# I pit Bricker for subtle reasons **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 21, 2011, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403 "2011-01-21T01:39:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/41 "2011-01-21T15:28:03Z")
\*\*Bricker \*\*didn’t recognize me in my new whiskers coat. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/42 "2011-01-21T15:28:53Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Just my humble opinion here: **Bricker** can be really annoying at times, and he is in the thread about the golf-club-wielding drug user shot by a cop, but this board would be much worse without him. If he wasn’t in that thread, who the hell would I argue with? ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/43 "2011-01-21T15:39:01Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > Everything that Bricker says and does on this board is totally within the rules and parameters established by the administrators. > [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Redundancy. > [@Isamu](#): > > Usually I agree with you, but not this time. There are things you can “do” on the board that don’t amount to “saying” anything (like creating a sock puppet, etc) > [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Speculation. You have no way of knowing if **Bricker** has created a sock or not. > [@Isamu](#): > > In my mind he’s innocent until proven guilty. Loved this exchange. I think the OP makes reasonable points. However… message board posters with minority beliefs face enough problems that I’m inclined to cut them more slack. In a typical thread in which **Bricker** is expounding/defending a minority view there will be dozens of opposing posts making very bad arguments. Maybe 1/2 the responses to him will be laughably illogical. But those responses get ignored, in order than **Bricker** ’s small perceived flaws can be assaulted. Posters tend to let errors slide when made by posters with beliefs similar to their own. On SDMB conservative posters face an uphill battle that extends past merely arguing the points of a given controversy. Of course the fact that they are mostly delusional doesn’t make things any easier. So: okay pitting but meh. ---
**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:** [January 21, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/44 "2011-01-21T15:46:30Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > **Bricker** would probably correctly identify Marquess of Queensberry Rules. 😉 I knew someone would make this comment, or similar, but was hoping, with baited breath, it would be **Bricker** himself. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/45 "2011-01-21T15:57:19Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > I knew someone would make this comment, or similar, but was hoping, with baited breath, it would be **Bricker** himself. 🙂 Your breath smells like earthworms? Or did you mean 'bated breath? (See, if you just toss enough …er…bait… out there, I’ll find it.) ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/46 "2011-01-21T16:02:29Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Your breath smells like earthworms? Indeed: you smelled the baited breath and took the bait 🙂 – if the breath had merely been bated, you wouldn’t be here. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/47 "2011-01-21T16:07:34Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Your breath smells like earthworms? > > Or did you mean 'bated breath? > > (See, if you just toss enough …er…bait… out there, I’ll find it.) Bricker found an eggcorn! Points awarded. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/48 "2011-01-21T16:18:59Z")
Chuck Norris is **Bricker’s** Girl-Friday. ---
**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:** [January 21, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/49 "2011-01-21T16:26:47Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Your breath smells like earthworms? > > Or did you mean 'bated breath? > > (See, if you just toss enough …er…bait… out there, I’ll find it.) You don’t want to know what my breath smells like :). Seriously, yes, I meant ‘bated’, but I appreciate the classic **Bricker** focus on minutiae response. [Wonders if **Bricker** will take the ‘bait’] 😃 ---
**Author:** ![3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/47e85d/32.png) [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3_20_59_or_bust)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/50 "2011-01-21T16:48:52Z")
> [@digs](#): > > This is so unfair. What if Bryan Ekers had been a dick? Or kaylasdad? Or Cat Whisperer? > > Sure, pick on Bricker. HE has to play by the Marquis of Kingsbury Rules, and EVERYone else gets a pass. > > I mean, what if a lib’rul was a dick? Would anyone even notice? Oh, no, the SD Hive Mind would never allow that to even be perceived. Will SOMEone here admit that Ted Kennedy was a dick at Chappaquiddick? No, didn’t think so. > > And Bricker’s not even here to nitpick a side-topic like the etymology of dick. And whether dickness is a contributing factor in excommunication. > > It’s just SOOOOOOO unfair! > [/sarcasm] Well, now at least I have a [good mental picture of Bricker](http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40707000/jpg/_40707962_w6.jpg). Yeah, that’s about right. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/51 "2011-01-21T16:56:55Z")
> [@digs](#): > > This is so unfair. What if Bryan Ekers had been a dick? Or kaylasdad? Or Cat Whisperer?\ Well, that seems unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/52 "2011-01-21T17:35:10Z")
[It’s threads like this one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=593861) which keep me from taking him seriously. An OP like that one is not something that someone interested in a dispassionate search for the truth (along with a healthy respect for the concept of doing what is right for the country) would pen, but it is something that a propagandist with an axe to grind would. In other words, an admission from him that Beck, Limbaugh et al. have gone way over the top with their rhetoric is the main issue here would impress the hell out of me, but of course we aren’t going to get that from him. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/53 "2011-01-21T18:02:23Z")
