# Open letter to Bricker **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 6, 2008, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263 "2008-09-06T00:51:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/1 "2008-09-06T00:51:09Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/2 "2008-09-06T01:09:11Z")
**An Open Letter to Scylla** TLDR\* \*Pronounced “pleez shut up” ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/3 "2008-09-06T01:12:02Z")
Give it a rest Scylla. Bricker made an ass of himself. You guys seem to have the victim terminology down pat. Remember the boy who cried wolf? ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/4 "2008-09-06T01:13:15Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > Look in your pile-on thread. > 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. Hmmm… You mean the thread where **Bricker** called out people and enthusiastically snarled right back at those he called out in his first few posts? That thread? I generally sorta like **Bricker** most of the time, despite differing views on certain issues and occasional frustration with his lawyer-trained style of debating. But he was virtually _begging to be piled on_. And as he himself noted, he has an occasional tendency to lose his shit and sneer/jeer at his opponents. Not often mind you, but he did himself no favours with his chortling after the last election. Just because your opponents wallow in the pigpen doesn’t give you carte blanche to do so as well. Of if it does, it certainly doesn’t impart any style or class. Flaming liberal though I am, I actually a miss a few of the more thoughtful conservative posters that have departed. I also think the argument that this board has become a bit to polarized to the left actually has some merit. But you are dead wrong to be putting **Bricker** up on a pedestal and chastizing his attackers based on _that_ thread. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/5 "2008-09-06T01:14:20Z")
Ironically, I have no idea what “TLDR” stands for. Is it some kind of take-myself-very-seriously-gay-video-clerk only sort of thing, or can you clue me in? ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/6 "2008-09-06T01:16:57Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > Ironically, I have no idea what “TLDR” stands for. Is it some kind of take-myself-very-seriously-gay-video-clerk only sort of thing, or can you clue me in? No, you’ve got it, it’s a take-myself-very-seriously-gay-video-clerk-only sort of thing. Or rather, it’s not understandable only by take-myself-very-seriously-retarded attention whores. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/7 "2008-09-06T01:17:30Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > Ironically, I have no idea what “TLDR” stands for. “Too long, didn’t read.” ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/8 "2008-09-06T01:17:55Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > no, you’ve got it, it’s a take-myself-very-seriously-gay-video-clerk-only sort of thing. Or rather, it’s not understandable only by take-myself-very-seriously-retarded attention whores. tldr. ---
**Author:** ![Charogne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@Charogne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charogne)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/9 "2008-09-06T01:17:59Z")
Let’s try a different acronym, Scylla. STFU. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/10 "2008-09-06T01:18:24Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > “Too long, didn’t read.” But he made it all the way through Showgirls? ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/11 "2008-09-06T01:18:56Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > Ironically, I have no idea what “TLDR” stands for. Is it some kind of take-myself-very-seriously-gay-video-clerk only sort of thing, or can you clue me in? And poor helpless you has no way to find out? Took me 3 [seconds to find](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tldr) ---
**Author:** ![Myrnalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Myrnalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrnalene)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/12 "2008-09-06T01:19:19Z")
Jesus Christ, \*\*Scylla \*\*. You grow more bloated and intolerable every year. You are right that the board is not as great as it was years ago - but brother, you are part of the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/13 "2008-09-06T01:19:24Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > But he made it all the way through Showgirls? You can do that when you’re brain dead. ---
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/14 "2008-09-06T01:19:35Z")
