people thinking they’re following careful thinking, but they’re misunderstanding it, the first recourse is to educate those people, and the second recourse is to isolate the ineducable. If your ideas are so universally misunderstood and misused, then there is likely a problem with those ideas. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > In this case, the progressive thinkers who write about intersectionality are overwhelmingly not of the “pyramid of oppression” approach (which is itself an incredibly ill-defined thing, but I’ll posit its existence for now). I wonder if it’s genuinely less visible to you because you’re a white cishet etc man? There’s no group you can get away with dumping on, except maybe the rich. 🤔 * * * > [@Thing.Fish](#): > > LHOD asked about “prominent progressive thinkers”. I think the “prominent” part is the more important here. If I point at what such a person says, you’ll say I misunderstood. If I try to give examples of how it works in practice, you’ll say I’m nut picking and ask for 20 more examples, or say that the privileged group actually is worse and deserves it. It’s not very worthwhile from my perspective. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/310 "2025-05-06T16:22:19Z")
You couldn’t stick to an original topic of discussion if you had three rolls of duct tape, a quart of Super Glue and a handful of rivets. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/311 "2025-05-06T16:22:20Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > If your ideas are so universally misunderstood and misused, then there is likely a problem with those ideas. They’re not universally misunderstood and misused. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/312 "2025-05-06T16:23:13Z")
Well, his “universe” is a mite smaller than most. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/313 "2025-05-06T16:24:24Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’ve been unfailingly polite, while I have been nothing but rude. Lmao. Gotta love how even being polite is regularly used against people here. You just can’t win. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/314 "2025-05-06T16:25:17Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Well, his “universe” is a mite smaller than mos Did you just misgender DemonTree? Or are you just too senile to remember who the sentence was about? ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/315 "2025-05-06T16:27:01Z")
Yes, despite the fact I’ve never heard of him, if he has 3 million followers, that would be a good answer! But the wikipedia page you linked just describes him as a guy who identifies as a liberal and debates MAGAts on YouTube, and doesn’t go into any detail about his thoughts about the “pyramid of oppression” or anything else. His own home page is just a bunch of links to Instagram videos. Cite that he holds stupid opinions on this subject? (To be clear, identifying certain groups in society as being more oppressed than others is obviously just acknowledging reality. I only consider it stupid if someone is arguing that individuals in everyday life should be deferred to or ignored depending on their places on the “pyramid”. I’ll also count excessive preoccupation with defining some group’s exact place on the “pyramid” as being stupid.) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/316 "2025-05-06T16:27:18Z")
No, I just misremembered, and made what is _usually_ called by normal people a mistake. And I thank you _ever_ so much for your unfailing politeness. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/317 "2025-05-06T16:28:43Z")
Google Babale’s “unfailingly polite” line. It’s a meme. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/318 "2025-05-06T16:29:04Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > You halfwit, you’re calling me out when I’m perfectly sincere, If you were being sincere, then you’re too ideologically captured to have a reasonable discussion. You can deny it all you want, but the example I have wasn’t some fringe thing. This _is_ the dominant form of progressivism that young people are exposed to, and it’s _completely ineffective_ at appealing to them or even at preventing them from being captured by right wing ideology. If you don’t want to talk about it, we don’t have to. But if you’re going to pretend I’m a bad faith liar for bringing it up, I’m going to call you out on it. Sorry, not sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/319 "2025-05-06T16:29:27Z")
He is on the left and she is on the right, and that is about as deep as it gets…for some people. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/320 "2025-05-06T16:29:59Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Civility is not some virtue in and of itself. When you present faux civility while being a disingenuous piece of shit, I’m gonna call that out. And yet you get so mad when I do it to you. > [@Babale](#): > > How _dare_ I change the topic by bringing up the original subject of discussion! The original subject of discussion was you being a disingenuous piece of shit. > [@DemonTree](#): > > If your ideas are so universally misunderstood and misused, then there is likely a problem with those ideas. “It’s your fault that I keep lying about your ideas” is yet another wild take. > [@DemonTree](#): > > I wonder if it’s genuinely less visible to you because you’re a white cishet etc man? There’s no group you can get away with dumping on, except maybe the rich. 🤔 I wonder if you’ve moved on to making this specious argument because all your previous attempts at toxic bullshit have failed? > [@DemonTree](#): > > Lmao. Gotta love how even being polite is regularly used against people here. You just can’t win. Poor you. It’s so unfair how people keep calling out your toxic bullshit, even when you feign civility. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738.md?page=17)