In your opinion, is this board made up of liberals, or conservatives?

In My Humble Opinion
41

Before I start I should say that I base this view solely on GD and the Pit and I would surmise a very small statistical sample of the board’s sum total of political spectrum. On the other hand, does it matter what the political spectrum of the more social aspect of the board is? It shouldn’t matter in GQ. Anyway…

There is a fair amount of really weird labeling going on at SDMB. I’ll take myself as an example. As anyone who might have read any post I made in GD on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict would know I am Pro-Israel and Pro-Palestine. A number of posters (maybe not the brainiest, but still) have thus chucked me into the ultra Liberal camp.

Let’s see here… Nope! That’s not me and nope that’s not a correct label.

If you add up my world view I am rather more of a Moderate Conservative with Libertarian tendencies by US standards and a raving ultra-Libertarian by European standards, but that’s immaterial.

The thing is that these forenamed name callers judged me by my opinion on a narrow topic. Partly it has to do with me being Moderate, which would naturally fly in the face of both extreme camps at some point or the other, but isn’t there something else at play here? I think so.

This place is dedicated to reasoned thinking. Balance, measure, forethought, and analysis should be the lead words in a post here (at least in GD and GQ). Extreme views of whatever color tend to be much harder to base on those principles and fare pretty ill at the SDMB. Thereby not said that the polar views can’t be based on reason, it’s just more demanding. In the short time I’ve been around here I have seen a few young left extremists swoosh by and in their passing receive a thorough beating in GD and the Pit. Likewise a few extreme right wing posters have gone veni vidi BANNED. Mostly they were just trolls anyway, but still.

I think that I know of a few posters whom I can surmise are both very liberal and a few whom are very conservative and still have their faculties in place with the capacity to rise above dogma and view a topic with some reason. I know of far more well founded members that seem to stand closer to the center though. Then there are a few outspoken loony fringe posters that survive the pile-ons they suffer from the complete spectrum of the well articulated crowd without taking off or crossing the line into BANNEDLAND. For some strange reason conservatives seem to be overrepresented in that small minority, but that could have more to do with me having happened run in to that fraction and not the other than with the spectrum of the board.

In the end of the day it’s about understanding, trying to wear someone else’s hat, exchanging informed opinions with basis and fighting ignorance, which demands people that have the capacity to stand in both camps – even if their opinion resides in only one of them.

Conclusions

I think the board has an overrepresentation of Moderates or Centrists or whatever you want to call it, by which the debate sometimes gets a little one-sided. It would be more fun if we had a higher representation at both the other ends of the spectrum. Religious debates suffer less from this since it’s a more easily polarized issue. In this case I find that the high level of moderates is actually rewarding since it leads to informed debate rather than endless witnessing. In the political and social debates we could do better. In the fact oriented arena this place rocks. No matter if its GD or GQ the level of knowledge to be found at SDMB is remarkable.

Last but not least I think that the name calling and pigeon holing that goes on is damaging since it is a) often fallacious, hence irritating and b) discourages some posters from posting, especially in GD.

That was my 2 cents FWIW.

Sparc

42

That didn’t come out right. It should read like this:

Amongst the incredibly vast number of posters who have their faculties together and are able to rise above dogma and view a topic with some reason I know of a few that I surmise to be very liberal, a few that I believe to be very conservative, but far more that seem to stand closer to the center.

Sorry about that, it’s getting to be early morning here.

Sparc

43

That’s where I feel I belong; a radical “middle of the roader”, as opposed to those wishy-washy extremists. :confused:

44

Sigh.

I’ll bet you’re quite proud of yourself, eh rjung? You were successfully able to interrupt a cordial, reasoned discussion of board politics with the above bit of juvenile venom. Knee-jerk liberal, indeed. For shame!

45

Reminds me of a direction I sometimes see on sheet music: molto moderato (very moderate). I never know what exactly to do there.

46

I’d say the board leans slightly to the left, but not enough to be knocked over by a stiff breeze.

Rjung’s comment included a smiley and a comment about salsa chips, indicating to me that it wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. But then perhaps I’m misreading it, conservative liberal that I am.

47

QueenAl, you’ll see it a lot. It’s rjung’s MO – he does it in every thread that he can. He apparently thinks that using the smiley will cause people to say, “Ho ho! That rjung, he’s sure got the conversatives’ number! Wacky!” Instead people think, “What a juvenile dick.”

His other hobby is seeing how far he can get his nose up elucidator’s and ElvisL1ves’ butts.

48

Amen to that, pldennison. I’ve only been here a year, and I’ve already become disgusted with the guy, and those like him.

49

I’m just getting in touch with my inner eleven-year-old here, guys. :slight_smile:

And at least my one-liners are over quickly, instead of lingering around and rattling cages like many of december’s threads.

50

If you legitimately believe that lame generalization, rjung, and fail to see how it fails to hold water, then I’m tremendously disappointed in you.

51

Well, don’t worry about it, Cervaise, since I won’t be around here much longer to muddle the waters. :slight_smile:

52

I’m with RIL here. The liberal/conservative labeling dichotomy is pretty much meaningless, as far as I’m concerned. The definitions of each keep shifting and shifting until nobody really knows what either word means, and you spend more time clarifying your use of the label rather than the actual ideas. I argue ideas, not labels, so I rarely (if ever) use such labels in a discussion.

It doesn’t matter to mean what the “slant” of the boards are… I’ll discuss any ideas as long as others are willing. Attempts to label me, though, will likely fail and be ignored. shrug