This last requirement is silly. There are some idiots on the left here, as I said, and just as the idiots on the right attack the very good lefty posters, the idiots on the left attack the very good righty posters. You won’t find any lefty around here that hasn’t been shat on by the rightwing idiots, either, I don’t think.
Hear hear.
As for Shodan, I dig him. He’s a truly nice person in a sea of mostly assholes.
Shodan is being attacked for the utter lack of content in his posts. He is engaging in pure partisan sniping. I don’t see Mr. Moto or Martin Hyde getting attacked in the same manner*, except when they are posting partisan snipe. Bricker gets attacked a lot but he also does a good amount of partisan sniping. I’d say those guys all qualify as conservatives.
Fact is, there are a lot more lefties on this board, and there is a tendency to gang up on righties. My sense is that there are a certain number of people who post here as if it were a lefty board, which happens to have a few token righties. And by that I mean a tendency to assume that the left position is the default position, and anyone not on the left is in the out-group. People can post “Repuglican” or “Troglodyte Right” on this MB with impunity, and rarely will anyone will even bat an eye. But if anyone comes along with “Demoncrat”, they’ll be pounced on.
*Vven if I think they get attacked more than they deserve by the knee-jerk lefties on this board.
What I don’t understand is how you guys can keep track of who’s a lefty and who’s a righty. Do you keep spreadsheets or something?
There’s a sticky in Great Debates with a running list.
I’m totally going to go look for that…why don’t we have one of those? That would be so helpful!
It’s not that difficult. I’ve been around long enough to have a general idea of where certain posters fit on the political spectrums. New posters won’t stick in my mind for a while, and occasionally someone I recognize but who doesn’t usually make political posts will wander along and surprise me.
But, in general, the poster’s name will give me a good idea of whether it’s liberal/conservative/libertarian/other/cannot be pigeonholed content (or lack thereof) that I’m about to read.
You’d have a point, if Shodan’s typical M.O. wasn’t to post “Liberal are teh dumb” in every thread which mentions a Republican. He’s not sought out, he’s not victimized- he blatantly charges in and invites everyone to kick his ass. As you said, this is predominately a left-leaning board; what are we supposed to do, take numbers to respond to his trollery?
If I were to go onto Hannity’s forums and post “Conservatives suck and here’s a concocted reason why” into every thread, I wouldn’t feel ganged up on when they inevitably started yelling at me… 'cause I would’ve brought it on myself.
He’s asking for the abuse. Hell, he seems to thrive on it. Personally, I don’t understand why he hasn’t already been invited to the rest of the internet.
That’s kind of like being a Unitarian fanatic.
For me, it’s really more a matter of remembering lunatics, not just plain old liberals or conservatives.
Nail on the head, sir, nail on the head.
I know, right ? It’s like this board made up of hundreds of different people doesn’t actually function as a hive mind. Weird.
So you’re a victim?
I guffawed.
You people bring up the '50s (in conjunction with me) far more often than I bring them up myself.
And besides, why is it always the '50s with you people? I rarely limit the time before this country went off the rails to that decade.
Thanks for this. I was going to say, not knowing Shodan, that there was a need for intelligent counterpoint. Especially since while I tend to side with the Democratic viewpoint in theory, I increasingly find myself having greater and greater disdain for all politicians. But it’s nice to know there are posters filling that void, and informative not to expect it from Shodan.
So that’s where his user name came from. :smack: “Shodan” also refers to a Go player at advanced skill level, which seemed so laughable I now call him Ten-Kyu.
But I’d not be overly surprised to learn he once could play Go competently. It would just make me pity him more: A mind is a terrible thing to waste, especially when, as in Ten-Kyu’s case, his mind seems to have turned inward into bitterness and an almost-deliberate stupidity.
I’d have missed out but he chose to insult my mother in one of my early threads here. When he apologizes I’ll go back to giving him the attention he serves.
No one objects to the Unitarian Inquisition. How do you take your coffee?
Yes; he’s the only active poster I have on Ignore*; the other was that advocate for pedophilia who got banned**. He’s irritating, a bad conversationalist and never contributes anything interesting that I saw.
*And yes I checked; you can mention that someone is on Ignore in the Pit.
** EDIT: Cesario
I doubt anyone like that would last long without getting banned; that’s the sort of person who shows up and either posts-and-runs or flames out. In fact, I’d expect them to go out of the way to get banned so they can go and tell their friends about how they are being brutally oppressed by the Evil Liberals at the SDMB. I’d expect most people who are “true conservatives by the standards of political distribution of this country” to be attacked as much or more as Shodan on this or any other board that isn’t the sort of echo chamber that only allows right wing posts. Right wingers don’t function well outside of their bubble, they aren’t used to dealing with people who are allowed to disagree.
Right wingers don’t cast shadows, while left wingers burn at the touch of holy water. Simple!
Have you never heard of the Unitarian Jihad?! Be careful or they’ll sneak up on you and give you a group hug.
And if you stand up to them, you’ll wake up one night to a question mark burning in your front yard.