# So, Scylla, are you trolling, or what? (Rush Limbaugh GD thread) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 3, 2007, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511 "2007-04-03T01:46:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2007, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/121 "2007-04-08T20:29:01Z")
[QUOTE=Apos] Using insults is pretty childish, but posting with contempt for GD and the people who you expect to respond to your OP is way way worse. Your resolution doesn’t address any sort of character flaw: it’s 100% about PR and to enable you to be even more snide and sneering. [/QUOTE] These aren’t very good points as they depend upon fabricating intent and motivation and attributing them to me. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/122 "2007-04-08T20:38:41Z")
[QUOTE=GIGObuster] After seeing both threads, it is clear to me that \*\*Scylla \*\* came thinking “wow! Rush is being a genius in this clever attack against scientific consensus” (I still wonder if Rush was even that clever) so he brought it in assuming many would fall in their faces attacking Rush for what “_obviously_” was really clever criticism. It failed with me, but as you show, it was naive for the OP to ignore that posting a GD thread like that would indeed whoosh many. [quote] In truth, I don’t think many were really “whooshed.” I still have a higher opinion of most people here than that, and I don’t really see how you can click the link and still think it’s a face-value proposition. I think there’s more value in pretending not to get it, in order to play outraged or angry, or to make accusations and I think that’s what a predictable few chose to do. I don’t think most people here are so stupid they couldn’t get it right away. > [@](#): > > But the really sad thing was missed by me early: After people like \*\*jshore \*\* pointed how even Rush’s “clever” point was misleading, that then one realizes how sad the whole effort of the OP in Great Debates was. Kind of like what you’re doing. The whole realization of your effort here is to make this judgemental point about how “sad” my OP was. ---
**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:** [April 8, 2007, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/123 "2007-04-08T20:42:31Z")
[QUOTE=Scylla] These aren’t very good points as they depend upon fabricating intent and motivation and attributing them to me. [/QUOTE] Well, the alternative is to realize then that you were just naïve for thinking Rush was clever with his crossing of liberals, the problem was, Rush did double cross you (as he does with his audience constantly). His “clever” point against scientific consensus was in the end misleading. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2007, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/124 "2007-04-08T20:44:45Z")
[QUOTE=Triskadecamus] I was really whooshed by the Limbaugh thread. [/quote] May I ask if you clicked on the link I provided? > [@](#): > > I was confused about why **Scylla** would spout Limbaughese nonsense so fervently, but I never entertained the possibility that it was a support of an argument about anything real or intelligible. I still find it far easier to believe that Limbaugh was being perfectly straightforward, and believes that his Greek Chorus of dittoheads represent some level of reasonable proof of what drools out of his mouth. Yes. I suppose that is pretty easy to believe. Frankly, that’s one of the accusations he typically makes against his detractors. They choose what they want to beleive and just listen to outtakes and soundbites and third party criticisms, because it’s easy and what they want to beleive. It’s a lot easier than doing the work of listening and judging yourself. > [@](#): > > But, I don’t listen to him all that often. > > Perhaps Limbaugh’s sarcasm would be more pointed it resembled his sincerity less. These two statements are mutually contradictory. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2007, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/125 "2007-04-08T20:46:47Z")
[QUOTE=GIGObuster] His “clever” point against scientific consensus was in the end misleading. [/QUOTE] Or you just still don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2007, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/126 "2007-04-08T20:48:09Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] If you’re pretending to be a better person than you are, for Heaven’s sake, keep pretending. [/QUOTE] That’s good advice for anybody. ---
**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:** [April 8, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/127 "2007-04-08T20:51:08Z")
[QUOTE=Scylla] I think there’s more value in pretending not to get it, in order to play outraged or angry, or to make accusations and I think that’s what a predictable few chose to do. [/QUOTE] But if you predicted that, then it was trolling. It does not matter if few are the ones that get outraged, you are still posting to get a predicted reaction. In any case, I was not one of them, so I prefer the “sad” effort as a better explanation of the OP rather than trolling. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2007, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/128 "2007-04-08T20:59:43Z")
