# In the history of the SDMB has anyone ever been wrong about more things than adaher? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 31, 2013, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639 "2013-08-31T04:55:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/21 "2013-08-31T11:28:29Z")
I can’t disagree too much with the OP, but my nominee would be Sam Stone. He put in a whole lot more time and nearly as much partisan zeal selling the Bush economic program. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/22 "2013-08-31T11:48:32Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > **ralph124c**. He’s the only poster who is more wrong. **adaher** makes statements that are informed, but very often wrong. Ralph is a perfect storm of ignorance and error. With all due respect, it’s virtually impossible to be wrong when all you do is ask questions, while stubbornly avoiding making declarative statements. What I’m saying is, **ralph124c** has a unique gift. ---
**Author:** ![drew870mitchell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drew870mitchell/32/3946_2.png) [@drew870mitchell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drew870mitchell)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/23 "2013-08-31T14:01:03Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Yes. Yes he was. See, then I just can’t endorse the pitting. I’ve only got enough hate boner to go around for people who are obviously intelligent and well-informed but still choose to be assholes. The people who were not just Romney voters - there’s plenty of fine fellas in that category - but who were willfully defiant of all pre-election indicators are lacking in either smarts or knowledge, and then it just becomes a pitying. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/24 "2013-08-31T16:36:34Z")
> [@sylmar](#): > > Anyone else under the impression he’s a paid shill whose job it is to try and influence public perception of the GOP? And he’s doing a great job. Whatever the Democrats are paying him, it isn’t enough. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/25 "2013-08-31T16:42:01Z")
> [@drew870mitchell](#): > > Wasn’t **adaher** one of the few who were convinced until the bitter end that Romney was going to win? As far as I can tell he still thinks Romney is going to win and those of us who think the election’s over and Obama won are just deluding ourselves. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/26 "2013-08-31T17:01:51Z")
I don’t know if he’s more often wrong than anyone else here, but he certainly matches **Starving Artist** for blind, reflexive partisan hackery. I’ll grant he’s a bit less verbose, which makes him marginally less obnoxious. This utterly unsupported assertion from a [current rapidly-turning-into-a-train-wreck thread in GD](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=700950) may be the quintessential **adaher** post: > [@adaher](#): > > Had we picked McCain, Assad wouldn’t have used chemical weapons. Hey, at least it’s brief and to the point. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/27 "2013-08-31T17:43:22Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > I can’t disagree too much with the OP, but my nominee would be Sam Stone. He put in a whole lot more time and nearly as much partisan zeal selling the Bush economic program. Sam Stone does make some intelligent comments and shows signs of broader interest and actual edumacation. Admittedly, when he gets going on the blnkered Randian glibertarianism, the airless pinnacle of his eloquent, dogmatic myopia is majestic in its emeticity. By contrast, adaher’s stupidity is bland, tedious and uninteresting. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/28 "2013-08-31T18:02:41Z")
And then there was **handy**. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/29 "2013-08-31T18:05:01Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > And then there was **handy**. And then there wasn’t. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/30 "2013-08-31T18:10:53Z")
> [@For You](#): > > Sam Stone does make some intelligent comments and shows signs of broader interest and actual edumacation. Admittedly, when he gets going on the blnkered Randian glibertarianism, the airless pinnacle of his eloquent, dogmatic myopia is majestic in its emeticity. By contrast, adaher’s stupidity is bland, tedious and uninteresting. I would point out that even when showing great education and knowledge more often than not I saw that his tactic was to make a great post full of good information and suddenly there was huge bit of certifiable bullshit that was embedded in the post. IMHO that was the idea, make it sound very logical and reasonable and hope that the misleading or false conservative FUD be swallowed with the other stuff. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/31 "2013-08-31T18:11:47Z")
> [@For You](#): > > emeticity August 31st’s entry in _30 Days to Increase Your Word Power._ ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/32 "2013-08-31T18:32:58Z")
> [@drew870mitchell](#): > > Wasn’t **adaher** one of the few who were convinced until the bitter end that Romney was going to win? In all fairness, after the first debate I was convinced Romney was going to win. I have never been so happy to be wrong in my life. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/33 "2013-08-31T18:54:40Z")
Clothahump is pretty amazingly wrong. But he does post in non political threads, and isn’t always wrong there. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/34 "2013-08-31T19:11:57Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > I would point out that even when showing great education and knowledge more often than not I saw that his tactic was to make a great post full of good information and suddenly there was huge bit of certifiable bullshit that was embedded in the post. IMHO that was the idea, make it sound very logical and reasonable and hope that the misleading or false conservative FUD be swallowed with the other stuff. I envision **Sam Stone** ’s mind as a majestic cathedral with tall stained-glass windows, a golden nave, polished teak pews, festooned golden trim highlighted by a stunning fan-vaulted ceiling and a solid marble floor decorated with gleaming brass spittoons. The vast, echoing emptiness of it emphasized by the near absolute dearth of parishioners. Oh, and every time I see his name, it reminds me of that song by John Prine, the one that goes, \*Sam Stone was alone When he popped his last balloon Climbing walls while sitting in a chair He played his last request In a room that smelled like death With an overdose hanging in the air There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where the money goes Jesus died for nothing, I suppose …\* **adaher** , by contrast, is an adobe hut melting away in the afternoon rain. ---
