Yeah, we here at Lake Dopebegon are all way above average. 
Then what would you suggest?
** Liberal ** not making hijackingesque comments and other Dopers not responding to them.
So what. People see Lib as pretentious because they don’t want to admit that he posts counter arguments with superior logic and intellect. Being on the other side of a debate is like going up against a professor.
I’ve known Lib the poster now for several years. I think he one of the most honest and smartest posters on the SDMB. He can be quite devastating to one’s ego when he expertly applies his logic to present an opposing view. I’ve experienced it myself, but never, never has he insulted me and I’ve never seen him insult someone else except to return in kind.
Lib loves debating. Lib is also what I call a non- conformist . If this were a conservative board you could bet your ass that he would do you liberals proud. It’s unfortunate perhaps, but if Lib suddenly became loved and respected around here he would become very uncomfortable.
Just my take on Lib
Although I see Liberal as a smart guy, the people on the board who view him as “professor-like” and “one of the smartest” generally seem to me like dumbasses. Lib is average-smart for the board, pure and simple. He does seem to have a certain something, however, that makes morons stick their tongues up his colon.
Maybe he’s good at crushing lesser minds while giving them a certain masochistic pleasure. Dunno. Whip me! Beat me! Make me feel intellectually cheap!
Ah, now you’re making sense. You’re right: He’d do whatever he could to stand out like a sore thumb and whore attention.
Be careful, grienspace. You’re sliding very close to making an accusation of trolling. That’s not permitted.
And mean spirited insulting posts like yours doesn’t do that?
A pit thread about Liberal? Has it been three months already? Seems to get one once every couple of months or so. 
thumbs suspenders country lawyer style Now I may be a poor country wolf, but I’ve bounced off Liberal a time or two and I have to say he’s a smart guy. Got a lot of respect fer 'im. Never lets a body off easy. Always makes ya think…makes ya work for it. When you agree with him, well danged if he ain’t the shiznit. When you disagree with him, that thars a whole different can o’worms.
Most of the time, Liberal doesn’t mean exactly what it looks like he means. I usually just ask for an explanation, but I can certainly understand where people wouldn’t want to do that and where he could come across as sounding like a jerk.
I have to say that the board would be a different place without him, probably for the worse. Liberal, you’re a smart guy. I just wish you could state things a bit more clearly.
And seriously, what were you thinking when you posted that? 
Well, the thing about Lib, y’see, to really grasp that which is Lib and be one with the cosmic Libness is to realize that he’s the issue of a lesbian tryst twixt Ayn Rand and Joan of Arc.
IT’S IN REVELATIONS, PEOPLE!
Ohhhh, such a martyr! The words, they hurts us precious!
Au contraire! You had posted several things over a period of time that I didn’t necessarily agree with but which I thought spoke well of you nonetheless. However, it turned out I was wrong, and if you’ll recall I admitted quite readily that the admiration and respect I had for developed in your regard were sorely misplaced.
(And if you’ll recall further, you claimed that I only offered admiration and respect to those who liked and supported me, even though you have clearly never done so at any time. I pointed this out, but you remained silent. Since you were clearly wrong in this assertion, I think the only gentlemanly and intellectually honest thing for you to do would be to retract this false accusation.)
As I said, stating that his presence would cause a pile-on is not, ipso facto, an invitation to pile-on. However, I was going by the quote of his that you posted above. Was that his initial post? It didn’t sound like it in your quote. If it wasn’t, you should have posted more evidence from the thread in question, as the quote you posted, in and of itself, falls far short of an invitation for a pile-on, which you claimed. If it was his first post, I could see how it would appear to you as you say, given your prejudice against him. I would probably read it differently, given that I myself have no problem with Lib.
Starving Artist, I don’t talk to you all that often mostly because I don’t see the point. But this is what I saw - I finally got around to posting something about my growing disgust with certain elements on the left here on the SDMB. Suddenly, after months without talking to you, right after I posted something you no doubt agree with - I’m deluged with your effusive praise. Indeed, if you had as much respect for my intelligence as you indicated, it’s rather a shock that it disappeared so suddenly.
Other people play the ‘respect’ game and I find it rather revolting. You know, the game where a person’s ‘respect’ is dolled out like a token to be granted or revoked at will, generally in exchange for something. Someone who has an honest appreciation for the meaning of the word ‘respect’ understands that it’s not a trinket given in exchange for favors. I’d rather not believe that you’re sitting here playing the respect game.
So you were ready to draw conclusions about Liberal’s behavior without reading the thread in question? And you accuse me of bias? Oh, dear . . . I trust you can understand why this does not reflect well on you.
