# Starving Artist - we remember you **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 3, 2014, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204 "2014-12-03T04:53:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/61 "2014-12-03T19:49:34Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Meh. **Frank’s** just butthurt because I won the Paterno thread,… I missed that part. I think we need to recount the votes. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/62 "2014-12-03T19:53:31Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Meh. **Frank’s** just butthurt because I won the Paterno thread… Heh heh. “Butthurt.” Yeah, that thread did have a lot of ass pain in it, you’re right about that. Of course, it mostly had to do with the asses of innocent children being raped by a predator, but hey, what’s the diff? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/63 "2014-12-03T19:58:34Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > I missed that part. I think we need to recount the votes. Starving Artist: I win. Vote total: 1-0. Winning! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/64 "2014-12-03T20:11:50Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I don’t own him. How could disowning him work? Hah. Evidence that all your crap about how liberals on this board aren’t policing other liberals is a blatant lie. I’ll put a link to your post in the Pit thread currently about you and consider the matter closed. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/65 "2014-12-03T20:21:08Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > I don’t know…if we do it the way I suggested upthread, it might be amusing to see some egos deflated as poll subjects are brought to the realization that most of the people here don’t give a wet fart about them one way or the other. I say this confidently knowing that the tiny handful of people here who have an any opinion on me at all almost certainly have a negative opinion. Only a very few here rise to the level of being genuinely widely liked or disliked. I am under no illusion that i am especially popular or well-liked. If i stopped posting today, it would probably be weeks before anyone noticed, and it would probably be noticed first in long-running conversations like the baseball threads, where i tend to post quite a lot. I also tend to agree with you that most people around here don’t develop a particularly strong reputation, whether negative or positive. But, as in so many other areas, **Starving Artist** is an exception. Among people who oppose his political positions, he is almost universally ridiculed, and among those who share his political positions, he tends to be ignored. And i believe that the latter is generally the case because even while they share some of his political positions, a lot of conservatives recognize his fundamental refusal to engage in honest debate.As **Bricker** noted in the quote i provided earlier, **SA** is not really interested in debate as we understand it, but only in asserting things that he finds (through his own distorted personal observations, i believe) to be self-evident. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/66 "2014-12-03T20:26:55Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > There are plenty of people who offer “contrary viewpoints” on this message board, and who manage to debate these viewpoints in ways that are not manifestly dishonest and unrepresentative of reality. Simply offering up contrary viewpoints is NOT really what this board is for at all. It’s pointless if you can’t or won’t use evidence and reason and logic to support those viewpoints. It’s not pointless at all. Baghdad Bob offered hours of entertainment, just as **SA** does when he declares victory in the Battle of Paterno. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/67 "2014-12-03T20:51:09Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > But you’re falling into precisely the same error that **Starving Artist** does. > > I’ve never had him on ignore, and i’ve never claimed to ignore him completely. On occasions when i’ve raised the issue, it’s been precisely to note that i was no longer going to engage him as if he were a rational and honest debater. As i said to him five years ago:I’m happy to weigh in with an insult in a Pit thread like this, and to point out further examples of his stupidity and mendacity, but that’s not the same as engaging him as if he were honest and rational. My bad, then - I was under the mistaken impression that you had put him on Ignore. OTOH you seem to be saying that whatever you say to him or about him is not meant as anything more than insults and abuse - not substantive debate. Incidentally, earlier you mentioned that you expected that sometimes I thought you were a jerk. You were mistaken. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/68 "2014-12-03T20:51:19Z")
I’m so sad to read all this. I guess I missed it all somehow. Starving Artist was very kind to me when I first came to the Dope. Someone went apeshit on me in response to one of my very first posts (which was pretty innocuous). SA told them to knock it off and gave me a very nice welcome. I really appreciated that. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/69 "2014-12-03T20:53:00Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > I also tend to agree with you that most people around here don’t develop a particularly strong reputation, whether negative or positive. I typically feel this way too, but just at the moment **Hamlet** is blowing up my vanity search results dropping my name all over the place in another thread. I’m starting to think he might not like me that much. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Eddie\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/22d042/32.png) [@Eddie\_F](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eddie_F)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/70 "2014-12-03T21:22:17Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > I’ll tell you what, here’s a chance for you to get rid of me. Why don’t you start a poll asking which one of us—you or me—people would prefer to have around? We can agree on a minimum number of voters, and on any other criteria for who is allowed to vote. Then, after the poll, the loser agrees to leave and never come back. That would allow you to test your theories about whether or not my departure would be felt to be an improvement to the board. Would there be a “both” option? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/71 "2014-12-03T21:24:29Z")