[QUOTE=GIGObuster] But if you predicted that, then it was trolling. [/quote] Ahhh, a semantic trap! You really seem hell bent on making an accusation, no matter what words you have to torture to do it. I said “a predictable few,” meaning that it was predictable that they would be the culprits, not that they would predict they would do the crime. Again, I think you’re smart enough to know this but just enjoy making an accusation to get a reaction. Which means you are trolling. (see I can do it, too.) > [@](#): > > It does not matter if few are the ones that get outraged, you are still posting to get a predicted reaction. No. You keep telling me that’s what I’m doing. In fact, it is you who are doing it, as I’ve just demonstrated. Your accusations are simply projection. > [@](#): > > I prefer the “sad” effort as a better explanation of the OP rather than trolling. You can have it. The great beauty of writing is that you are free to interpret it as 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:** [April 8, 2007, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/129 "2007-04-08T21:04:48Z")
[QUOTE=Scylla] Or you just still don’t get it. [/QUOTE] Oh I do get it, when I talk of double crossing I do take into account that the ideology of Rush is the one talking, and when his solution is to rail against scientific consensus and pretend it is the same as other consencus you bet he is crossing not only liberals. _Connections by James Burke: Yesterday, tomorrow and you_ > [@](#): > > When science or technology research is considered to be a threat to us, the rule in one of the options [on how to deal with controversial change] is to close it, and apply that rule to any part of science or technology that is consider to be socially undesirable… > > So this is option 2: > > Selective research. > > The trouble is, it is not that simple, for a start: who decides? You? Me? > > **Gut reaction**? And gut reaction is almost always dangerously wrong. \* \*Including this subject… and going to war in Iraq. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2007, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/130 "2007-04-08T21:08:05Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] BTW, if anyone wants to **seriously** debate the question of how valuable/persuasive-to-laymen is a consensus among scientists, without the distracting baggage of Fat Boy and his Oxycontin-addled pseudologic, try [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=415157) thread. [/QUOTE] You’re really advertising that thread like it was last week’s tuna salad. ---
**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:** [April 8, 2007, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/131 "2007-04-08T21:10:05Z")
[QUOTE=Scylla] You can have it. The great beauty of writing is that you are free to interpret it as you will. [/QUOTE] Indeed you captain _ **obvious** _, 🙂 if you had bothered to wait until seeing my last line you would have noticed that your silly jabs to my lines before my last one are worse than irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2007, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/132 "2007-04-08T21:12:00Z")
[QUOTE=GIGObuster] Oh I do get it, when I talk of double crossing I do take into account that the ideology of Rush is the one talking, and when his solution is to rail against scientific consensus and pretend it is the same as other consencus you bet he is crossing not only liberals. [/quote] Scientific consensus is the same as other consensus. I feel pretty sure of that. I will however leave myself open to a very logical and quantitative explanation why it is not. ---
**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:** [April 8, 2007, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/133 "2007-04-08T21:20:17Z")
[QUOTE=Scylla] Scientific consensus is the same as other consensus. I feel pretty sure of that. I will however leave myself open to a very logical and quantitative explanation why it is not. [/QUOTE] Several people already explained that in the GB thread, but your **gut feeling** is ruling the day. So why bother, I’m happy just to point out to everyone else that it remains a sad effort on your part, when you can not see that **uneducated consensus is ignorance put in action**. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2007, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/134 "2007-04-08T21:34:33Z")
[QUOTE=GIGObuster] Several people already explained that in the GB thread, but your **gut feeling** is ruling the day. [quote] I was looking for an argument from you that didn’t depend on mindreading or judgemental mischaracterization to support your statement. ---
**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:** [April 8, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/135 "2007-04-08T21:38:59Z")
[QUOTE=Scylla] I was looking for an argument from you that didn’t depend on mindreading or judgemental mischaracterization to support your statement. [/QUOTE] It is on the last line of the post **captain obvious** , or should I say “ **Mr. selective quoter** ”? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2007, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/136 "2007-04-09T15:55:51Z")