It was part of his first post. I trimmed a sentence or two off complaining that the closing of the thread that inspired said pit thread was unfair and generally kvetching about the SDMB. I, as a matter of fact, agree that the thread closing was probably wrong. But indeed, this was his first post in the thread. He popped in, noted that he would be piled on, and recommended that IAMBIC slink away in the distraction to follow.
Again, you keep saying that he was simply making a statement of fact. Even if he was not requesting a pile-on, what was his motivation in posting what he did if he believed that was the inevitable result of his posting it? Can you come up with an alternate explanation, Starving Artist? I asked him to explain it - he can’t seem to do so. Perhaps on your third or fourth go-round, you’ll get around to it. If not, though, I honestly can think of no other explanation for his behavior.
No, this is not about being out-debated. I used to teach debate when I was a sweet young thing many decades ago. Despite that, I know that the Lib I had a glimpse of when I first came here could have out-debated me fairly easily most days.
I don’t thing he’s even trying to debate anything anymore.
In the most recent thread by IAMBIC, I asked him straight forward questions about his original post:
Lib responded to only one of those questions – the “Why are you here?”
That doesn’t fit under any debating technique that I am aware of. It’s a reference to a children’s story.
And that would be a fine metaphor if it had anything to do with some impending danger that liberal needs to save us from. But it doesn’t.
The words posted here are meaningful to us, but they are not the be all and end all of our lives.
I understand very well standing up for another person and suggesting that we give this person time to adjust. That’s a good idea. What I don’t understand is demonizing other users as if they were vile flesh-eaters starving for fresh meat. I know that many give you a hard time, but I also know that for whatever reason, you keep poking at them like a bully.
Lib, I’m not against you. I don’t want you to go away. I don’t know how to reach what I know to be at the heart of you anymore. Have you talked to Polycarp lately? I’m at a lost of what to say.
I wish you peace, more than I can say.
Heh-heh. Well, enjoy that thought while you can.
This is the sum total of Lib’s first post in that thread:
And I think it’s important to note the prior to this, Liberal had neither been mentioned nor alluded to. He just volunteered his own little self as sacrificial victim. Unfortunately, the bait was taken and the dogpile began. I’d’ve preferred to send Lib on his way with a condescending chuckle and pat on the head, but it was not to be.
In any case, I hope it served as an object lesson to IAMBIC, who might actually become a valuable contributer to this board.
I would hardly say that the complimentary things I had to say to you were “effusive”, nor would I call a one or two line sentence a “deluge.” I can only conclude that you are trying to minimize the sincerity of what I said by trying to make me appear to be an overly zealous phony or would-be sycophant. That being said, the things that actually caused me to have a higher regard for you (short-lived though that proved to be) were things that you had said to me and attitudes you displayed prior to the period of several months you referred to when I wasn’t posting as much.
Oh, I still have respect for your intelligence. It’s your character and the way it manifests itself that I’ve discovered to be lacking. Essentially, my regard for you evaporated once I realized I was seeing things in you that simply weren’t there, as you’ve proved by your behavior since. Had you had indeed been the kind of person I had come to believe you were, you wouldn’t have responded in the way you did.
Oh, I suspect quite the contrary. I think you are sitting there thinking exactly that and trying to expose me as such at the same time. Now having said that, I could probably count on one hand the number of people with whom I have had politcal discussions here and ultimately offered words of respect or admiration. Given that I am usually a rather prolific poster here, and that I am often in the minority politically around here, I would think that if I were the kind of insincere suck-up you are trying to portray me as being, my record of sucking-up would be much higher.
At any rate, you accused me of only complimenting people who liked or supported me. I’ve shown by virtue of the fact that I complimented you that this was not the case. I asked in my last post if you intend to retract this accusation since it is demonstrably false, and I’m still waiting for an answer.
Exceuse meeee…you are right. I should have know better than to take your words at face value. My bad.
Well, therein lies the rub, doesn’t it? It certainly wasn’t apparent from your post that the quote you posted made up the entirety of his activity in that thread. Furthermore, if you had simply come back and said so, instead of trying to make me look like an insincere suck-up, most of our discussion in this thread could have been avoided.
I’m not sure I’m in a position at the moment to say whether the responses satisfy me, as they provide some food for thought that I’ll need to mull over a bit. And I don’t have any follow-up questions for now.
Thanks for the replies. I confess I didn’t expect the thread to end up this long…
Yes, we have discussed before your lack of subtlety in not recognizing when I said sarcastic things about you.
I will admit to something - I am very select in my affections. You can make of that what you will, but I’ve always had an intolerance for stupidity and a corresponding weakness - I have never been good at suffering fools.