Oh, sure you will, so long as you are willing to admit that Limbaugh and Beck are entirely equivalent to Mark Shields insanely venemous rants at David Brooks. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/54 "2011-01-21T19:11:37Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > I would imagine he’d go down a lot better were he to say stuff like “while I personally believe that cutting children’s thumbs off is wrong, you’ll find that in Daumenlutscher vs Scissor-Wielding Tailor, it was established that this is a constitutionally sound punishment for thumb sucking”. _\_ You know, if the RW nightmare ever happens and gay marriage is enshrined into law so that all of us straight men have to get married to another man, I think I’ll call dibs on you, just because I loved that reference so much. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/55 "2011-01-21T19:16:39Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > (2) Someone complains about something that some public conservative did. Bricker then jumps in and says “but would you complain if (some public liberal) did a similar thing? huh? would you? are you a hypocrite? c’mon, huh?”. I think the complaint here (a common one on the SDMB, BTW) misses the point of responses like Bricker’s. The point is not about whether liberals are hypocrites. Rather, it’s a response to the perceived implication of the original complaint, that conservatives are evil because … As a response to that implication, it’s logical and proper to point out that the offense needs to be viewed in context of how common it is among the public at large, and members of the opposite end of the political spectrum in particular. And the perception of this implication is a valid one, IMO. If this was a predominantly middle-of-the-road MB, with middle-of-the-road posters pointing out transgression by members of both parties in a non-partisan way, then the guy who always jumped in with that type of response would be missing the point. But as it is, complaints about Evil Republicans/Conservatives are a constant theme on this MB, and IMHO it takes almost willful blindness to not see that these individual complaints are components of the broader theme. And even if not intended in that manner by an individual poster or OP, that’s how they play into the existing dynamic of this MB. As such, responses such as Bricker’s are valid and logical. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/56 "2011-01-21T19:57:17Z")
Geez, this is the most anti-pit pitting I’ve ever seen. Someone throw a stone or a punch or something! ---
**Author:** ![llcoolbj77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb9ed0/32.png) [@llcoolbj77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/llcoolbj77)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/57 "2011-01-21T20:00:39Z")
**Bricker** , please don’t read what I am about to post… I began lurking here around 2003. I was a law student. I thought **Bricker** was the bees knees, and hysterical. He was one of the main reasons I joined. He and I probably agree about very few things (not law-related anyway), but I did/do like him. I think he tends to bring a bit of levity to a lot of discussions. But don’t tell him I said so. I have a sneaking suspician that his ego cup runneth over (not unlike almost every attorney I know, myself included). ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/58 "2011-01-21T20:08:54Z")
He would lead you into an excruciatingly precise definition of “ego”, with a three page long diversion into whether or not Little Orphan Annie was a lesbian. Then, applying his newly refined definition of “ego”, he would present you with one occassion from ten years ago when, if you squint your eyes and hold it upside down, he sorta kinda has a point, almost. Then declare victory. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/59 "2011-01-21T23:48:14Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > I’d argue that his largest blind spot is (the OP’s number 2) in the tu quoque argument. He’s entirely too eager to state as a defense to some Republican/conservative action, “Democrats do it too.” That has nothing to do with whether it’s a correct or appropriate action. In fairness, that’s not what he does at all. There are some people (on both sides) who do that. Bricker at no point either defended the job killing health care bill title or said that Democrats had proposed bills with equally idiotic titles. Instead he did something more subtle, which is that he asked if the OPer would be equally outraged if a Democrat proposed such a bill. This does several clever things: (a) it strongly implies that Democrats do and have proposed such bills without having to actually outright state such (which would of course open him up to being called on it) (b) it puts the OPer on the defensive… now for your thread to continue you have to prove that you’re not a hypocrite. Which is very hard to do (c) it tends to totally derail the thread entirely, until the original complaint is lost and forgotten > [@](#): > > Overall, I’ve got to admit I’m rather pleased he’s a member here. Absolutely agreed. Perhaps we should move this thread from the BBQ pit to the Huggie-love-fest-pit. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403/60 "2011-01-21T23:52:17Z")
> [@Mtgman](#): > > You’ve posted a number of these pit threads now about some tightly nuanced aspect of some tiny subset of board behaviors or specific poster behaviors. You’re absolutely right… I definitely feel like this issue has become my pet board cause, presumably a hopeless one. On the other hand, while the odds of my changing the behavior of the entire board are presumably slim to none, that doesn’t mean there’s no chance I’ll change the behavior of anyone at all… And thanks for the generally kind words 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-bricker-for-subtle-reasons/568403.md?page=4)