# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/We_re_wolves_not_werewolves)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/101 "2025-02-09T15:05:18Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > I’ve said it before: I wish we had/there were more intellectually honest, principled, logical, rational, and articulate conservatives, both here _and_ in the really real world. Maybe YOU wish for this in good faith, but the board as a whole does not. Oh, they say they do, but a logical, rational conservative is a fictional entity in their mind, so any one even superficially exhibiting these qualities is immediately labeled a trock, sock, troll, etc. and the speculation then turns to when, exactly, they will do a heel turn and pull their mask off to reveal the evil, hateful, fascist they evidently are. ---
**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, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/102 "2025-02-09T15:11:00Z")
Look. More absolute bullshit from the bullshit brigade! Put up, or shut up, troll. Give with the examples, out with the facts. Your attempts to turn this into another right-wing hate chamber are going to _fail_. ---
**Author:** ![We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/We_re_wolves_not_werewolves)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/103 "2025-02-09T15:38:01Z")
thank you for making my point ---
**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, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/104 "2025-02-09T15:50:00Z")
Pssst? Just say Shodan and then pretend that he didn’t have a posting history, it always works. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/105 "2025-02-09T15:55:39Z")
No, _you_ make your point. Show us an example of a rational conservative who was labeled a troll, and let us debate something specific instead of the fantasy in your mind. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/106 "2025-02-09T16:08:52Z")
> [@Is the SDMB an echo chamber?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/135): > > Ugh. I never thought this thread would need a bump, but here we are, again, and for the same reason. I started that thread not toward the issue of posters getting driven away from here, but that we collectively dismiss data and information we dont like, while enhancing and defending what we do like. There may be different ways to define an echo chamber, but driving off people _and_ information we dont like seems like the broadest. While there is no consensus here, there is wide opinion on it, and no real way to address it, ISTM. ---
**Author:** ![songsoflovetrouble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@songsoflovetrouble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/songsoflovetrouble)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/107 "2025-02-09T16:14:59Z")
There are lots of positions - on crime, on trans issues, on Israel, and more – that _the majority of Democrats_ support, but which the SDMB echotariat has decided are “conservative.” Turns out when you make “all conservatives are racist trolls who should be banned” into dogma, it creates obvious incentives for an arms race to label more and more positions “conservative.” Who could have possibly seen that coming, right? ---
**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, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/108 "2025-02-09T16:15:07Z")
Sure there is! _Show me_. ---
**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, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/109 "2025-02-09T16:16:50Z")
Liar. Repeating the same bullshit over and over doesn’t make it true. ---
**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, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/110 "2025-02-09T16:54:11Z")
> [@songsoflovetrouble](#): > > There are lots of positions - on crime, on trans issues, on Israel, and more – that _the majority of Democrats_ support, but which the SDMB echotariat has decided are “conservative.” Because the US is sliding towards fascism, and the Democrats _are_ largely a conservative party. Not as bad as the outright fascist Republicans, but still terrible. Irrational, bigoted and cruel - conservative, in other words. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/111 "2025-02-09T17:07:20Z")
> [@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. Case in point: me. But here on the SDMB, you will get attacked in a nanosecond for merely saying you’re conservative or not “very liberal.” In [this](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-fallen-out-with-friends-and-or-relatives-over-this-administration/1013667/36) post I casually mentioned, “Our children are _very_ liberal, and I am not; I disagree with them on _many_ issues.” For this I am challenged by **Dinsdale** three posts later, accusing me of “getting close to both-siderism,” and questioning if I support Trump. I didn’t respond. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/112 "2025-02-09T17:35:02Z")
I often feel that many people who join in threads on passionate topics are not participating as a debate or as an intellectual pursuit. Rather, they seem to be seeking the cathartic release of emotions that come from getting their anger about the topic off their chest. That is, if they are angry about school shootings, they will take out all that anger on anyone who expresses support for gun rights. They don’t really seem to be seeking actual understanding about why the person supports gun rights. They’ll say inflammatory things under the guise of understanding, like “I’m just trying to understand why you support guns when kids are dying in schools”, but they don’t really seem to be trying to understand that person’s point of view. They are angry about school shootings and are taking that anger out on the person who supports gun rights. Lots of people will angrily reply to every post the gun supporter makes. The gun supporter may get tired of these kinds of attacks on their viewpoint and eventually not participate at all or leave the board. Some people see that as a victory since they don’t have to deal with that conflicting viewpoint anymore, but it also means that they don’t really get an accurate perspective on people with conflicting views. It leads to an environment where people come up with impractical solutions to society’s problems. So then when they think of solutions to difficult problems, they may come up with seemingly easy solutions that are actually extremely difficult to implement. For instance, it’s easy to think that banning guns would be something reasonable to implement as solution for school shootings. But gun supporters are very passionate and politically engaged, so a gun ban is very unlikely. If gun supporters are not part of the discussions, then people will come up with plans to ban guns which don’t take into account the significant resistance that gun supporters will use to block any such plans. One thing that I think would help is if everyone considered whether they were participating in a conversation with the goal of making positive changes in society or if they they are trying to make themselves feel better by getting anger about the topic off their chests. We all know how good it feels to tell someone “F-OFF A-HOLE!!!”, but that moment of emotional relief we feel can often be counterproductive to actually affecting societal changes. ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/113 "2025-02-09T17:59:48Z")