You can certainly think that about me. However, I have seen you before bestowing your ‘respect’ like a gradeschool valentine - given to your friends and those whose favor you’d like to curry. You can’t really say the same for me - I don’t pop up to say how much I respect people. You won’t find that in my post history - it’s not a word I even use frequently. You’re pretty transparent here - you’re simply saying “tu quoque” as an infantile dodge but in this case, I have never once manifested the behavior I detest.
I can only reflect on what I’ve seen. I’ve seen you offer your ‘respect’ on what seems like a pretty disproportionate number of occasions. Perhaps it’s sampling error. I’ve also seen you pop up to tell people to respect their betters - that’s a particularly sad sort of sycophancy and one that others have remarked upon. It’s actually rather pathetic - watching you jump up and down like the ratlike guy in the movie who follows around the boss yelling about how everyone had better respect him or else. Except you seem to seek out anyone who’s willing to let you follow them around and do that.
I’ve answered you. We’ve had generally unpleasant interactions in the past. I posted something that was critical of parts of the left on the SDMB - something you agreed with - and then suddenly you jumped up to say nice things about me. I don’t know how you would have interpreted that - you seem very desperate for others’ approval, as one can witness with your constant attempts at procuring affection. So perhaps you would have taken it at face value.
However, that seemed like a rather unlikely interpretation to me. Since you’ve never had anything nice to say about me in the past, it struck me as likely not a coincidence that I posted something critical of people you don’t like much, and suddenly you wanted to be friends. I view that as a rather insincere offer, but perhaps you’ve never known any other kind.
If I said you offered compliments to those who “liked and supported you” (were those my exact words? I don’t remember.) it was clumsy wording. I haven’t seen enough people like or support you to know how you would react if it happened - however, my observation has been that you offer compliments to people you agree with. That is more what I meant to say - and I realize that I expressed it poorly, for which I apologize. However, again - what I saw confirmed my opinion of your ‘respect’ - it is not the same as what others would call respect, but rather a conditional trinket (if you will) of your affections.
I like to think that I’m able to see past whether someone shares my viewpoints in forming an opinion of them, but I certainly wouldn’t expect you to aspire to the same standard. If you took it as a criticism, then, don’t take it seriously. I wouldn’t expect the same from you as I do from myself.
This doesn’t even make sense. I can only conclude that you have absolutely no defense for Liberal’s post in that thread - I described it, I quoted it, I even used fairly neutral language. You jumped up - but you couldn’t answer the simple question I put in my first post.
By the way, I don’t need you to follow me around and jump on every post I make. Liberal’s been doing that lately, and he’s done a fine job of it without your help. Clearly, I’m oddly important to the both of you. Since I’ve met neither of you, I can only conclude that you both have very little else to do with your lives.
I’m again surprised that someone would decide that they could opine as to the intent of someone when they didn’t bother to find the context of what they said - though of course, if someone were to do so, I can’t express much surprise that it would be you.
You didn’t bother to read beyond my post - not even just to glance at the thread up until Liberal’s post came along, which wasn’t all that far into the thread. If you’re blaming me for the fact that you didn’t bother to familiarize yourself with it before you offered an opinion, well, I can hardly accept the blame. I couldn’t possibly offer the entire context in one post - it would have meant quoting ten or twenty messages in their entirety. Thus my link to the post, which conveniently links back to the thread. Thus, I could post the particularly relevant part, and trust readers to either understand the context that inspired this entire thread, or to take advantage of the opportunity to do so.
Since you still haven’t come up with an answer to the question I asked - namely, what other possible intention could Liberal have in posting what he did - and furthermore since you’ve decided to blame me for your failure to understand it, I must conclude that you agree that there is only one reasonable interpretation of his actions. Problem solved.
A Liberal pit thread? You kidding? Last one I saw ended up at least seven pages long, but I suspect it was actually longer. I began to lose interest.
As I said, Excalibre, it was your character that caused me to change my mind about you. Your entire post above is yet more evidence of your lack of character. You made an accusation about me that, even though demonstrably false, you refuse to retract…and you continue to try to obfuscate matters with false observations about my posting history and motives.
You just love to prove me wrong in thinking highly of you, don’t you?
In other words, you can’t come up with an answer to my question? You saw me post, leapt up because you couldn’t let a post of mine pass - but you can’t come up with a response even to my very first point. Now you also dodge the points I’ve made about your character. As pointed out, I misspoke. You’ve clung to that one line - even after I’ve explained it - as your talisman, your evidence that “mean ol’ Excalibre is wrong about me!” I see my words have stung you. I can only hope you grow from the experience.
So how about defending that first point you made? Still won’t back up your defense of Liberal? Are you abandoning him to grovel at the feet of someone else more popular than you? Or just hoping that if you don’t acknowledge your previous comments, they’ll evaporate?
Oh, and as long as we’re discussing it - you just love to prove me right, don’t you?