# I'm confused that the Steve Almond thread was moved to the Pit
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused-that-the-steve-almond-thread-was-moved-to-the-pit/624751
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [June 10, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused-that-the-steve-almond-thread-was-moved-to-the-pit/624751 "2012-06-10T19:46:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused-that-the-steve-almond-thread-was-moved-to-the-pit/624751/1 "2012-06-10T19:46:00Z")
Marley, in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=654802), you wrote
[QUOTE=Marley]
If this discussion is going to start by calling people trolls, it belongs in The BBQ Pit, not Great Debates. Moved.
[/QUOTE]
But the people being called trolls weren’t posters; they were Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. The idea of debating whether or not such people/institutions should be engaged or ignored seems to be much more of a GD than Pit topic. Is calling _anyone_ a troll really inappropriate for GD?
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2012, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused-that-the-steve-almond-thread-was-moved-to-the-pit/624751/2 "2012-06-10T19:58:31Z")
I’m pretty picky about people putting threads in the right forum, and I was kind of surprised how quickly this one got moved. There was some spoiling of the well in the OP, but not so much to make it an outlier in GD. Seemed like a legit debate to me.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2012, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused-that-the-steve-almond-thread-was-moved-to-the-pit/624751/3 "2012-06-10T20:06:20Z")
It’s not that you can’t call Rush or Hannity a troll in GD. You can. My view was that a debate premised on the idea that that right wing commentators are trolls and liberals are victims and enablers (and on and on) was not going to remain civil, so it was better to send it to the Pit.
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### Author:  [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused-that-the-steve-almond-thread-was-moved-to-the-pit/624751/4 "2012-06-10T20:12:01Z")
I guess I see where you’re coming from with that, and you’re probably right that it wouldn’t remain civil, but I guess I’m disappointed that now we almost certainly won’t see a reasonable debate on the topic.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused-that-the-steve-almond-thread-was-moved-to-the-pit/624751/5 "2012-06-10T20:15:09Z")
> [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](#):
>
> I guess I see where you’re coming from with that, and you’re probably right that it wouldn’t remain civil, but I guess I’m disappointed that now we almost certainly won’t see a reasonable debate on the topic.
Try again and be scrupulously careful about not spoiling the well. I do think there is a legit debate about how the left should respond to FOX, Limbaugh, et al.
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### Author:  [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2012, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused-that-the-steve-almond-thread-was-moved-to-the-pit/624751/6 "2012-06-10T20:20:10Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> Try again and be scrupulously careful about not spoiling the well. I do think there is a legit debate about how the left should respond to FOX, Limbaugh, et al.
It wasn’t my OP.
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### Author:  [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused-that-the-steve-almond-thread-was-moved-to-the-pit/624751/7 "2012-06-10T20:33:11Z")
“Resolved: Conservatives are Great Big Poopy-Heads” isn’t going to turn out any differently than the last nine million times it was “debated”.
Regards,
Shodan
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### Author:  [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2012, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused-that-the-steve-almond-thread-was-moved-to-the-pit/624751/8 "2012-06-10T20:39:06Z")
> [@Shodan](#):
>
> “Resolved: Conservatives are Great Big Poopy-Heads” isn’t going to turn out any differently than the last nine million times it was “debated”.
I disagree with how you’ve characterized the thread. First, it was about specific conservatives, not conservatives in general. Second, it was about a specific way in which they are great big poopy-heads (their direct impact on the national conversation.) And lastly, and most importantly, it was _really_ about how liberals do and ought to respond. Did you actually read the thread?
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused-that-the-steve-almond-thread-was-moved-to-the-pit/624751/9 "2012-06-10T21:31:19Z")
> [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](#):
>
> It wasn’t my OP.
Well, that’s the problem, then! 🙂
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### Author:  [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2012, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused-that-the-steve-almond-thread-was-moved-to-the-pit/624751/10 "2012-06-10T22:17:03Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> Well, that’s the problem, then! 🙂
I’m just going to go ahead and take that as a compliment.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2012, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused-that-the-steve-almond-thread-was-moved-to-the-pit/624751/11 "2012-06-11T09:56:37Z")
I honestly don’t see the problem. The OP was obviously being asked only of liberals. The debate was not between liberals and conservatives, so there’s no well being spoiled.
I don’t see how you could ask the question without the assumption that right wing media is bad.