# Scott Plaid, Stand Up or Shut Up **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 2, 2005, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794 "2005-07-02T03:22:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/141 "2005-07-03T20:33:55Z")
> [@Duke of Rat](#): > > Now it’s getting good! Well, yes, but to his or her credit, I suspect that glee is a full time teacher. I had the duties of a full time teacher, but just for those two summers. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/142 "2005-07-03T20:39:12Z")
> [@me](#): > > It is a tool, and I use it as such. Don’t find it surprising that I use it a lot. Some people use the rolleys icon a lot. Big hairy deal. While ^h^h^h^ serves the same purpose, and is far older, it was implemented here after I suggested it, so you should not be surprised that I use it so much. > \ > One last thought. Personally, I read my own posts before posting them, and in doing so, imagine them being read to myself in a conversational tone. I printed one particularly long one out, around lunchtime, and showed it to a friend. He told me something interesting. He pointed out to me that rather then all my points coming to a coherent whole, I made several points within one paragraph, made different points in another paragraph, and my last paragraph did wrap things up, in a way, but only once you clicked on the hyperlink I was talking about. By itself, it just didn’t tie things together… Don’t think I am unaware. I am aware just fine. I am simply flaming to get rid of anger, at this moment, before I get to the hard work of revising my posting style. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/143 "2005-07-03T20:41:23Z")
> [@Scott Plaid](#): > > Well, yes, but to his or her credit, I suspect that glee is a full time teacher. I had the duties of a full time teacher, but just for those two summers. Not exactly my point, but don’t mind me. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/144 "2005-07-03T20:43:53Z")
> [@Duke of Rat](#): > > Not exactly my point, but don’t mind me. Don’t worry, I never paid you any mind before, and I am not about to start now. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/145 "2005-07-03T20:49:51Z")
Gee, **Scott** , you could have replied the same way to the vast majority of serious posters on this board. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/146 "2005-07-03T21:30:56Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > Here’s another thing. Something about the way you “explain” things makes me want to, well, punch you. Do you honestly think anyone who was alive during the 80’s could have possibly not heard of the Pet Shop Boys? Do you realize how many of the board’s members were in fact alive during the 80’s? I was pre-pubescent in the 1980’s, and have absolutely no clue who the Pet Shop Boys are or were. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/147 "2005-07-03T21:48:22Z")
My advice to **Scott** would be to spend a month or two (or three) doing nothing but asking questions. Honest ones, not snarky ones. Try to figure out why other people believe as they do, and see how they back up those beliefs. Quit trying to “win” arguments, and start trying to learn somthing. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/148 "2005-07-03T21:54:42Z")
My original intent was simply to lurk, as I said back in the text heavy post 54. However, I think I like your answer better, **John**. > [@me](#): > > \Now, I see I still have a lot of thinking to do. I am simply going to browse some tomorrow, wrap up the debates I am participating on tomorrow, start a GD topic that has been brewing in my head and then simply lurk for the next few weeks, save for that GD thread, and some social threads. (Mostly) Hopefully, I will see what I have been missing via debating people. (I did this before I joined, by the way, its just that I missed something. A few thoughts before I get on with that, however.\ **Metacom** , I have a serious question for you. I don’t mean to sound annoyed. You said you haven’t heard of them. Would you, like I suspect many people would, assume I listen to Boy-bands, based on the name “Pet Shop Boys”? ---
**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/149 "2005-07-03T21:59:24Z")
> [@Scott Plaid](#): > > Would you, like I suspect many people would, assume I listen to Boy-bands, based on the name “Pet Shop Boys”? No. ---
**Author:** ![Uvula\_Donor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e19adc/32.png) [@Uvula\_Donor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uvula_Donor)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/150 "2005-07-03T22:02:15Z")
> [@Scott Plaid](#): > > **Metacom** , I have a serious question for you. I don’t mean to sound annoyed. You said you haven’t heard of them. Would you, like I suspect many people would, assume I listen to Boy-bands, based on the name “Pet Shop Boys”? What makes you think the problem has anything whatsoever to do with a perception that you listen to “boy bands”? **Giraffe** was illustrating your annoying tendency to fly off into meaningless and/or distracting tangents - for example, unneccessarily explaining who the Pet Shop Boys were - not calling you to task for listening to “boy bands.” If you really are that fucking thick, no amount of lurking will teach you a thing. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/151 "2005-07-03T22:02:30Z")
\ A Scott Plaid pitting is the time of year when people of all political backgrounds come together, and yell at him. \ ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/152 "2005-07-03T22:08:50Z")
> [@Scott Plaid](#): > > My original intent was simply to lurk, as I said back in the text heavy post 54. However, I think I like your answer better, **John**. I’ll tell you what. If you want to try taking that advice for a week, I’ll do the same. You pick the start date, and neither of us can post anything in the GD forum except questions. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/153 "2005-07-03T22:22:46Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > I’ll tell you what. If you want to try taking that advice for a week, I’ll do the same. You pick the start date, and neither of us can post anything in the GD forum except questions. While that sounds like a nice idea. I don’t see how it would work for you. After all, while I think you are wrong-headed, politically, and I doubt you will change your views, I see you being pretty damn reasonable. I would rather carry out such a deal with Bricker, Shodan, or one of the other, “Bush/the way the law works is always right. Why can’t you see that?”-type posters. P.S. Can you please elaborate on this idea? ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/154 "2005-07-03T22:37:59Z")
