Stoidela, just go away, OK?

The BBQ Pit
1

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4
(I’m sure there are many more, but I’m too lazy to find them.)

Stoid, we need to have a talk.

You seem to have this paranoid infatuation with the evilness of the Republican party, and with conservatives in general. Every single opportunity that arises you make some rediculous generalization about why all members of the republican party are evil, about how GWB is a modern day Hitler, or why conservative policy can’t possibly be morally justifiable.

Though, I have not, as yet, seen any intelligent discussion about public policy from you.

This leads me to conclude that you are a fucking idiot.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not much of a Bush supporter, though I do tend to lean Republican. But, instead of making prejudicial generalizations about every existing politician based upon the label they slap upon themselves, I actually vote based on issues that said politicians stand for. You, apparently, have forgotten that this is what your responsibility as a voter is.

Not that I’ll change your mind, or anything. But you’ve managed to prove repeatedly that you have no intention of even bothering to learn anything about American politics or the political system, or the politicians who participate in it.

It’s sad and pathetic, really.

Feh.

:rolleyes:

2

Nope, it’s all completely rational. She often says so herself. Based on rational, objective standards, the Republican Party is evil, and is only supported by people due to selfishness. All virtue is possessed by liberals. Comparing Bush to Hitler is a valid comparison, and unlike anyone else, it is perfectly within the bounds of acceptable debate to insult him gratuitously.

Also, all the complaints about her have nothing to do with anything she’s said. We are all partisan and blinded to the truth and logic of her posts and oppose her out of a knee-jerk reaction.

:rolleyes:

To the extent that I consider myself a good debater, I do so based on the fact that I seem to be respected by those I argue with. For example, I have vehemently disagreed with oldscratch on numerous issues, but we maintain a pretty friendly relationship. The anti-libertarian triple threat of Gadare, Xenophon41, and Kimstu seem to generally have a good opinion of me (which feeling is mutual) despite our many heated debates.

Stoidela, on the other hand, seems to only have any respect from partisan Democrats like ElvisL1ves and RTA. If it were me, the lack of support from even people on my side would seem to indicate that perhaps I might be a bit irrational. For her, it indicates that everytone else is simply wrong, probably selfish, and perhaps even evil.

3

Who’s this “Gadare” character, Jeremy? Tell me so that I might kick his or her ass for usurping me. :slight_smile:

Seriously, guys, not to excuse Stoidela’s often reflexively partisan passion, but the number of knee-jerk conservatives on this board seems to me to far outnumber their corresponding counterparts on the left–kinda like in American society as a whole.

Stoid is very often outshouted in her “prejudicial generalizations” by similarly egregious posts from the other side; certainly Freedom2, astorian, The Ryan, puddleglum, Wildest Bill and the rest have about as much to say about the “socialist” Democrats as Stoidela does about the “evil” Republicans, and they often do so with a great deal of venom.

Let’s not go around implying that a certain poster has the market cornered on irrationality. All ideologies have supporters that make the rest of us wince sometimes. Move on, yeah?

4

Thank you.

I agree. But it’s not just politics, it’s everything.

She seems incapable of understanding that it’s possible to disagree without being stupid or evil, or “hysterical”. She can’t argue any position without demonizing her opponents.

In this thread, she claims that anyone who disagrees with her is “hysterical”, uneducated (“Study up on incest and child molestation some time…”) or (by association) “sick fucks”.

Frankly I agree it’s pathetic and I’ve taken to avoiding anything she posts. The only reason I even bothered in this case is I was the OP of this one and I felt obligated somehow.

There has never been a poster on the SDMB I’ve disliked more.

Fenris

5

**
As I am likely among those Gadarene is attempting to paint with that brush, I would like to point out that there is no “knee-jerk conservative” I’ve seen post here, even during the contentious Florida election issue, who did or does what Stoidela does. Her “reflexively partisan passion” isn’t the problem.

As someone pointed out in one of those threads, “Republicans think Democrats have bad ideas; Democrats think Republicans are bad people.” While I don’t think that’s true of most Democrats with some level of awareness of what politics is all about, it certainly seems to be the case with Stoid, based on her statements over the past few months.

It’s one thing to believe what the Gore camp was attempting to do in Florida was wrong, (or, for that matter, what the Bush camp was doing in Florida was wrong, if you so think) and refusing to back down from it.

It’s entirely another to make numbingly arrogant and idiotic generalizations indicating that Republicans are evil, selfish or both; and conservatives, Southerners and non-urban Americans are less intelligent. Not to mention speaking enthusiastically of undermining the United States presidency because you don’t like who won.

6

Boy, Milo, you really haven’t read many posts by your fellow conservatives, hmm? “Numbingly arrogant and idiotic generalizations” on both sides, and there are plenty of people who, judging by the attitudes expressed on this board, think that Democrats–or at least liberals–are a priori “bad people.”

In fact, there are more conservatives 'round here who seem to feel that way then there are liberals who believe the converse–not least because, as I said, it appears that there are more right-wingers on this board than left-wingers (though I think there are more Democrats than Republicans).

7

Gadarene, one difference between the conservative posters you mentioned and Stoid is that they don’t actively post excessive numbers of “anti-liberal” threads. Stoid created probably more than a dozen threads in the few weeks preceding and following the elections, all of them either “Look what Bush just did! He’s evil!” or “Gore just scored a point! We’re winning! Neener neener neener, Bush is evil!”

