# I pit exaggeration about SDMB partisan-ness **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 6, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-exaggeration-about-sdmb-partisan-ness/523968 "2010-01-06T22:30:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-exaggeration-about-sdmb-partisan-ness/523968/201 "2010-01-11T04:07:44Z")
I’ve actually stopped posting to broad categories of threads lately (for the past year or so)…not political threads (though I’ve cut down on those too), but thread involving evolution, the paranormal, etc. Not because I have a contrary view on those things, but because my views are basically in line with the majority of this boards, and basically I sometimes feel sorry for the poor schlubs who wander in to post contrary views on those subjects. Mind, many of them deserve the pile on they get…but after a while it just looses it’s fun, and there really is no chance for anything like a reasoned debate on those type subjects on this board. The same is getting true for most of the CT type threads, though those can sometimes be amusing to participate in…for a while. But you are right, the numbers definitely make a difference. I have friends who are on some of the conservative type boards, and from what they tell me the same things happen to the few ‘liberal’ types left…they get piled on and have basically drifted away since it’s really not a lot of fun to be involved in that kind of thing. I’ve had that happen to me on this board a couple of times and it’s too much like work trying to keep up. I don’t think that anyone can really understand that until they are in the same position of getting hounded from all sides by several worthwhile posters as well as idiots like Gonzo who come in spouting their content free BS…it can be disconcerting when suddenly you find that you are the fresh blood in the water on the SD, and the sharks are circling. 😛 -XT ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-exaggeration-about-sdmb-partisan-ness/523968/202 "2010-01-11T06:30:24Z")
Well, good luck, chum. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-exaggeration-about-sdmb-partisan-ness/523968/203 "2010-01-11T18:50:34Z")
> [@raindog](#): > > Heres why numbers are important----or how at the very least they influence the outcome: > > I don’t post to political threads, however I have posted/lurked to religious threads where the liberal/conservative divide exists as well. > > In both the political and religious threads I have often seen a poster be essentially bum rushed. He/she starts a thread and immediately becomes the center of attention. It can be disorienting. I have been in threads where I was \*\*\*simultaneously \*\*\* engaged with a half dozen to a dozen posters, and that doesn’t count the ones I’ve learned to ignore. > > I’ve actually had people in threads accuse me of ducking them because I didn’t respond to them quickly, oblivious to the plain reality that I was the most prolific poster to the thread—by far. I’ve been been the most prolific poster in many threads because there was something valid to say----and the lack of diversity made me [often] the sole counterpoint to the board ideological hegemony. > > That often comes across as heckling; mob like action where a poster is ridiculed or pestered mercilessly. I’ve actually ventured into threads (and would find cites if you’d like) simply to call out the whole group—essentially calling them jackals. > > I don’t know how Shodan et al feels about the numbers, but I simply tend to focus on those who I know have a history of highly intelligent, rational posts, like cosmosdan, Revenant Threshold, Polycarp, Friar Ted, and Diogenes and ignore the jackals. > > But a new poster has no background from which to come up with a strategy. I have seen firsthand their responses as they are attacked------sometimes by the [few] bright and articulate posters, and many from the peanut gallery. > > If you want higher quality discourse, the numbers matter. You still respond one at a time. You don’t get simultaneous posts unless you are answering several threads. Then I suppose you are spreading yourself too thin. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-exaggeration-about-sdmb-partisan-ness/523968/204 "2010-01-11T20:00:12Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > **Bricker** , for instance, is one of the most prominent conservatives on the board, and supported Bush back in the day. Now, Bricker has gotten plenty of crap in plenty of threads, some justified and some not. But has he, more than a handful of rare times, been called any of > -racist > -gun-loving > -bible-thumping > or > -dittohead > ? > > I’m not saying it has never ever ever happened. What I’m saying is that any sufficiently prominent board member, which includes various conservatives who have been mentioned in this thread, plus people like **Der Trihs** and **Diogenese** , fairly quickly develops an image… what everyone knows that poster is like. “Everyone knows” that Bricker is conservative and likes to use lawyery arguments. Everyone knows that Der Trihs hates religion and the American military. Etc. And there are plenty of prominent conservatives about whom the board consensus does NOT include any of your above-listed traits. It’s my belief that it’s happened more than a few rare times, especially if you permit me to add “bigot” to the list of perjoratives. But even with the list standing as is, I can remember being called a racist more than “a few rare times,” including one highly offensive incident in which I was also called an Uncle Tom (what was presumably meant was Tio Tomás, since the accusation was that by holding my views, I was disloyal to Hispanics and that all my Republican friends laughed at me, their token Hispanic, when my back was turned). Of course, since I’ve had eleven years of board membership, perhaps we don’t mean the same thing by “a few rare times.” But it’s happened enough to me that I remember it and am uncomfortable about it. