To a large extent, yes. I was initially attracted to the Dope because it claimed to fight ignorance. I have learned alot from some good people here, I have grown from them, and for that I am grateful. But I find the signal-to-noise ratio to be quite low in Elections. Not so much in GQ. The Pit is not a healthy place. As an example, many heaped crap onto Idle Thoughts when he said he doesn’t vote, never has and never will. Many made laudable attempts to show him where he isn’t as enlightened as they thought he should be, and I fully agree with their arguments (although I did not state that there). It got pretty ugly, especially in light of him admitting to suffering from depression.
The irony of the ugliness thrown by the very people who accuse Trump of the same ugliness is telling: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=19764809#post19764809
Fighting ignorance? There’s a lot of it right here. This echo chamber is a club of several like-minded people who are too busy congratulating themselves.