# Let me be real clear: this message board does NOT need conservatives **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 28, 2021, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474 "2021-07-28T02:12:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 133
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2651 "2021-09-22T16:05:50Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > I put her on ignore a while ago for being gratuitously hateful and vile. And right. Don’t forget that one > [@Kron](#): > > Whereas you have been _unfailingly_ polite. And wrong. Always wrong. Deeply and factually wrong. If I were @DemonTree , I might have blocked me. It must be nice to be able to sit down on occasion without feeling that burning sting. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2652 "2021-09-22T16:13:42Z")
[![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EBgnfj4W4AA1lOn.jpg) ](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EBgnfj4W4AA1lOn.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2653 "2021-09-22T23:23:51Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > You accused _me_ of doing it. And your “commentary” is a gross misrepresentation of the event of last summer. Wrong! The left here and in the media downplayed the violence that included arson, rape, murder, vast amounts of looting because it didn’t fit their social justice narrative. Billions of dollars of damage hand-waved away because the violent thugs doing the looting, burning, rampaging happened to be left wing radicals and anarchists. I really am not sure why those on the left actually want to legitimize political violence but the facts are what they are regardless of the disingenuous attempts at gaslighting. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2654 "2021-09-22T23:25:46Z")
You are correct that the world is likely to become less free. It’s sad but it seems to be human nature to want to use whatever tool is possible be it a gulag, a sickle and a hammer, or a sympathetic mod to eliminate and/or silence opposing views. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2655 "2021-09-22T23:37:39Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > She just comes across like a female **SlackerInc** to me - same autodidact tone, similar racist undercurrent, same transparent “ _I’m_ not a Rightie (but I only target leftists)” bullshit. Only real difference is the alleged Englishness and lack of an ACT to wave around. Hey, _I’m_ still proud of **SlackWit** ’s ACT: [![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/c/c90460599c3b334c89442c3df012cd62b9241571.jpeg) ](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/c/c90460599c3b334c89442c3df012cd62b9241571.jpeg) I mean, wow! A 35 composite right in the gut… ETA: Also, she’s not so big on poker. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2656 "2021-09-22T23:49:37Z")
👍 😃 👍 ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2657 "2021-09-23T05:00:48Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > The left here and in the media downplayed the violence that included arson, rape, murder, vast amounts of looting You’re arguing that “the left” “media” were downplaying violence and looting in the summer 2020 protests? Have you just forgotten what the media were actually reporting back then, or are you just hoping that it was long enough ago that we’ll have forgotten? I really can’t even with right-wingers imagining that if they just let a few weeks or months pass between a given event and the time they start lying about it, nobody will even notice the discrepancy. [SF Chronicle, 11 June 2020: Oakland police on protests: 137 arson fires, more than 200 businesses looted, vandalized](https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/OPD-on-protests-137-arson-fires-more-than-200-15332043.php) [BBC, 29 April 2020: Man fined $12m for police station arson during George Floyd protests](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56932263) [MN Star-Tribune, 13 July 2020: Buildings damaged in Minneapolis, St. Paul after riots](https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-st-paul-buildings-are-damaged-looted-after-george-floyd-protests-riots/569930671/) And on and on and on and on: there was hardly anything else but protest-related violence and crime in the news last summer, except COVID. But somehow conservatives like octopus can tell themselves that it was all “hand-waved away” because that’s what they want to believe, and what difference do facts make compared to what they want to believe? I genuinely wonder if there’s ever going to be a serious confrontation with reality on the American right wing ever again. Are significant numbers of them ever going to look in the mirror and say to themselves “Taking horse dewormer and inhaling hydrogen peroxide? Spreading a deadly virus in the name of ‘freedom’? Pretending that political events and media reports were whatever we chose to believe about them? Made-up scenarios about vast election-stealing conspiracies? Masturbatory fantasies about having to overthrow democracy and seize control of government by force to avoid the demographic realities of losing majority status? My God, what were we thinking??!?” ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2658 "2021-09-23T05:08:50Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > It’s sad but it seems to be human nature to want to use whatever tool is possible be it a gulag, a sickle and a hammer, or a sympathetic mod to eliminate and/or silence opposing views. Gee, octopus, do you think you’ve got enough melodramatic victimhood blubbering going on there? Sure, sure, your not being allowed to use transphobic insults on one messageboard is exactly comparable to Soviet political prisoners being sent to Siberian gulags. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2659 "2021-09-23T09:07:52Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Wrong! The left here and in the media downplayed the violence that included arson, rape, murder, vast amounts of looting because it didn’t fit their social justice narrative. Billions of dollars of damage hand-waved away because the violent thugs doing the looting, burning, rampaging happened to be left wing radicals and anarchists. I really am not sure why those on the left actually want to legitimize political violence but the facts are what they are regardless of the disingenuous attempts at gaslighting. Denial of reality? Check! Repetition of Preferred Narrative? Check! Accusing others of what you’re literally doing? Check! In other words, just like every other post you’ve made here. Anything to avoid your ongoing support for the party working to destroy democracy in America, I suppose. > [@Kimstu](#): > > But somehow conservatives like octopus can tell themselves that it was all “hand-waved away” because that’s what they want to believe, and what difference do facts make compared to what they want to believe? They repeat it because _they’re_ downplaying the protest-related violence and crime by their side, and projection is one of their big things. Which is why **octopus** just keeps repeating the same narrative (and the reason the same person who repeats right-wing talking points without question accuses us of being a hivemind). But when you’re already supporting outright treason, what’s a little lying and hypocrisy between friends? > [@octopus](#): > > It’s sad but it seems to be human nature to want to use whatever tool is possible be it a gulag, a sickle and a hammer, or a sympathetic mod to eliminate and/or silence opposing views. Far better to just send law enforcement officers and vigilante groups to do it, like the right did last summer in those protests you keep mentioning. Or did your media sources downplay those? And how’s that silencing of CRT going? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2660 "2021-09-23T11:23:10Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > But “Conservative” also includes a lot of people for whom the status quo is working just fine, or who don’t see the need for change in a particular area, or would really rather just be left alone to live in peace, or who don’t see any reason to apologise for things that happened in the past, and so on. > > If you want a woke, social justice love-in echo chamber, Twitter is that way. But saying to people “You don’t agree with our left-wing views so we hate you, GTFO of our messageboard” isn’t fighting anyone’s ignorance or contributing to interesting discussions, debate, or conversations. What you’re describing is a self-centered asshole willing to let millions of fellow human beings continue to suffer for the sake of ēs own comfortable privilege. It’s the type of person who would gladly go along with fascists in order to maintain the status quo only to the extent that things keep working fine for em. This is not a point of view that should be treated with respect or dignity. This kind of conservative has always been the right hand of tyranny. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2661 "2021-09-23T11:29:21Z")
As opposed to the peaceful crowd that descended upon the Capitol on January 6th. No violence or looting going on there. No sirrreee. The difference is that the looting that took place during the George Floyd protests was largely the result of opportunistic, apolitical criminal activity, so the idea that you can pin this on the left is absurd. By contrast, the looting that took place on January 6th was 100% politically motivated and tied to the violent, murderous, thuggish right wing. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2662 "2021-09-23T11:33:26Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > What you’re describing is a self-centered asshole willing to let millions of fellow human beings continue to suffer for the sake of ēs own comfortable privilege. It’s the type of person who would gladly go along with fascists in order to maintain the status quo only to the extent that things keep working fine for em. This is not a point of view that should be treated with respect or dignity. This kind of conservative has always been the right hand of tyranny. If it were “I’m fine and therefore other people can do what they want”, that’d be one thing. But it’s the “I’m irrationally afraid that changing the status quo will affect me negatively, so I will work to actively prevent anyone from helping those being materially harmed by the status quo” people that are the problem. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2663 "2021-09-23T13:55:23Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > I really can’t even with right-wingers imagining that if they just let a few weeks or months pass between a given event and the time they start lying about it, nobody will even notice the discrepancy. This is the only part of your post that I find an objection to. They usually start lying even while the events are happening, without bothering to wait. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2664 "2021-09-23T14:00:34Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > This is the only part of your post that I find an objection to. They usually start lying even while the events are happening, without bothering to wait. They’re proactive now. They predict that any election won by a Democrat is rigged before it even begins. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2665 "2021-09-27T01:37:07Z")