> [@Metacom](#): > > No. Cool, thank you. Now, I have been going though a lot of past threads. I will post my thoughts tomorrow. A few thoughts though, over trends in my thought patterns. I see I have certainly posted a lot. Well, that is what happens when I post from a job I don’t care for in the least. I figured I would be fired from it, personally. (Not because of my attitude, but because that is what they were doing, at the time.) No such luck. I suppose I shouldn’t have actually done work on weekends, at home. It seems like when I started here, I insisted that the plainly obvious truth was that “Religion is bad, m’kay?” Then, I attempted to confirm exactly the same points to how this board works, and that didn’t really work out. Now, I went on to express myself less. A few months later, I received the following compliment, in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=6295198&highlight=scott#post6295198) . > [@Liberal](#): > > For coolness, Scott, you’re the teacher, and I’m the student. You’ve come further in your short time here than I have in my nearly six years. I recall a bombastic and incorrigible proselytizing hard atheist, who hurled insults like Napalm. That character no longer exists, and in its place there has emerged a thoughtful, gregarious, and reasonable hard atheist who is willing to listen. I respect you. You’ve earned it. Now, no one would be more surprised then me to hear these words. Liberal is one of the people I am opposed to the most, for his habit of never admitting when he is wrong. (Yes, I know what you are thinking.) Why is that he complimented me then, based on the behaviors that have earned me this pitting, if any of this is true. Well, for one thing, I scored some hits against him in earlier threads, I suspect. For another thing, despite all that Shodan and Bricker are saying, I made some comments which proved how those two are wrong. Lastly, I suspect that it is till recently, I shut the hell up. I used a delicate touch on commenting on posts, and while I still believe that religion is a great cause of problems, I didn’t talk about it to much. A much better move for me, at least till I develop my writing style more. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/155 "2005-07-03T22:43:54Z")
> [@Scott Plaid](#): > > Liberal is one of the people I am opposed to the most, for his habit of never admitting when he is wrong. (Yes, I know what you are thinking.) Actually, I don’t understand why you posted that. **Lib** doesn’t admit when he’s wrong if his opponent thinks he’s wrong and he doesn’t agree. (Much like the rest of us.) But he does admit he’s wrong when he agrees with his opponent’s refutations. Many of us, I’m sure, would like it if **Lib** were more easily convinced. But such is life. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/156 "2005-07-03T23:06:09Z")
> [@Scott Plaid](#): > > P.S. Can you please elaborate on this idea? I don’t think it matters too much with whom you strike the deal. I wouldn’t expect the two dealmakers to wander thru GD in lockstep asking questions in the same threads all the time. My reasoning for offering the deal was two-fold: 1) To make you feel less like you were being singled out and 2) I think all of us could stand to be asking a LOT more questions than we do. I wish I were more inclined myself to do more asking and less lecturing. No one ever learned anything by making declarative statements. 🙂 I was originally going to offer you a wager to see who ould go the longest without making a statement, but that would turn it too much into a game. I’d be perferctly happy to go completely on the honor system, since I’d expect to get as much out of the arrangement as you did. I really do look at this MB as a great place to learn, and I think I’ve learned a lot since I joined. Not so much by posting my own ideas, although it’s good to have them challenged, but by asking questions and reading what other people write. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/157 "2005-07-03T23:42:43Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > No. The Bartleby site is. They are using public domain publications, in this case, the 1918 edition of Strunk, written when White was 19, the year before White had Strunk as a professor. White had the book republished with some updates (and his name added) in 1959, then reprinted it with further updates several times through the 1970s. Those versions are not in the public domain and are not (that I am aware) found on the internet. Thanks **tom.** **Giraffe** –I emailed you with a Pit question. Did you get it? **Scott** – **glee** has a lot to teach you if you will simply listen with an open mind. He (I assume the male gender) is quite brilliant, really. It would be a mistake to dismiss his help cavalierly. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/158 "2005-07-03T23:45:06Z")
> [@Scott Plaid](#): > > I am planning to address Shodan and Bricker in a future post. This is going to be fun. I may need two lunches for the pitting that will follow. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/159 "2005-07-03T23:52:23Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > This is going to be fun. I may need two lunches for the pitting that will follow. :eek: I’m thinkin’ maybe some carrot sticks and a mineral water. ---
**Author:** ![Uvula\_Donor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e19adc/32.png) [@Uvula\_Donor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uvula_Donor)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794/160 "2005-07-03T23:55:10Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > This is going to be fun. I may need two lunches for the pitting that will follow. :eek: Scott’s going to be the one who needs to bring the lunch. **Shodan** and **Bricker** are gonna eat his. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-plaid-stand-up-or-shut-up/310794.md?page=9)