I Pit You All! You've Spoiled Me!

The BBQ Pit
1

That’s right – I pit all of you rational, fair-minded, logic-using members of the SDMB.

The SDMB was the first message board that I ever belonged to. As such, I got used to the idea of arguing and debating with logic, reason and facts, as opposed to hyperbole, exaggeration, ad hominem attacks and the like. That’s not to say that we don’t have our occasional troll, troublemaker or malcontent, but they are usually quickly identified as such and leave the boards shortly thereafter.

Sadly, however, as I go elsewhere on the internet, I find that is not the case. It was recently highlighted to me on a column on ForwardProgressives titled “10 Questions Every Conservative Needs To Answer About Their Support For Ted Nugent.”

While I do tend to lean conservative on some issues, I am certainly not a hard-core right-winger – and I don’t support Ted Nugent. So, I simply asked the author of the piece (in the comments) why he makes the assumption that every conservative supports Nugent.

For asking this simple question, another person in short accused me of supporting birthers, racists and the like. And, of course, the fact that I denied being a birther or a racist was, to him, proof enough that I was.

Without knowing me at all, he felt he had the right to simply assume that because I questioned the author, I must be some rabid right-wing fanatic worthy of nothing better than utter contempt. Never once did he actually attempt to simply answer the question I raised or engage me in a civil manner (I can be quite civil to those I disagree with).

I was taken aback by this. It’s not the mode of argument that I’m used to. I’ve always been used to the reasoned debate that I found here. Yes, it got heated sometimes, but for the most part, it rarely degenerated into ugly mud-slinging. It was this that I was used to, not the angry foul-mouthed invective I found on the other site.

So, it’s all your fault, SDMB. You spoiled me. :slight_smile:

Zev Steinhardt

2

That’s why I keep coming back here, even after taking years off at a time.

People suck. People on the internet suck worse.

But here, we self-select for sucking less.

3

We are the smartest and hippest people on the internet so why go anywhere else.

4

The thing that always trips me up is that a lot of other places don’t maintain the same standard of post integrity. Many times I’ve come across a conversation on reddit or somewhere else where the mods have removed half to 3/4s of the conversation leaving only a few posts floating about nebulously and you have no idea what the conversation was. I dislike that.

5

Moderation is a helluva drug.

6

Yeah, until you OD!

7

I had a somewhat similar experience on another board; I dared to put forth the idea that the US had any role whatsoever in causing other countries to be mad enough at them to fly planes into their buildings, and one of the more polite responses I got was an invitation to never set foot in their country again. It was kind of entertaining, though - it was so easy to set off the mindless masses, and their hooting and howling was completely ineffectual.

8

I just get tired of the trolling elsewhere. For a while, I was frequenting some entertainment gossip apps. And because a core group of intelligent folks had set up shop there, it was amazingly (for the most part) drama free and many an interesting discussion could be had. But unfortunately, one very tenacious troll infiltrated the works and upset the apple cart in more than one place. Now, it’s totally overrun with infighting, spewing hate speech, and the level of discourse has dropped to about nil. So, I gave up on them and whenever I feel the need to at least have more structured conversation, I come back here. No need for 4chan lite. Shudder.

9

We’ve just been setting you up.

One day soon you’ll find yourself surrounded by a howling virtual mob on the Dope prepared to rip you to shreds.

There will be no escape. :eek:

*The easiest response to “every conservative supports Ted Nugent” would probably be “Cal Thomas”. Somehow I just can’t picture Cal rocking out to “Wang Dang Sweet Poontang”.

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Reason? Facts? That’s oppressor talk!

11

God Bless You Always . . .

12

You forgot about James Otto and the smilies.

Here’s some for you:

:slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

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Didn’t want to mention any names.

And thanks for the smileys. I was running low.

:slight_smile:

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Why? Do you think if we say his name 3 times she’ll come back or something?

James Otto, James Otto, James Otto!

:slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

15

Routine check, just to calibrate the Dopometer.

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The comments sections in newspapers are enough to make me want to throw my monitor out the window, SCTV style.

I gave up long ago trying to reason with anyone there. I still look once in a while and just shake my head.

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Sounds like a motto to me.

I need to take a walk. I read that as “want to throw my mother out the window.”

Sympathy to** Zev**, but it’s just so darn hard to be unreasonable. It would make my head hurt.

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You have to read comments sections once in a while to remind yourself just who all the people around you are and what they’re thinking. I keep making the mistake of thinking that other people should be capable of using their brains and figuring stuff out - my husband reminds me that no, they aren’t.

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Somehow I think Calgary comments would be easier for me to take than Toronto comments. The Globe and Mail is supposed to be a national paper: ya sure. And the Toronto Sun is just as bad. You couldn’t publish an article on puppy farms or food allergies in either of these two papers without everything being blamed on the dictator “Harpo.” It’s embarrassing to read actually.

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Would that be an Olympic sport? How would the mothers be standardized? What if a contestant cannot provide his/her own?

There is a videogame in there somewhere…