> [@Helena330](#): > > I’m so sad to read all this. I guess I missed it all somehow. Starving Artist was very kind to me when I first came to the Dope. Someone went apeshit on me in response to one of my very first posts (which was pretty innocuous). SA told them to knock it off and gave me a very nice welcome. I really appreciated that. Why, how nice of you! I appreciate that very much. No reason to be sad, though. Many of these people are years-old enemies from political threads and the majority of them are people you wouldn’t have anything to do with in real life. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/72 "2014-12-03T21:26:44Z")
For what it’s worth, Helena, I’m not one of Starving Artist’s years-long enemies. I just think he’s an self-deluding idiot. ---
**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:** [December 3, 2014, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/73 "2014-12-03T21:31:16Z")
> [@Helena330](#): > > I’m so sad to read all this. I guess I missed it all somehow. Starving Artist was very kind to me when I first came to the Dope. Someone went apeshit on me in response to one of my very first posts (which was pretty innocuous). SA told them to knock it off and gave me a very nice welcome. I really appreciated that. To some extent the more extreme ire is kinda recent. **SA** in an older gentleman and was previously best known for his _exceptionally_ rose-colored view of ‘the good old days.’ Or, to indulge in probably only a bit of hyperbole, the United States in the 1950’s and early '60’s was totally awesome but has since been declining into miserable and morally depraved mediocrity and it is all those the fault of those dastardly liberals. His stubborn arguments along those lines were considered by many to be heavily reliant on personal anecdotes, while brushing aside or ignoring counter-evidence. This generated some disdain and dislike ( and maybe more eye-rolling ), but nothing like universal opprobrium outside of those threads. But then came the Paterno scandal in 2011, **SA** ’s dogged and rather…errm…_idiosyncratic_ defense of the same and let’s just say his reputation kinda went nuclear. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/74 "2014-12-03T21:31:44Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > I think this is mostly where I’m at. SA is certainly a prick, and while nearly insufferable, his idiocy is hilarious. I’ve had tears rolling down my face from laughing so hard at his tortured stupidity. I don’t recall too much laughing on your part in most of our interactions…and especially not when I schooled you in the Paterno thread on the laws in Pennsylvania regarding mandatory reporters, given that you’re one yourself. I laughed though. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/75 "2014-12-03T21:44:37Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > My bad, then - I was under the mistaken impression that you had put him on Ignore. > > OTOH you seem to be saying that whatever you say to him or about him is not meant as anything more than insults and abuse - not substantive debate. That’s pretty much true. As far as i can recall, i have not engaged him in substantive debate for a long time, and tend to address him directly only in the Pit, or in places where i can drop some snark. I understand that this is not really in the spirit of reasoned and logical debate, but i was driven to it precisely _because_ it was pointless addressing him as a rational debater. With other folks on this message board, i might trade insults in the Pit on one topic, and engage them in friendly and reasonable debate in another forum and on another topic; with **Starving Artist** , there is no reasonable debate to be had. I understand that nearly everyone, me included, has subjects that make them somewhat intemperate or irrational. I’ve gone off the deep end before, and i’ve over-reacted to other people’s comments before. But, for the most part, if i exchange insults with someone on an issue, i’m happy to leave it in the thread, and not carry it over to another discussion unless there’s a direct connection. A very few people, though, are so persistently egregious that i see no point in treating them like everyone else, and the subject of this particular thread is one of those people. I’ve never put anyone on “Ignore” on this board, largely because it’s always struck me as rather pointless. > [@Shodan](#): > > Incidentally, earlier you mentioned that you expected that sometimes I thought you were a jerk. You were mistaken. Well, that’s very kind, but i’m pretty sure you have referred to me as stupid and as an idiot on occasions in the past, and will probably do so again in the future. I know i’ve said similar things to you. I say this not as a challenge or a confrontation, but simply to observe that even though we’ve had our conflicts, and you sometimes annoy the hell out of me, i still try to approach our encounters as rational debates, and am confident that, no matter how much we might disagree about politics, we can discuss at least some issues, including political ones, amicably. ---
**Author:** ![FuriousGeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecae2f/32.png) [@FuriousGeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuriousGeorge)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/76 "2014-12-03T21:55:55Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Many of these people are years-old enemies from political threads and the majority of them are people you wouldn’t have anything to do with in real life. G-d, you suck. Based on this post alone, I’d spend a hundred days drinking with **iiandyiii** before I’d deign to google earth the city you live in and, politically, I think there are many, many more commonalities of viewpoint with you and me vs him and me. “Enemies” on a message board is fucking pathetic you self important twat… ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/77 "2014-12-03T22:08:22Z")
> [@FuriousGeorge](#): > > Based on this post alone, I’d spend a hundred days drinking with **iiandyiii** before I’d deign to google earth the city you live in and, politically, I think there are many, many more commonalities of viewpoint with you and me vs him and me. That’s a very nice thing to say! I’d be happy to have a drink with you as well. **Starving Artist** : Bringing people together (in collective disdain for him) since 2003. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/78 "2014-12-03T22:10:20Z")
He didn’t say he _wanted_ to have a drink with you, just that he would hate drinking with you less than with **SA**. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/79 "2014-12-03T22:15:00Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > He didn’t say he _wanted_ to have a drink with you, just that he would hate drinking with you less than with **SA**. 😉 Don’t ruin it for me! ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/80 "2014-12-03T22:23:01Z")
Don’t worry, I’ll drink with you. Well, I would, but your iiis are lopsided and that bothers me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204.md?page=5)