You’re on a roll lately.
Ok, where did the bee thing come from?
Edit: Oh. Hives. Never mind.
/Emily Litella
No, it’s not absurd. You mentioned that we don’t allow “antisocial” or "jerk"ish behavior here, which means we have a bubble. For example, if there is a lot of racism in the real world, but no racism on the Straight Dope Message Boards, then discourse about race on the boards would not reflect discourse about race off the boards: the boards are a bubble because they offer insulation, for better or worse.
I would not want to live in a bubble 24/7 and would probably judge people who do so; however, (perhaps unlike octopus) I see the obvious appeal of spending recreational time in an environment insulated from jerkish behavior and opinions. I also say, if you visit the SDMB on anything but your own leisure, you are doing it wrong.
~Max
Hmm, I think of “bubble” in the sense of “information bubble” as meaning that people inside the bubble are not merely following different practices from those of people outside the bubble, but actually unaware of what the practices outside the bubble are like. The people in the bubble are cut off from information about extra-bubbular reality.
That is most certainly not the case here on the SDMB. We may have rules against bigoted or antisocial or jerkish behavior, but we exchange information and views all the time about instances of such behavior beyond the Boards.
It’s the same argument which redefines ‘manners’ as ‘political correctness’, pretty much.
I assume octopus uses “bubble” as a synonym for “safe space”, not true bliss. As evidence I present his numerous charicterizations of these boards, or of people’s hopes for these boards, as a “safe space”.
~Max
Well, what he said was
I interpreted that as implying “bubble” = lack of diversity of information and “hive” = lack of diversity of opinion. Neither of which, as I noted, is applicable to the SDMB.
He comes to this place to shit all over it because he can’t win a discussion with the typical lies and falsehoods which characterize the modern conservative discourse. That’s all. No need to analyze it all that much.
If you put 5 seconds of thought into trying to determine what he means by “hive” or “bubble”, you spent 5 seconds more than he did. He parrots words he thinks are insulting, he doesn’t think about their meaning.
Groupthink isn’t a virtue. And the efforts the hive mind puts forth to ban dissent are cowardly.
You, my friend, are a complete fucking joke.
And you know it.
That’s not kind. You should strive to be nice if you don’t want coal in your stocking.
Fuck off potty mouth.
I think the idea that there’s a huge diversity of perspective here right now is suspect. It’s pretty true historically, but I really don’t think if you did a broad survey of active posters in the last month, or whatever, you’d find anything like the diversity of political opinion that Kimstu suggested.
I think the problem with Octopus’ complaints about the “hive mind” isn’t that he’s wrong that the vast majority of the SDMB generally agrees about most things. The problem is that he’s wrong about pretty much everything else, so unanimous disagreement with him isn’t evidence of anything. I still think it’s fair to describe the SDMB as a kind of bubble. Very conservative and radical left wing spaces do plenty of posting center-left neoliberal ideas and articles for the purpose of ridiculing them, but that doesn’t make them not bubbles.
This may surprise you, or it may not, but I agree with octopus on many issues. Not everything, but a lot. His opinions are closer to mine than most of the people I debate.
That being said I sometimes read his posts in the voice of drunk Rick Sanchez.
~Max
I’m sorry you have to find out like this, but that means you’re wrong about a lot of things.
Any messageboards less bubbly and cowardly than this one, Octopus?
They’re not diverse enough for him. Less bubbly and cowardly traits pushes them into hive mind territory, and he can’t abide that.
I’m sure there are.
I’ll (oh no!) bet there aren’t.
Disprove with a cite.