Just to play Devil’s advocate (and maybe to explain the dirty tactics of RW pundits), there are some isolated incidents in small jurisdictions where this has been done. We have had some places where they essentially fired all of their police. Here is a recent one (which we talked about in the Stupid MFers Pit thread).
As you can see though, it’s a temporary measure in response to an extreme circumstance. There is no concerted effort to remove police departments. Folks on the right like to take examples like this one and say, “See? They want to get rid of police and create anarchy on the streets!”
It’s the political equivalent of pointing to a solar eclipse and yelling about how the sun is gone and we are all going to die.
I understand what you’re saying, that this sort of incident is irrelevant – just as irrelevant as the fact that undoubtedly a few crackpots have chanted “defund the police”. I think it’s worth adding, too, that in the example you cite, which can be read as “town dissolves its entire police force”, the subtext is “all three of them”. Actually, it was all two of them; the third officer quit on his own. The population of the entire town is less than 8% of the typical attendance at a baseball game.
But yes, our resident cephalopodic troll will use this as proof that “the progressive left” has brought anarchy to America! It probably all began when Biden supporters, in between burning down cities, helped Biden steal the election. These are the kinds of “facts” we’re dealing with here.
His world view is the same as those who worry when someone says they will visit NYC or something. In reality, NYC is safer than small-town America, but it’s an article of faith that it has been practically burned to the ground by protestors.
His problem is that he has terrible news source that lie to him all the time. He’s fed a steady stream of right-wing lies and propaganda, and no longer has a reality-based view of the world.
So, he jumps into threads and says something that makes sense in whatever distorted reality that he thinks we’re living in, and everyone else goes, “huh?”
His other problem is that he adds practically no value to any thread he participates in. He doesn’t answer FQs, he doesn’t debate rationally. He spends most of his time complaining about moderation and making threads all about him, and complaining about the hive mind.
Imagine he got all of his news and science education from flat-earthers. Then, when us hive-minders all agreed the Earth is round, he would think we’re all equally deluded.
Thank you, @Kimstu and @Atamasama for taking SDMB nitpicking to a whole new level!
I humbly admit that “purple” was a poor descriptor, though IMHO it’s magenta that comes closest (according to what I see on my Dell IPS monitor). In my defense, however, when I see police lights off in the distance where the red and blue tend to combine, it sort of looks purplish to me. In actual fact, however, red and blue combine to make purple only in the subtractive colour mixing process of CMYK printing, whereas they combine to make magenta in the additive process of light mixing.
Regardless of colour, however, our resident cephalopod is a fucking moron totally detached from reality.
And don’t be starting in on me for spelling “colour” correctly.
In case anyone cares, the reason that I’ve reverted to correct spelling of words like “colour” and “favour” is that, after years of engaging in the courtesy on this board of conforming with the rebellious anti-British incorrect spelling of our esteemed southern neighbours, I found myself getting so habituated to it that I was using it in correspondence with my fellow Canucks. This resulted in great consternation and suspicions about my loyalty to all things Maple (syrup, leaf, and the hockey team), so I had to break myself of the noxious habit. You guys may continue to spell things wrong. We think it’s charming and we love you anyway.
Taking the center of the image (i.e., eliminating the shading/shadows around the edges), I get a color average of #DE3279 which is in the magenta family (according to Pantone).
Taking Octo back out of the prior thread, because, as usual, he adds noting to any thread, which is why he’s ignored. All those blank quotes and hidden replies messed up the flow!
Providing useful information in a thread involving Octo, which again, is more than he has every provided, other than an example of what not to be.
For the record Octo, not that I think you’ll listen, but the reason we all despise you / are disgusted with you is not because of any sort of a hive mind, but because we all can independently realize you’re a quite the piece of work, who insults literally everyone who doesn’t agree with you, fails to provide coherent arguments based on anything other the poor information, and is proud of it.
The only debate to be had about you is if you’re a brainwashed dupe, or a high-functioning troll. And I bet on troll. So, I’ll repeat my comment from the prior thread, right after Ed updated the rules - while you try not to go over the line, you are more trouble than you’re worth to the board, and bring nothing to the table, and therefore should be banned.
Okay, done, resume the detailed arguments regarding color combinations and spelling codification.
I used to even like octopus once upon a time. He didn’t always post the way he does now. I don’t know what happened to him. Was it Trumpism?
Read this thread:
That’s a cool poster. I like that guy.
Not as enjoyable but okay in his next thread.
At least he’s trying to have a real discussion, though he screwed up in the OP (and admitted he did so).
Still okay.
Here is a pretty good discussion. Some disagreement, but civil. Even complimenting people he disagrees with. This is the octopus I remember from years ago.
This is where I start to see today’s octopus. And everything from that point on is garbage. It’s pretty sad! And I’m not saying that with snark or sarcasm. I liked him once.
Yeah, ISTM too that it used to be possible to have an actual discussion with octo once you had got past his reflexive initial spray of anti-liberal snark. I don’t know what happened.
I’m guessing he would say that he just decided not to waste coherently constructed arguments on our “hive-mind” selves any more, and I hope that that’s true. Because most of the alternative explanations I can think of involve some kind of inadvertent cognitive decline or something, which is sad.
I can carry on conversations just fine with folks who don’t exhibit exceedingly strong group think like most of the hive or are devoid of integrity like what exit and the gossip gang.
In a thread about the Looney Left I was having a perfectly fine conversation with Miller only surprise being was no warning was issued for not constructing my posts in essay form with the prompt being the thread title…
Think about cause and effect for a little bit and you won’t be surprised that pit attacks and pile ons don’t contribute to a forum love fest.
