# Is referring to posters as "Dopes" an insult?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-referring-to-posters-as-dopes-an-insult/957105
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [January 3, 2022, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-referring-to-posters-as-dopes-an-insult/957105 "2022-01-03T00:17:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 8

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### Author: ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2022, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-referring-to-posters-as-dopes-an-insult/957105/8 "2022-01-03T00:33:23Z")

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For context, here is the relevant post.

> [@About that "end of democracy" talk](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-that-end-of-democracy-talk/956796/42):
>
> Like I’m going to tell you Dopes where I live. Yeah, right. Are you ok with ANY amount of illegal voting? If so, why?

@D_Anconia, I have never once encountered someone on this message board calling another poster a ‘Dope’, capitalized or otherwise, in a jesting way. You’re the one claiming to have seen it previously, so if you can find such an instance, that would be helpful.

For future reference, you always take the chance that a comment won’t be taken in the way you intend. That’s a risk you assume when you make a statement “in jest”.

I’m not inclined to give you any benefit of the doubt in this instance unless you can present evidence of common usage of ‘Dope’ as a term of jest or affection on this board, or other mods counsel otherwise.

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