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-exaggeration-about-sdmb-partisan-ness/523968/205 "2010-01-11T22:26:11Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Of course, since I’ve had eleven years of board membership, perhaps we don’t mean the same thing by “a few rare times.” But it’s happened enough to me that I remember it and am uncomfortable about it. Can I start heaping scorn on you so you build up a (heh) tolerance? ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-exaggeration-about-sdmb-partisan-ness/523968/206 "2010-01-12T01:17:16Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Speaking for myself, I’m not hurt, or distressed in any way. I’m _bored_. I find this place to be increasingly repetitive and uninteresting, and the quality of the debate to be increasingly poor. It’s hard to maintain a serious debate here any more because people like you dive-bomb such threads, injecting content-free snark and little chippy posts like the one above, and you derail the conversation and turn it partisan. > > It’s getting old. And not particularly interesting. Again, this is just my personal preference. I actually enjoy substantive debates where people treat each other civilly and attempt to defend their political positions in depth and in good faith, without assuming that their opponents are idiots, members of a conspiracy, or evil. That’s increasingly rare here, so I’m increasingly uninterested. But there are still good threads, and I’ll participate in them when I think it’s interesting. A common characteristic of those threads is that they lack the participation of a certain handful of posters. Yep to all this. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-exaggeration-about-sdmb-partisan-ness/523968/207 "2010-01-12T02:20:04Z")
> [@furt](#): > > Yep to all this. Wow, **furt** , you’re simply exuding wounded nobility here. I almost hope someone’ll buy it from you; maybe one of those folks suckered into supporting the invasion of Iraq by **Sam** ’s [enriched uranium bullshit:](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=137181&highlight=%22enriched+uranium%22) [QUOTE=Sam Stone] But in the meantime, you’d rather believe that the U.S. government is concocting a big conspiracy in order to start a war, rather than believe that Saddam Hussein is trying to get nuclear materials. You guys are treading over into tinfoil hat territory, just so you can deny the reality of the situation. Do you have any idea what the world’s reaction would be if the U.S. conspiracy was exposed? As opposed to the dubious gain of showing that Saddam is trying to get Uranium, when they already have plenty of proof that he’s doing that? And they’d take the risk of dropping a chunk of refined Uranium in freaking Turkey, riding around in a car? And I love your ‘evidence’. What, that the CIA forgot to rub ‘made in West Germany’ off the side of their fake cylinder? C’mon guys. [/QUOTE] Civility’s all very nice and such\*, but you nuts have cost the nation trillions. Unless you pay us back with interest, you’re just going to have to put up with being treated with the disdain you so richly deserve for a few years. * * * \*Especially if you can get those you disagree with to be civil, while you spew bile as in the above quote. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-exaggeration-about-sdmb-partisan-ness/523968/208 "2010-01-12T02:53:48Z")
Heh the hardest thing for me to learn on message boards is that I don’t need to respond to every person who addresses me. Selectively ignoring people is very useful. Sometimes people will harass you and say you’re a chickenshit for not responding to them, but it really helps cut out the noise ratio from the gangs of morons. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-exaggeration-about-sdmb-partisan-ness/523968/209 "2010-01-12T03:22:31Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Heh the hardest thing for me to learn on message boards is that I don’t need to respond to every person who addresses me. Selectively ignoring people is very useful. Sometimes people will harass you and say you’re a chickenshit for not responding to them, but it really helps cut out the noise ratio from the gangs of morons. Yup, and you can not pay strict attention to the not-moronic but tragically misguided too. If you set out to win every battle that’s offered, you will be overwhelmed, no matter who you are, or how correct your beliefs. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-exaggeration-about-sdmb-partisan-ness/523968/210 "2010-01-12T13:09:42Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Especially if you can get those you disagree with to be civil, while you spew bile as in the above quote. Get down off your cross, someone can use the wood. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-exaggeration-about-sdmb-partisan-ness/523968/211 "2010-01-12T13:47:35Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Get down off your cross, someone can use the wood. Get your own damn wood. And while you’re at it, get off my lawn! ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-exaggeration-about-sdmb-partisan-ness/523968/212 "2010-01-13T17:43:47Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Heh the hardest thing for me to learn on message boards is that I don’t need to respond to every person who addresses me. Selectively ignoring people is very useful. The problem with that, though, is if you don’t respond to them, you’re conceding their point. So, I still feel awkward about not responding. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-exaggeration-about-sdmb-partisan-ness/523968.md?page=10)