You know why you need conservatives? To fight ignorance caused by being in a bubble. For example, we were telling you the Hunter Biden Laptop story was a big deal, while Twitter and Facebook were censoring it. And it was real, and it’s still a big deal. Without us, you might not know that the ‘Trump server connected to s Russian bank’ story was utter bullshit. Without us you might not have heard that a lawyer representing Hillary Clinton has been indicted for lying to the FBI about it, and that he was part of a conspiracy that included a tech executive, two internet companies, a major law firm, a huge oppo-research firm and the Clinton campaign. Just fighting ignorance here. It’s taking longer than I thought. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2666 "2021-09-27T01:41:32Z")
Fvck off ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2667 "2021-09-27T01:56:05Z")
Nah. You guys need us. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2668 "2021-09-27T01:58:36Z")
No, we don’t. You are a dissembling scumbag, maliciously clinging to an ideology knowing that your arguments are absent of fact and fallacious. And I stand by my accusation: You are Taliban Sam. You gleefully cheered as the Taliban attacked American, Canadian, NATO troops, and Afghans, because you thought it added credence to your perverse worldview. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2669 "2021-09-27T02:19:50Z")
I like your Lizard picture. It’s cute. . ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474/2670 "2021-09-27T02:52:12Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > You know why you need conservatives? To fight ignorance caused by being in a bubble. You can’t fight any ignorance by spreading lies. Or by credulously regurgitating a mix of facts and falsehoods and exaggerations so tangled up that it’s impossible to determine how much is which. Moreover, the “bubble” nature of news and facts on the left is nowhere near as pervasive and distorting as it is on the right. In fact, all the stuff that rightwing media likes to trumpet as its own “exposes” of non-rightwing figures is generally much more fully and factually explained in non-rightwing media (which is usually where the rightwing media found out about it in the first place). > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > For example, we were telling you the Hunter Biden Laptop story was a big deal, while Twitter and Facebook were censoring it. And it was real, and it’s still a big deal. Sam, are you really under the impression that those of us in the reality-based community don’t hear about anything unless it’s on Twitter and Facebook? As [this Washington Post article notes](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/07/hunter-bidens-laptop-april-16-2015-dinner/), there was plenty of coverage of this story at the time in the non-rightwing mainstream media, and there continues to be. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Without us, you might not know that the ‘Trump server connected to s Russian bank’ story was utter bullshit. Yeah, 'cause nobody in non-rightwing media ever suggested any such thing. [Oh wait, they did](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/17/it-is-entirely-fitting-that-alfa-bank-rumor-be-final-bookend-russia-probe/). > [@](#): > > The morning after the story was published, I wrote [a lengthy examination](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/01/that-secret-trump-russia-email-server-link-is-likely-neither-secret-nor-a-trump-russia-link/?itid=lk_inline_manual_11) of the claim, talking with an expert on this sort of communication who punched a number of very large holes in the idea that it marked quiet coordination between Trump and Russia. […] > > The Washington Post wasn’t the only news organization to question the story. The Daily Beast indicated that it had been pitched on the story and [passed](http://web.archive.org/web/20170111132942/https://twitter.com/NoahShachtman/status/793243875171237888). The New York Times addressed it in its [infamous “Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia” article](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/us/politics/fbi-russia-election-donald-trump.html?_r=0) published the same day, writing that “the F.B.I. ultimately concluded that there could be an innocuous explanation, like a marketing email or spam, for the computer contacts.” > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Without us you might not have heard that a lawyer representing Hillary Clinton has been indicted […] Because only conservatives [have access to the Justice Department website](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-durham-indictments-prosecuting-fake-trump-collusion/951215) where they announce what the Lawfare blog describes as “the special counsel’s weird prosecution of Michael Sussman”? How mysterious that no non-rightwing media thought to cover this interesting story! [Oh.](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/us/politics/michael-sussman-russia-investigation.html) [Wait.](https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/17/politics/michael-sussmann/index.html) [They.](https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/572743-attorney-charged-in-durham-investigation-pleads-not-guilty) [Did.](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/special-counsel-appointed-trump-doj-may-indict-democratic-lawyer-sussmann-n1279353) Honestly, Sam, you’re just being pathetic here. Believe it or not, liberals (unlike many conservatives) do not need to go far afield beyond their “bubble” into strange new worlds of journalism in order to access news and opinion reporting critical of people who align with their own political ideology. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474.md?page=132) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-be-real-clear-this-message-board-does-not-need-conservatives/947474.md?page=134)