Not sure I know what pile-on thread you mean, but if it’s in the pit, then the purpose is more venting than debate. So, no problem, right? ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/15 "2008-09-06T01:20:09Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > But he made it all the way through Showgirls? You continue to justify my disdain for you. You haven’t had an original thought in, what, like 40 years? What do you, have like a Magic 8 Ball with the same handful of biting insults? ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/16 "2008-09-06T01:22:32Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Hmmm… > > But you are dead wrong to be putting **Bricker** up on a pedestal and chastizing his attackers based on _that_ thread. Ok. Let’s try this. I’ll quote something from that thread by one of the people attacking **Bricker** You show me something in that thread from **Bricker** that it is on par with it. I’ll go first: Post 24, from Tveblen, unedited and in it’s entirety: "Right. You’re a neocon pimp, Bricker, and never have been anything more. An eloquent one, but a tawdry little cunt. You’re voting for McCain the neo-Rovian whore and Creationist Barbie. You’re all about conservative values, so long as government requires everybody to believe and act just like you. Your outrage over McCain’s flipflopping and vile campaign tactics, hey, so convincing because hey, you’re all about principles. Everybody believed all along you’d maybe vote for somebody who wasn’t a sleaze bag Republican because your track record has been swell about that. Really. Do recount again your proud attendance at Shrub’s second inaugural festivities. No better benchmark for intelligent, principled government that Shrub, Cheney and Rove! But no, you changed your mind. The evil liberal media made you do it! Dopers made you do it! Bricker’s voting for the theocracy! Now there’s a suprise! Actually, pimps deserve rather more respect than you, Bricker. They’re straightforward greedy, brutal assholes. You just want to make sure the whores and johns pray during the transactions, and pray the right way, to your god. Fuck right off. You really are about as low as human being can get." I find that somewhat over the top. What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/17 "2008-09-06T01:23:14Z")
You know, there’s these things called PM’s. That’s short for Private Messages. You can send them to other members, without having to play up being a whiny, attention whoring victim. Just sayin’ ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/18 "2008-09-06T01:24:01Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > …Respect and goodwill are meaningless except as tools of coercion… This isn’t the truth. It certainly isn’t well-intentioned advice for anyone living in a polite society. It’s merely a carefully crafted appeal for you to descend one more level, with a bestial-rape joke thrown in just to equate civility and honesty on this board with submission to violation by an articulate, liberal bear. I hope and trust your so-called “pile-on thread” wasn’t so painful. By all means ignore meaningless personal attacks, and try to refrain from them yourself. If a single jackass brays, it’s no reflection on you. On the other hand, you seem to have recently attracted a lot of negative attention, but not so much as to make **Scylla** ’s invitation to renounce reason and courtesy in favor of his praise attractive. On preview: Wow, a half-hour changes everything, huh? Oh, well, here it is anyway. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/19 "2008-09-06T01:27:24Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > Ok. Let’s try this. I’ll quote something from that thread by one of the people attacking **Bricker** You show me something in that thread from **Bricker** that it is on par with it. > > I’ll go first: > > Post 24, from Tveblen, unedited and in it’s entirety: > > "Right. You’re a neocon pimp, Bricker, and never have been anything more. An eloquent one, but a tawdry little cunt. You’re voting for McCain the neo-Rovian whore and Creationist Barbie. You’re all about conservative values, so long as government requires everybody to believe and act just like you. > > Your outrage over McCain’s flipflopping and vile campaign tactics, hey, so convincing because hey, you’re all about principles. Everybody believed all along you’d maybe vote for somebody who wasn’t a sleaze bag Republican because your track record has been swell about that. Really. Do recount again your proud attendance at Shrub’s second inaugural festivities. No better benchmark for intelligent, principled government that Shrub, Cheney and Rove! But no, you changed your mind. The evil liberal media made you do it! Dopers made you do it! Bricker’s voting for the theocracy! Now there’s a suprise! > > Actually, pimps deserve rather more respect than you, Bricker. They’re straightforward greedy, brutal assholes. You just want to make sure the whores and johns pray during the transactions, and pray the right way, to your god. > > Fuck right off. You really are about as low as human being can get." > I find that somewhat over the top. What do you think? Oh, so you made a mistake? You meant to write a tard-screed to TVeblen. Cool. Ask a mod to close this thread and start over. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263/20 "2008-09-06T01:28:36Z")
I’m curious, Scylla, about one thing (hello to you, too, by the way:)): Did you think, when you were writing this, that it would not become an extension of Bricker’s thread? If not, why not? Noblest of intentions, and all that, but the veteran doper in me doesn’t see this thing ending well for much of anyone. Might send this (your OP, I mean) privately to Bricker and request that this be closed. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-bricker/462263.md?page=2)