# New-ish "free speech" app, Parler

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ish-free-speech-app-parler/925109>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [November 9, 2020, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ish-free-speech-app-parler/925109 "2020-11-09T03:40:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 412

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2021, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ish-free-speech-app-parler/925109/412 "2021-02-02T03:07:33Z")

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> [@Sam\_Stone](#):
>
> You realize that if someone makes a point, and instead of responding to the point you decide to go on a fishing expedition to find something in the poster’s past 20 years of messages to use against them instead, you are engaging in ad-hominem argumentation and contributing to the hostility on this board […]

There’s no “fishing expedition” about it: I was well aware from the get-go that your current arguments against employers disfavoring Trump supporters contradict the more libertarian views that you have frequently proclaimed on this board throughout most of your posting history. I have [quoted similarly contradictory earlier posts of yours elsewhere](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-a-mypillow-gift-certificate-for-xmas-now-what/930672/34) as well.

And the idea that my pointing out glaring contradictions in your expressed opinions constitutes any kind of “ad hominem argumentation” just shows that you don’t understand what an ad hominem argument is.

> [@Sam\_Stone](#):
>
> It doesn’t matter if I am a hypocrite, or if I changed my mind on something years ago - the point made ahould stand irrespective of the poster […]

Anybody’s free to be a hypocrite and/or to change their mind whenever they want to, of course. But if you spend a lot of time on these boards arguing for Position A in order to persuade other posters to agree with you, and then some years later you start spending a lot of time arguing for the opposite of Position A—without bothering to explain how to reconcile those two views or what has changed in your thinking—then you can hardly blame other people for finding that your apparent inability to know your own mind negatively impacts your persuasiveness.

> [@Sam\_Stone](#):
>
> I’m just sick of it, and I’m going to call it out whenever someone tries these kinds of tactics.

Feel free. But I think you may be mistaken if you imagine that your “calling out” reflects more negatively on the poster who’s criticizing your self-contradictory statements than on the poster who can’t seem to figure out which of two contradictory positions he actually supports.

> [@Sam\_Stone](#):
>
> I’m also going to assume that the people who resort to these tactics do so because they don’t have a good response to the actual point

Criticizing your muddleheaded thinking, which seems to follow whatever conservative talking points are currently du jour without any regard for thoughtful consistency, doesn’t preclude making direct rebuttals to your alleged “point” as well. As you can see from my [post #388](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ish-free-speech-app-parler/925109/388) in this thread, shortly following my [post #386](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ish-free-speech-app-parler/925109/386) that you’re so miffed about.

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