# Liberal: Prove it or retract it **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 15, 2005, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-prove-it-or-retract-it/308314 "2005-06-15T02:21:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2005, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-prove-it-or-retract-it/308314/121 "2005-06-16T02:20:45Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > Very well done gentlemen. Thank you for your debate and resolution. If only our leaders could do this. Dream on, you wild and crazy idealist! Oh, by the way, I’m a she. Eddy, Teddy, and Freddy are not. ---
**Author:** ![H3Knuckles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@H3Knuckles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/H3Knuckles)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-prove-it-or-retract-it/308314/122 "2005-06-16T04:21:21Z")
This is an old joke, but… _Gasp_ You mean someone was [mean to/disagreed with] someone else **on the internet**?!? :eek: _Say it ain’t so_ :rolleyes: Seriously, you guys make the whole webcomics thing between Tycho (aka Jerry Holkins) of [Penny Arcade](http://www.penny-arcade.com/) and [Scott McCloud](http://www.scottmccloud.com/) over that poorly-planned upcoming [web-comic documentary](http://www.toptwothreefilms.com/films/digitalcomics.html) seem reasonable. It just doesn’t seem worth it to me. **Liberal** ; you _do_ seem to be too quick to assume people are out-to-get-you, and **EddyTeddyFreddy** ; if he’s as jumped on as this thread makes it seem, then I wouldn’t worry too much about people taking his use of you seriously. It always makes me think of those embarrasing Junior-High years when people in messageboards start talking about Lawyers over such unimportant disputes. I thought people (like myself) outgrew that as they hit high-school. I thought it was pretty clear ETF was only using it in the figurative to mean a false accusation, or baseless criticism, not as a legal term. I seriously hope if I ever get into a dispute like this or the earlier one **Liberal** refers to, someone just says “H3Knuckles, you’re [being an idiot/making an ass of yourself], stop before you give yourself a new embarrasing moment to obsess over neurotically for the rest of your life” and that I have enough sense at the time to listen to them. PS. about that aforementioned comparison, I am kind of on the side of Tycho, because the [upcoming] documentary appears to be embarrasingly misrepresentative of the web-comics community, and if the trailer isn’t a fair representation of the focus of the film, then it’s a pretty stupid trailer. But mostly because the PA guys are always assholes, that’s their schtick; they make their points with sledgehammers, so getting upset when they do it to someone you like, as opposed to Microsoft, or film-maker Uwe Boll (sp?), or some shit, is ridiculous. PPS. Penny Arcade is a particularly appropriate thing to bring up here because of artist Gabe’s (aka Michael Krahulik’s) “Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory” which goes like this: Average Person + Total Anonymity + Audience = Total Fuckwad. Basically, if you’re on the internet as much as people are here, you need to anticipate that 2/3 of the people will be assholes, and develop the ability to let this stuff roll off your back, or you’ll rarely be able to enjoy yourself. I myself am guilty of taking things too far, even in this very forum. Just don’t take this stuff too seriously, we all get a bug up our butt once in a while. Sorry to rant, but it seemed germaine to what this thread is about. ---
**Author:** ![H3Knuckles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@H3Knuckles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/H3Knuckles)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2005, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-prove-it-or-retract-it/308314/123 "2005-06-16T04:27:45Z")
Also: No offense, but I never knew **EddyTeddyFreddy** was a girl either. Well, not for sure. I always wondered whther ETF was a guy or girl, but kind of thought that maybe ETF was a fairly effeminate gay man, the sort of older types who have a cynical sense of humour about stuff. I don’t know why, just always struck me that way. Something about the name too, I always that there was some sort of (mildly naughty) inside joke I was missing. Then I’d read something by her and be like “Maybe ETF’s just an average person who has three pets or sons named that, or something,” and then I’d be like “Naaahh!” Just goes to show how completely clueless **I** can be sometimes, I guess. But now I know… “And knowing is half the battle! Goooooo Joe!” :o Sorry, couldn’t help it! ---
**Author:** ![H3Knuckles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@H3Knuckles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/H3Knuckles)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2005, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-prove-it-or-retract-it/308314/124 "2005-06-16T04:41:51Z")
Edit Edit Edit! My kingdom for an edit button! Good to see you guys could resolve things, more or less… Also it just struck me why I always had those weird notions about **EddyTeddyFreddy**! I was confusing her with my mental picture of fellow doper **Happy Lendervedder**. Now watch Happy turn out to be a woman, or a married man, or some other kind of person that’s the opposite of my mental construct for the person-behind-the-posts, then I can really feel stupid. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2005, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-prove-it-or-retract-it/308314/125 "2005-06-16T04:44:48Z")
Average? Me? Sir! Like everyone else here, I am above average! And I could be lying about my gender. This is the Internet, after all. We’re all just a bunch of more or less organized electrons here. Only the Shadow knows, and s/he ain’t telling. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2005, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-prove-it-or-retract-it/308314/126 "2005-06-16T04:47:28Z")
> [@H3Knuckles](#): > > Also it just struck me why I always had those weird notions about **EddyTeddyFreddy**! And just what sort of weird notions might those be? Might they involve whipped cream, WD-40, bungee cords, and a rasp? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2005, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-prove-it-or-retract-it/308314/127 "2005-06-16T09:55:11Z")
H3Knuckles, you’re [being an idiot/making an ass of yourself], stop before you give yourself a new embarrasing moment to obsess over neurotically for the rest of your life. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2005, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-prove-it-or-retract-it/308314/128 "2005-06-16T13:27:29Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > …And I could be lying about my gend… How many men do you know with three cats? ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2005, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-prove-it-or-retract-it/308314/129 "2005-06-16T13:52:26Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > How many men do you know with three cats? Well, several, but they’re not manly men , with the possible exception of the biker dude. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2005, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-prove-it-or-retract-it/308314/130 "2005-06-16T14:10:42Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > And just what sort of weird notions might those be? Might they involve whipped cream, WD-40, bungee cords, and a rasp? :dubious: What kind of rasp? A…bastard? ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2005, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-prove-it-or-retract-it/308314/131 "2005-06-16T16:15:15Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > What kind of rasp? A…bastard? No, a farrier’s rasp – [take your pick.](http://www.simondsinternational.com/files/images/farrier1.gif) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-prove-it-or-retract-it/308314.md?page=6)