**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/35 "2013-08-31T19:30:29Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > I would point out that even when showing great education and knowledge more often than not I saw that his tactic was to make a great post full of good information and suddenly there was huge bit of certifiable bullshit that was embedded in the post. IMHO that was the idea, make it sound very logical and reasonable and hope that the misleading or false conservative FUD be swallowed with the other stuff. I’m unsure that makes a lot of sense to me. If **Sam Stone** ’s modus operandi was to write large blocks of reasonable prose, full of good information and cogent argument, only to stuff bullshit into the middle — then presumably he could tell the difference between good discussion and bad. If he could discern bullshit, then why push it at all? More likely he tried to make very long and detailed arguments, with specific parts of which you disagreed. He may have been wrong — terribly wrong, I dunno, no judgment from me here — but people seem to enjoy quickly traveling from “I disagree with him!” to “He’s a bad and intellectually dishonest person!”. Comparing **Sam Stone** (or **Bricker** , say) with **adaher** or **ralph124c**? Nothing could could more strongly indicate that the arguer may wish to check his own degree of partisanship. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/36 "2013-08-31T19:46:49Z")
When it comes to sheer weapons grade wrongness, even \*\*adaher \*\*would run screaming from the iron-clad idiocy that is **curlcoat**. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/37 "2013-08-31T19:46:55Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Who was that guy who claimed to have talked to a police officer with a demon face and had pretty, uh, interesting ideas on religion and God? It’d be pretty hard to be more wrong than him, I think. **Kanicbird**? What about **Susannan** or however you spelled it? She once tried to claim that it was illegal for women to wear pants until the late 70s or some other bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/38 "2013-08-31T19:47:28Z")
I dunno about all the history of the SDMB, we used to have **december** and **Razorsharp.** But **adaher** is the current undisputed lineal championship title-holder of wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/39 "2013-08-31T19:51:40Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > With all due respect, it’s virtually impossible to be wrong when all you do is ask questions, while stubbornly avoiding making declarative statements. > > What I’m saying is, **ralph124c** has a unique gift. **ralph124c** doesn’t bother me anymore. It used to drive me nuts reading his posts; he knows just enough to be dangerous. A fact here, a fact there, and a lot of blinding wtf in between the two. Then one day it occurred to me that a lot of interesting, intelligent discussion often winds up happening in threads he starts even though the question in the OP makes you want to /facepalm. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639/40 "2013-08-31T20:55:16Z")
> [@Paranoid\_Randroid](#): > > I’m unsure that makes a lot of sense to me. If **Sam Stone** ’s modus operandi was to write large blocks of reasonable prose, full of good information and cogent argument, only to stuff bullshit into the middle — then presumably he could tell the difference between good discussion and bad. If he could discern bullshit, then why push it at all? > > More likely he tried to make very long and detailed arguments, with specific parts of which you disagreed. He may have been wrong — terribly wrong, I dunno, no judgment from me here — but people seem to enjoy quickly traveling from “I disagree with him!” to “He’s a bad and intellectually dishonest person!”. > > Comparing **Sam Stone** (or **Bricker** , say) with **adaher** or **ralph124c**? Nothing could could more strongly indicate that the arguer may wish to check his own degree of partisanship. No, it was not partisanship that told me that, but one very ugly example was when IIRC he did make a list of items about scientific items leftists get wrong. And in the middle of it there was once again the anti-environmentalist point of accusing environmentalists and liberals of allowing so many deaths caused by Malaria, ‘because DDT was banned thanks to them’. Well, the reality was that that item has been recycled many times among conservatives up to the point of being the gospel truth for them, the problem is that it was bollocks. > **[Why Some People Think Rachel Carson Killed More People Than Hitler](https://slate.com/technology/2012/09/silent-spring-turns-50-biographer-william-souder-clears-up-myths-about-rachel-carson.html)** > > Silent Spring, Rachel Carson’s landmark warning about the indiscriminate use of pesticides, turns 50 this month. By extension, that puts the... > [@](#): > > The claim that Rachel Carson is responsible for the devastations of malaria, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, has gained renewed traction in recent years. The American Enterprise Institute and other free-market conservatives have defended the safety and efficacy of DDT—and the claim of Carson’s “guilt” in the deaths of millions of Africans is routinely parroted by people who are clueless about the content of Silent Spring or the sources of the attacks now made against it. The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a limited-government, free-enterprise think tank, maintains the website [rachelwaswrong.org](http://rachelwaswrong.org), which details Carson’s complicity in the continuing plague of malaria. In 2004, the late writer Michael Crichton offered a bite-sized and easy-to-remember indictment of Carson’s crime: “Banning DDT,” Crichton wrote, “killed more people than Hitler.” This was dialogue in a novel, but in interviews Crichton made it clear this was what he believed. > > Rachel Carson, who stoically weathered misinformation campaigns against her before her death from breast cancer in 1964, would find the current situation all-too predictable. As she said once in a speech after the release of Silent Spring, many people who have not read the book nonetheless “disapprove of it heartily.” > [@](#): > > And in any case, the World Health Organization had begun to question its malaria-eradication program even before Silent Spring was published. One object lesson was that the heavy use of DDT in many parts of the world was producing new strains of mosquitoes resistant to the insecticide. Much as it can happen with antibiotics, the use of an environmental poison clears susceptible organisms from the ecosystem and allows those with immunity to take over. The WHO also faced declining interest in the disease among scientists and sharp reductions in funding from the international community. And that ugliness was compounded by the fact that Sam never corrected that, even when told about it. For all I know he will continue like many conservatives to plant that item elsewhere, and if you only think a little about it, that was even worse than poisoning the well, it was a big lie that is made to convince many on the fence to think that anything is justified, even violence, to stop environmentalists because don’t you know? They are mass murderers. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-history-of-the-sdmb-has-anyone-ever-been-wrong-about-more-things-than-adaher/667639.md?page=3)