# Pitting Uzi's useless claim about the SDMB being an echo chamber **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 8, 2025, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060 "2025-02-08T21:24:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Culling\_The\_Herd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Culling\_The\_Herd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Culling_The_Herd)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/61 "2025-02-09T03:21:44Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Got confused by the icon color, in any case, you do agree then that what @WalterBishop said then was not “Well said” as you told him, no? Yes, I stand by my “well-said” for the comment it was attached to. I’ve witnessed people on this site making cogent points worth listening to and debated who are ‘piled on’ and ‘shouted down’ because they don’t conform to the room’s prevailing viewpoint. As I’ve been informed today, apparently the Pit isn’t a place to expect polite and reasonable conversation (I’m already here so I’ve stuck around a bit but I’ll keep that in mind in the future). Heck, I’ve been accused of being a troll and a 'sock" in the last 30 minutes, apparently for arguing an opposing view. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/62 "2025-02-09T03:26:06Z")
> [@Culling\_The\_Herd](#): > > Heck, I’ve been accused of being a troll and a 'sock" in the last 30 minutes, apparently for arguing an opposing view. No, having socks because you’ve engaged in puppet master behavior. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/63 "2025-02-09T03:28:21Z")
Keep up, it was because _you did agree_ with the one declaring that he would stay to troll others. It has to be noted that you did not reply to what I pointed out that what Walter Bishop said that was not really accurate. specially when noted that the science is to be respected, one can still debate about how to deal with the issue that the science noted that it is a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Culling\_The\_Herd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Culling\_The\_Herd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Culling_The_Herd)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/64 "2025-02-09T03:32:15Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > No, having socks because you’ve engaged in puppet master behavior. Explain some more. Previously a sock was someone impersonating someone. Now “having socks” means engaging in “puppet master behavior”? ---
**Author:** ![Culling\_The\_Herd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Culling\_The\_Herd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Culling_The_Herd)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/65 "2025-02-09T03:40:00Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Keep up, it was because _you did agree_ with the one declaring that he would stay to troll others. > > It has to be noted that you did not reply to what I pointed out that what Walter Bishop said that was not really accurate. specially when noted that the science is to be respected, one can still debate about how to deal with the issue that the science noted that it is a problem. You are quite mistaken. I pointed out that others were conducting themselves in what I thought was an unacceptable fashion and weren’t being called out. I made no comment whatsover in regard to his comment, which I also thought was poor. And you’re trying to call me out because I DIDN’T reply to something you wrote about someone else? Good grief! ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/66 "2025-02-09T03:43:01Z")
> [@Culling\_The\_Herd](#): > > And you’re trying to call me out because I DIDN’T reply to something you wrote about someone else? Good grief! _“tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are_”. Really, today does call for conservatives of conscience to tell the unhinged ones to drop their chaotic talking points and acts. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/67 "2025-02-09T03:46:38Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Really, today does call for conservatives of conscience to tell the unhinged ones to drop their chaotic talking points and acts. If they had a conscience they wouldn’t be a conservative. ---
**Author:** ![Culling\_The\_Herd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Culling\_The\_Herd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Culling_The_Herd)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/68 "2025-02-09T03:48:58Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > _tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are_”. Did you get that from the McCarthy era? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/69 "2025-02-09T03:51:33Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > If they had a conscience they wouldn’t be a conservative. Now, with that line I will have to disagree. Those do exist, you see them less nowadays, but they do exist. > **[Republican who ran USAID under Bush calls dismantling it 'madness' as Trump,...](https://www.chronline.com/stories/republican-who-ran-usaid-under-bush-calls-dismantling-it-madness-as-trump-musk-cut-nearly-all,375036)** > > WASHINGTON — Since the end of World War II, the United States has remained a global power through foreign policy defined by what retired Ambassador Ryan Crocker calls a "three-legged stool" of … And I do know a few SDMB conservative posters that did not vote for Trump and have changed a lot from what they were years ago. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/70 "2025-02-09T03:55:56Z")
> [@Culling\_The\_Herd](#): > > Did you get that from the McCarthy era? Nope. This saying is often attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who famously said, “Tell me with whom you consort and I will tell you who you are.” You need to tell other conservatives to stop doing Faustian bargains. Just like I said to some extreme guys over here to not use a big and wide brush against conservatives. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/71 "2025-02-09T04:02:27Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > And I do know a few SDMB conservative posters that did not vote for Trump and have changed a lot from what they were years ago. And there’s people like me who not only didn’t vote for Trump, he pushed me to the left. I was a conservative before 2016 (though a fairly moderate one). I’m opposed to just about everything the Republicans stand for now. ---
**Author:** ![Culling\_The\_Herd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Culling\_The\_Herd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Culling_The_Herd)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/72 "2025-02-09T04:10:05Z")
You missed the sarcasm. > [@GIGObuster](#): > > _“tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are_”. “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” Thomas Jefferson As an independent, I’m proud to call conservatives, progressives and fellow independents as my friends. You and von Goethe can make of that what you will. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/73 "2025-02-09T04:24:37Z")
That was a different age, more recently: “In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.” - Mark Twain Point being, that unless you don’t check carefully what other ignorant conservatives ~~fart~~ bloviate over here, one should not jump to defend guys that are not really your friends. (I mean, unless you know WalterBishop really well, you are here just defending an anonymous guy that used ignorance as an argument.) I can say also that you also don’t know Jefferson really well: > **[Why Thomas Jefferson Clashed With His Fellow Founding Fathers | HISTORY](https://www.history.com/news/thomas-jefferson-clashes-other-founding-fathers)** > > Insults. Anonymous newspaper attacks. Feuds and hard feelings. Building a new nation put a definite strain on friendships. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/74 "2025-02-09T04:40:07Z")
> [@Culling\_The\_Herd](#): > > But thanks for the explanation of what a sock is. Ya learn something new every day. Is this thing on? You apparently don’t recall that I described “socks” and “trocks” to you, in detail, in a thread, just three days ago, when you wondered why a poster with whom you had been conversing had suddenly vanished, as had their posts. > [@Why did democrats lose so many presidential votes in 2024 in safe democratic states](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/75): > > They were likely a trock: a “sock puppet” account created by a previously-banned poster, in order to return and troll the board. Creating a second, “sock puppet,” account, specifically for the purpose of making posts without letting on that you have (or previously had) a different account here, is against board rules, and is a bannable offense. We regularly have banned posters try to come back, under different account names, nearly always just to stir up shit. My educated guess is that one o… And, you replied to me: > [@Why did democrats lose so many presidential votes in 2024 in safe democratic states](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/76): > > Interesting, never heard of that. Thanks for the reply. ---
**Author:** ![Culling\_The\_Herd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Culling\_The\_Herd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Culling_The_Herd)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/75 "2025-02-09T04:47:27Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.” - Mark Twain > > Point being, that unless you don’t check carefully what other ignorant conservatives ~~fart~~ bloviate over here, one should not jump to defend guys that are not really your friends. (I mean, unless you know WalterBishop really well, you are defending an anonymous guy that used ignorance as an argument.) I agreed with some of the points he made. That neither makes me his friend, nor your enemy. More recently still… If you don’t talk to people, how can you expect them to change? - Jane Goodall And of Mark Twain’s era… He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion. John Stuart Mill This is why people need to have open minds and listen to those with whom they may disagree. Perhaps not here in the Pit, apparently, since it’s less civil, but in as many places as we can. Far too many people on both the left and right act like they KNOW what the opposition is thinking, and KNOW their character and inner thoughts without ever speaking to them. In a two party system, both political parties have a vested interest in fostering animus and in painting the other side as evil. John Stuart Mill also wrote “there is always hope when people are forced to listen to both sides; it is when they attend only to one that errors harden into prejudices, and truth itself ceases to have the effect of truth, by being exaggerated into falsehood.” Speaking with my friends on issues that we disagree, I get a better perspective on why they feel, act and vote the way they do. I still may not agree, but I see them as people, and not as something less. ---
**Author:** ![Culling\_The\_Herd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Culling\_The\_Herd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Culling_The_Herd)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/76 "2025-02-09T04:50:06Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Is this thing on? I’m old. Not everything sticks. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/77 "2025-02-09T05:01:04Z")
> [@Culling\_The\_Herd](#): > > This is why people need to have open minds and listen to those with whom they may disagree. Perhaps not here in the Pit, apparently, since it’s less civil, but in as many places as we can. Far too many people on both the left and right act like they KNOW what the opposition is thinking, and KNOW their character and inner thoughts without ever speaking to them. You did not looked at my cite about what Marco Rubio did say regarding USAID in the near past and today, huh? > [@Culling\_The\_Herd](#): > > John Stuart Mill also wrote “there is always hope when people are forced to listen to both sides; it is when they attend only to one that errors harden into prejudices, and truth itself ceases to have the effect of truth, by being exaggerated into falsehood.” Speaking with my friends on issues that we disagree, I get a better perspective on why they feel, act and vote the way they do. I still may not agree, but I see them as people, and not as something less. Again this is disingenuous. Was WalterBishop your friend like Tomas Jefferson was to Hamilton, or one just ignores what Jefferson really did to him? Again, defending an ignorant anonymous poster looks like Jefferson posting about loving Hamilton when in reality they disliked each other and did so also anonymously. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/78 "2025-02-09T05:18:02Z")
> [@WalterBishop](#): > > This place clearly is an echo chamber on certain issues. There’s a menu of topics on which certain species of dissension are expressly forbidden. I’ve never seen that on any other board before. This is not accurate. There are two different kinds of prohibitions, and the reasons for them are entirely different. The first kind is a prohibition on hate speech, the reasons for which should be obvious. The second kind is a prohibition on starting GD threads on “tired old topics” like climate change denial, holocaust denial, 9/11 conspiracy theories, and the like. The reason for this prohibition is **precisely because** there is always some dissenter starting such a thread, or hijacking one with their nonsense. The intent is not to create an “echo chamber”, the intent is to avoid recurring debates going around the same old circles, wasting everybody’s time and detracting from useful content. It should be unsurprising that many such threads are started by trolls looking to cause trouble. So … we prohibit hate speech, and we prohibit repetitive trolling on tired old topics – although I’m pretty sure that anyone posting in good faith about a well-sourced scientific article, say, on findings that weaken the scientific consensus on climate change would be free to initiate a discussion about it. If this is “an echo chamber”, then any group of reasonably well-informed individuals aware of the key facts on important issues and coming to similar conclusions based on facts could be called an echo chamber. The term ceases to have meaning at that point. We still have a wide range of opinion on **subjective** values regarding economic and social policy. ---
**Author:** ![Culling\_The\_Herd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Culling\_The\_Herd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Culling_The_Herd)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/79 "2025-02-09T05:26:28Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > You did not looked at my cite about what Marco Rubio did say regarding USAID in the near past and today, huh? I did not. And for the purposes of this discussion, I don’t count most politicians - who lie for a living - as 1) role models, 2) the solution, or 3) helpful in anyway when it comes to building a consensus and a unified nation. > [@GIGObuster](#): > > Again this is disingenuous. Was WalterBishop your friend like Tomas Jefferson was to Hamilton, or one just ignores what Jefferson really did to him? Not sure what it was about the blurb you quoted in this last post that was disingenuous; it didn’t even mention Jefferson and WalterBishop. As stated previously, I agreed with some points Walter Bishop made; I didn’t defend _him_ (this is the third time you’ve attributed things to me that I didn’t do in a thread that only has 78 posts). ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/80 "2025-02-09T05:28:10Z")
Try as I might, I can’t see an advantage to giving hatred and/or bullshit equal footing on this message board…“listening to both sides” be damned. Now if something specific that is not hatred and/or bullshit is being referred to when it is said that viewpoints are being banned here, please tell us what y’all are referring to. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060.md?page=5)