Bricker:
You may remember that you and I started on this board at about the same time in '99. Things were a little different back then. I remember getting my ass kicked by the likes of Davidb, Gaudere, and Dr. Fidelius in scientific discussions, and feeling greatful about it. The board was much more about factual debate on pretty tangible subjects, and not so much about politics.
We even had a better class of troll back then. People like Phaedrus were utterly and hopelessly insane in truly entertaining ways. What was the name of that Noah the Ark guy? The foreskin guy?
While the board leaned to the left back then us conservative types were welcome and respected. You could get your ass kicked, or kick ass in one discussion, but nobody held it against you in the next.
Back in those halcyon days you and I both attained respect and status for our contributions on a variety of subjects. (Mine was considerably greater, neener neener.)
Those days are gone. With them are gone Spiritus Mundi, Satan, John Corrado, Unclebeer, Kaylasdad, David B, Gaudere hardly ever posts. A whole host of other worthies have also left. What have they been replaced with?
Look in your pile-on thread.
What type of people are these? Let me share a joke with you:
A guy goes bear hunting. He sees this black bear cub and he shoots it. He gets tapped on the shoulder and when he turns around he’s face to face with a 7 foot tall brown bear. “You really shouldn’t have done that,” says the bear. “Now I either have to kill you or rape you and molest you real bad.”
“I want to live,” says the man. The bear rapes and molests the man real bad. The man crawls to a hospital. Six weeks later he’s out of the hospital. He grabs his gun and goes hunting for the bear that raped him. Finally, he tracks it down and shoots it dead. He gets tapped on the shoulder, and when he turns around he’s looking at an 8 foot tall Kodiak.
“You really shouldn’t have done that,” says the Kodiak. “Now I either have to kill you, or rape you real Real bad.”
“Well, I want to live,” says the man. So the Kodiak rapes the man real Real Bad. This time it’s four month before the man is out of the hospital. Once again he picks up his gun, tracks down his adversary and shoots it dead. He gets tapped on the shoulder, and when he turns around he’s face to face with a ten foot tall Grizzly.
The grizzly looks at him puzzled for a moment. “You ummm… You’re not really hear for the hunting, are you?”
I’ve been on the receiving end of quite a few pile ons. I’m not saying you’re the bear, and I’m not saying you’re the hunter. But, I will tell you this:
The people in that thread attacking you are not there for the debate. They are there for the pile on. They are their to hurt you. They take pleasure in it. It’s nothing personal, because any adversary will do.
If you have a bad job, no job, or your mentally ill. If life has not been all that it could have been. If you’re bitter, a shut-in, divorcee or outcast, you may not have much else but this board. It might feel good to give it to somebody else for a change. Somebody better than them.
Others just enjoy the show.
Still another’s need not look to their own failings to justify the pleasure they take in the pile on.
You’re a pretty normal guy with your positives and negatives. I look at some of the things that were said to you and about you in that thread and I cannot reconcile them with respectable human behavior. There’s a lot of those people here, and on this board most of them are liberals. There’s really only a few of us stubborn types from the old days left. Most of the rest of us have left, or keep quiet when the leftist ilk is trolling for blood.
If you’re going to stay, you have to ask yourself the question. Are you really here for the debate?
To some, to attack you, pile on, go after you personally, condemn you, and attempt to provoke a meltdown is nothing more than entertainment.
I think your words over the last ten years speak for themselves. Your record as a thoughful debater, humorous, informative trivia master who’s more than willing to poke fun at himself, as well as your flexible mind which enables you to conceed a point strongly argued is a record that few (save myself, of course) can compare with.
Because they cannot equal it, they refuse to acknowledge it. In truth they resent the unflattering comparison and it counts against you. The value is in tearing it and you down to a level where the comparison is not so unflattering.
Respect and goodwill are meaningless except as tools of coercion and extend only so far as your ongoing cooperation and acknowledgement of the current group think.
Don’t sweat the small stuff.
Stay golden Poney Boy. Stay golden.