[QUOTE=Scylla] That sounds more like High School to me. [/quote] I was at two very different high schools (one private, one public) and at neither of them did the guys have that much self-restraint. Maybe your high school years were different, with people being polite but distant to one another to defuse potential confrontations. But I’m having a hard time imagining it. > [@](#): > > No. I think that would be cowardly and two-faced and immature. I’m sorry - I thought you said let’s take Gettysdope completely out of it. I guess I must’ve misread. (checks) No, still says what it says. > [@](#): > > I don’t think you can rationalize it away with a contextual yardstick. Real life has its separate fora, from work to home to casual conversations to whatever, but most of us don’t have a Pit IRL. Like it or not, the rules of this place are just _different_. > [@](#): > > Bully for you and **Weirddave.** Yeah, I know, I wouldn’t have expected you to come across second-best in a comparison with him. But there it is. > [@](#): > > Exchanging high school level insults and profanities over the internet doesn’t strike me as very “grown up.” Who said it was? But having gotten in an argument with someone over the Internet in a forum that exists for the specific purpose of arguing and insulting, is no excuse for potentially ruining someone else’s party. There are times when a grownup doesn’t have to act like a grownup, and there are times when one does. > [@](#): > > Coming down to visit you is hypothetical. When we are in the same place I see no reason why we cannot have a short, frank, quiet, chat face to face. I see no reason why it need involve or disrupt anyone else. > > That sounds pretty grown up to me. Why? Why should I have a private conversation with you at Gettysdope? I’ll be there for a _party_. I will have no desire to satisfy some whim of yours. What will happen is you will go your way at this party, and I will go mine. If we’re in the same place, we will be polite to one another. If you want to have a private chat with me, you will have to make other arrangements that do not involve Gettysdope. There’s also the fact that Gettysdope is some months off. (September, IIRC.) If you think I’m still gonna care about this conversation three weeks from now, let alone five months down the road, you’ve got another think coming. This is very important to you, for reasons that elude me. I think you’re just being a dickwad. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/137 "2007-04-10T04:10:39Z")
[QUOTE=RTFirefly] I’m sorry - I thought you said let’s take Gettysdope completely out of it. I guess I must’ve misread. (checks) No, still says what it says. [/quote] Yes. That’s what it says. In context it’s referring to the hypothetical. > [@](#): > > Real life has its separate fora, from work to home to casual conversations to whatever, but most of us don’t have a Pit IRL. Like it or not, the rules of this place are just _different_. I don’t think you can show me the rule in the user agreement that says I’m supposed to be pleasant to you in person if we meet socially, and must agree to ignore your behavior here, and may not address it. Can you show me that rule? > [@](#): > > Who said it was? But having gotten in an argument with someone over the Internet in a forum that exists for the specific purpose of arguing and insulting, is no excuse for potentially ruining someone else’s party. This idea of ruining somebody else’s party is entirely your fabrication. > [@](#): > > Why? Why should I have a private conversation with you at Gettysdope? I’ll be there for a _party_. I will have no desire to satisfy some whim of yours. > > What will happen is you will go your way at this party, and I will go mine. If we’re in the same place, we will be polite to one another. If you want to have a private chat with me, you will have to make other arrangements that do not involve Gettysdope. You aren’t in control of what I do or say, there or anywhere else. > [@](#): > > There’s also the fact that Gettysdope is some months off. (September, IIRC.) If you think I’m still gonna care about this conversation three weeks from now, let alone five months down the road, you’ve got another think coming. > > This is very important to you, for reasons that elude me. I think you’re just being a dickwad. I think that being venomous and confrontational online is an expression of inadequacy and cowardice in real life. You do here in real life what you would be afraid to do in person, and get to have a safe outlet for your frustrations on proxies. I think that if you knew that you were going to have to face the person and address your actions to somebody that was actually there than it would no longer be a proxy. It would be real. I don’t think you would want to say it, or address it in real life. I think you’d be afraid. I don’t think you would go through with meeting me and only say you would because you guess (correctly) that I won’t bother. You are probably right though in thinking that I won’t remember or bother with confronting you or think it’s worthwhile several months from now. I will behave towards you there as you behave towards me here. Treat me here as you wish to be treated there. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/138 "2007-04-10T04:15:42Z")
Hmm. That didn’t work. The bottom line is that I will tend to treat you in person as you treat me here. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/139 "2007-04-10T04:15:46Z")
in case anyone’s interested, I’m seeing more of “I’m rubber & you’re glue” type of shit in this one. fwiw, if anything there’s no high road left here. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511/140 "2007-04-10T12:41:02Z")
Since the trolling issue seems to have wrapped itself up, I’ve started a new thread on [Gettysdope-related issues](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=415995) so that those who might be interested in same can join in the discussion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-scylla-are-you-trolling-or-what-rush-limbaugh-gd-thread/398511.md?page=8)