I am with those who think it is an echo chamber. Not because of the rules, but because anyone who comes here with any conservative views is piled on and treated poorly. I know I’m going to be asked for proof, but this is just my impression and I’m not sifting through millions of posts to then be told “But that guy was an asshole and deserved it” There are reasonable and rational conservatives, I know some. Mostly they think we make changes to address problems without having any idea whether those changes will accomplish anything, they want less government and less regulations, things like that. And there are even cases where I agree with them. Most of these conservatives do not like Trump. But we have plenty of threads where posters make the claim that all conservatives are evil and fascist, and I don’t think anyone ever says “Hey- that’s not fair, even if the evil fascist flavor of conservative is presently ascendant” ---
**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, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/114 "2025-02-09T18:02:38Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > One thing that I think would help is if everyone considered whether they were participating in a conversation with the goal of making positive changes in society or if they they are trying to make themselves feel better by getting anger about the topic off their chests. We all know how good it feels to tell someone “F-OFF A-HOLE!!!”, but that moment of emotional relief we feel can often be counterproductive to actually affecting societal changes. Based on one recent debate [about Hawaii’s supreme court, deciding on disagreeing just a bit with the US supreme court](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-control-again-but-topical-hawaii-supreme-court-declares-second-amendment-infringes-on-the-spirit-of-aloha/997343), what you say here is not accurate. As for myself, I am on the record of supporting gun rights, but latest developments show me that the reckless application of the second amendment by many conservatives in the US is still a huge problem and it does not help when the right wing is constantly demanding to turn even feeble guardrails like enforcing licensing in better ways, as being equal to “take guns away”. ---
**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, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/115 "2025-02-09T18:06:28Z")
> [@OldOlds](#): > > But we have plenty of threads where posters make the claim that all conservatives are evil and fascist, and I don’t think anyone ever says “Hey- that’s not fair, even if the evil fascist flavor of conservative is presently ascendant” So says the one that comes in a thread and misses the criticism I gave to @Der_Trihs **in this very thread** for doing that. I do however understand that what is taking place in the US does mean that moderate Republicans should also show some spine to prevent the destruction of institutions that a good number of moderate Republicans (not in power right now) and almost all Democrats are raising the alarm; but then we do see that almost all Republicans in power are just peachy keen about declaring that they are not needed regarding the constitutional power of the purse that they are supposed to have. The point here is that many conservatives that claim to not be evil or fascist are needed by our nation as they will ignore democratic voices, they should tell Trump and musk to stop fighting for untruth, injustice and the Nazi **cosplayer** way. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/116 "2025-02-09T18:08:38Z")
> [@OldOlds](#): > > …and I don’t think anyone ever says “Hey- that’s not fair, even if the evil fascist flavor of conservative is presently ascendant” I can immediately think of some posters who’ve said basically that to other posters. oop - ninja’ed a bit by Gigo. ---
**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, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/117 "2025-02-09T19:01:34Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > But here on the SDMB, you will get attacked in a nanosecond for merely saying you’re conservative or not “very liberal.” In [this](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-fallen-out-with-friends-and-or-relatives-over-this-administration/1013667/36) post I casually mentioned, “Our children are _very_ liberal, and I am not; I disagree with them on _many_ issues.” For this I am challenged by **Dinsdale** three posts later, accusing me of “getting close to both-siderism,” and questioning if I support Trump. I didn’t respond. You deserved to be attacked for equivocating your liberal kids with MAGA folks. You weren’t attacked for being conservative there, that’s just a blatant lie. When someone who’s a conservative acts like an asshole, they whine for being called out for it and claim they’re being persecuted for having a different political philosophy. This happens all the time and you just gave a perfect example of it. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/118 "2025-02-09T19:02:56Z")
> [@OldOlds](#): > > But we have plenty of threads where posters make the claim that all conservatives are evil and fascist, and I don’t think anyone ever says “Hey- that’s not fair, even if the evil fascist flavor of conservative is presently ascendant” You can just do what the rest of us do with Der Trihs’ posts: roll your eyes and ignore them. Sure, other people rip on conservatives in general. But the reasonable conservatives here don’t get personally piled on for being conservative. They might get piled on for specific conservative views, but that just the reality of being on a left-leaning board. ---
**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, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/119 "2025-02-09T19:11:43Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > They might get piled on for specific conservative views, but that just the reality of being on a left-leaning board. And I would say that a lot has to be with who is following more the progress and science. In the past Republicans were more in favor of it, but ever since Nixon, the Republicans in power have embraced the idiot ball **harder**. It may change in the future and then a board that is dedicated on facts and evidence will look right leaning. But not today. (True story: when I found the SDMB the constant criticism of the Clinton Administration back then convinced me that this board was a bit on the center-right place of the spectrum, after years of lurking I figured out that indeed, the main reason for the board to be was to concentrate on evidence and facts. Too bad that the facts nowadays are dismissed by the right wing leadership) ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060/120 "2025-02-09T19:45:03Z")
> [@Culling\_The\_Herd](#): > > They do seem to have a uniform desire for law and order, fiscal responsibility, and tend to favor the status quo vs. change. So, who did they vote for last November? If it was Trump they are getting oh-for-three. The conservatives have been driven out of the Republican party and the office-holders are too afraid of being primaried. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-uzis-useless-claim-about-the-sdmb-being-an-echo-chamber/1014060.md?page=7)