I denounce, renounce and condemn your stance against this Board’s declared purpose of fighting liberal hypocrisy…
Wait, what? “Ignorance”, you say? Well. Hmmmmm. Never mind, then, carry on!
Nothing “solves” the problem, but while responding in kind exacerbates the problem in terms of setting the overall tone of the discussion, it also tends to level the playing field somewhat.
So the issue is how to weigh “elevating the tone” versus “leveling the playing field” as considerations. And this assessment is where you will tend to find a divergence of opinion between those who benefit from a non-level playing field and those who suffer from it.
In my opinion and experience, no poster can get by as a minority ideology on a MB (unless tightly controlled by unbiased moderators) without a good left jab, just to keep things level. I’ve never seen it done by anyone, on any MB (or blog), and don’t think it can be.
It’s not important. I am satisfied that I have felt and acted on the inclination to offer corrections to arguments (even those with ends that I support) when it suits me. I tend to start such posts with “To be fair…”
I was never under any obligation to do so, though.
Then the approach should be to report such posts to the Mods to get the poster warned or banned. Posting a disagreement requires quoting the bullshit argument then addressing it. It’s like reacting to a piece of litter by slapping a Post-It Note on it saying “I disagree with this!” It doesn’t remove the litter, it just calls attention to it.
I suppose arguably enough objections to litter might get the litterer to stop, assuming the litterer is just careless and not a willful vandal (ie a troll) who just LOVES it when his litter gets attention. If you want to do the sorting, be my guest, but if you want to demand I join you, you can go pound salt, bub.
Great. So the field of name-calling, insults, and stupidity is level.
I don’t have a problem with the occasional jab back, a quick retort, or a clever putdown. Hell, that’s what makes this board both interesting and fun. And I think Shodan, for all his many, many, many flaws, is quite good at that part of it. But when that’s the majority of things you do now, as is the case with Bricker (and Shodan), then it’s not redeeming in the slightest. Add in Brickers’ apparent belief that he is better than the idiots he engages with, and it’s not just unredeeming, it’s deluded.
I once treated Bricker as an equal. He would plow through my posts to find one misplaced comma or such and respond only to that. I finally had my fill when he refused to admit Karl Rove was slimy, and claimed that Clinton’s infidelity was more significant that Bush’s lies to go to stupid war.
Now I treat him the way I’d treat a dog who can’t stop going poo on the carpet – I rub his nose in his shit. Yes, I’m childish, but at least I’m not a lying immoral scumbag.
You sell yourself short…
Understand, the distinction isn’t between people who are polite and people who are snarky. The distinction is between people who post stupid, obviously false things and those who do not. More than right & left, and more than people who agree with me & those who disagree, these are the two categories I primarily group posters into, and I absolutely lose respect for people in the former category. As should you.
Wait, you think we benefit when dumbasses on our “side” post idiotic or offensive things? I’m fucking embarrassed when that happens. I bet you are, too. When you’re involved in a debate with someone, and a third party pops up and engages in trollish attacks against your opponent, do you think to yourself, “Oh, good. That helps me out.”
If not, I don’t think your criticism makes a lot of sense. Of course it feels worse to receive attacks from both the high road and the low simultaneously, but that doesn’t mean your debate opponent benefits from the low-road attacks. It’s not zero-sum.
Probably that would be best, but at least it would be wise not to engage in more than one simple, corrective reply. And it would certainly be a mistake if it inspired me to write posts that are so bad they begin to affect my reputation.
Well I agree with you about it not being the majority of what you do (unless you’re really really good at it and can entertain the masses) but I suspect that we disagree about who the main offenders are in this area.
In fact there are others lending their august opinions to this very thread whose substance-to-flippancy ratios are far far lower than those you name.
Well, I’m glad this board is mostly above the “lol u fag” level of discourse and even at the height of the gamergate argument we didn’t degenerate to the level of the people who were actually involved in gamergate.
I guess I don’t disagree with what you are saying as an ideal or a principle. That’s just not reality though. Its not just one post that needs a simple corrective response. If I have to trawl through five, six posts of snarky backwards idiotic pile on bulshit to get to one semi serious point hidden in three paragraphs of the same snarky bullshit and then be piled on even more if I don’t IMMEDIATELY respond begging forgiveness the error of my lifetime of misinformation with full quotes, cites, and letters from my mum, fuck it. The reality is I am gonna start to feel some negative shit and fling back.
I don’t think the “other side benefits” from an idealistic point of view, as such, but it definitely distracts the conversation away from the honesty and focus of the debate (as much as a real debate happens in the Pit) and turns into a pile on frenzy. To sorta give back some of that I think is warranted.
You have folks saying yeah these pile ons happen and if it aligns with my idelogical viewpoint I’m gonna sit by and watch and quite possibly give a quick kick while I am at it. Then at the same time, complain when the piled on person starts kicking back. It’s kinda horseshit.
Sure, if you want to be LAZY about it.
Or at least if that’s what you want to do, don’t WHINE about it and expect to be taken seriously.
When assholes are saying stupid things to you it’s more than understandable to want to respond in kind, and it’s NEARLY as understandable to actually do so. Nonetheless, if you get to the point where most of your time is spent going tit-for-tat with snarky assholes, well … guess what that makes you?
If you lie down with dogs, etc.
I did lol, I’ll give you that.
Again, don’t disagree, but don’t blame them for the flea ridden threads.
Srsly? Does anyone expect to be taken “seriously” in the Pit?
I will admit the thought made me chuckle.
Yeah, I know, the whole thing is pretty meta-absurd. Still, I’ve made serious arguments in Pit threads, to be met by Bricker’s “Waaahhh, the meanies are being so mean and the people making serious arguments (which I am currently ignoring and/or flippantly dismissing) are being so mean by not being mean to the meanies, and they’re forcing me to be mean…! Waaahhh!”
Like that but, y’know, serious.
Quit whining, ya pussy.
Was it one of the Pit threads on Fukushima or on global warming that finally convinced you? 
I got an official goddamn censorship spanking/warming for that post, but it was worth it.