It seems as if she suffers from an obsessive-compulsive disorder to make herself heard, by any means necessary. Some of her actions, IMOSHO, border on trolling (her “Why I hate conservatives” thread, for example).

In contrast, guys like Freedom2 actually manage to maintain SOME level of civility while interacting with other posters (although Wildest Bill and Farmer are quite nuts, though not nearly as prolific).

I’m just secure in my knowledge that Stoid isn’t a representative of Democrats, or liberals in general. Stoid is in a class all her own, one that doesn’t have anything to do with political beliefs… “loony”.

So I agree wholeheartedly with the OP… “Stoidela, just go away, OK?”… either go away or shut your trap sometime. Let those with some level of intelligence try to assert liberal/democratic views. You’re only making them look bad.

8

I swear I typed the “ne”. It got swallowed somewhere between my keyboard and CPU. Anyways, I’ll give you Wildest Bill. Freedom2 seems to be a better debater when he wants, but often takes the partisan cheap shots instead. Astorian never really struck me as much of a conservative. I have no recollection of puddleglum at all. The Ryan, however, has always struck me as fairly rational.

While I fully support the calling out of people on either side who seem to have lost touch with reason, there is something about Stoidela that really annoys me. I think she simply fulfills the mental caricature of a raving liberal that conservatives have. The person who really does think that conservatives are simply bad people, or who admits that they aren’t concerned if people lose their jobs to protect a patch of forest. Basically, the smug know-it-all who knows what’s best for everyone.

9

And don’t forget the “Extremely partisan and proud to admit it” part.

10

I haven’t been round here long enough to level specific accusations against specific posters. But I do think I’ve been here long enough to observe that a) liberals are outnumbered by posters of various other stripes and b) that passions (including mine sometimes) run very high, particularly in the Pit. On issues that have nothing directly to do with politics I’ve noticed that Stoidela’s reasoning and judgement are, to my mind, totally right-on. On politics, I very often agree with her so it’s harder for me to judge. That said, political arguments are notorious for bringing out histrionics in people. On that point I say–and this may be the first and last bible quotation you’ll hear out of me–let he is without sin cast the first stone. Perhaps what is meant is not “Stoidela, just go away,” but “Stoidela, fewer divisive posts on political subjects in the Pit, please.” I seem to recall something of that ilk being posted (without specific reference to Stoidela) by Ankh_Too a few weeks ago. (As I said then, I thought some of that thread was bordering on apathy, but I also understood the recoil from vitriolic e-shouting.)

11

If y’all want to be bothered to take a look back at my posts, I’m a fairly liberal guy. And Stoid pisses the hell out of me. Her ravings doesn’t give any intellectual credence to our mutual POV, and it certainly doesn’t win converts to our side.

Y’all should be happy about one thing – I would have posted a lot more about the election but for her. She usually had already posted, and I didn’t want to be an idiot by association by (partially) agreeing with her.

Sua

12

Funny, I’ve been on, or read, a couple of threads lately that Stoid either started or took an active role in, where I disagreed with her.

On the GD “Religion as Child Abuse” thread (I apologize for not providing a link; I seem to be having problems getting SD pages to load right now), Stoid and I disagreed substantially about religious upbringing being child abuse. I thought her arguments weren’t very strong, but I didn’t think she comported herself badly.

And then there was the “Kiddie Porn” thread that Fenris provided the link to - I started off agreeing with those who felt that “Show Me” was child porn, but after reading her posts, she had convinced me that there were two sides to a question where I thought, to paraphrase Tevye, that there was no ‘on the other hand’.

OK, sometimes she can get a bit sharp-tongued, but so can other respected posters around here (see the “pldennison, who the hell pissed in your Cheerios?” Pit thread for one example). On the whole, I think she argues pretty well.

A better statement of the first half of that couplet would be that Republicans think Democrats don’t think, but just spout the PC line. And since I can’t imagine a greater insult on a board dedicated to fighting ignorance - compared to that, being a ‘bad person’ is comparatively no big deal here - I’d say that would bring it up to even.

Actually, I’ve run into very few people, even here, who would say that the run-of-the-mill Republican is a bad person. But the party’s movers and shakers, be they the DeLays or the Chenoweths, the Limbaughs and Liddys, the Robertsons, Dobsons, or LaHayes - I’m sure that many liberals feel these people are bad people, and I think there’s ample justification there.

13

Just want to add that I am, frankly, stunned that anyone would assert that conservatives outnumber liberals on this board.

Y’all must be lumping the libertarians in with conservatives. They’ll shoot you for less than that. :wink:

14

What Milo said. Um, if you guys are lumping me in with the conservatives you haven’t been paying attention.

15

Then they can shoot me. Libertarianism is conservatism when it comes to the money-and-power issues that ultimately decide everything else. As far as I’m concerned, libertarianism is the true conservatism.

In terms of the political dynamics of America, it’s certainly the core of conservatism. As a liberal, I figure that if we can answer the best libertarian arguments, we win: everything else will take care of itself. While if liberals successfully refuted every non-libertarian conservative argument, conservatism would still be alive and well.

16

**

On the whole I agree with RTF, but I think there are some important exceptions. First, on issues like decriminalizing drugs or halting the “War on Drugs,” libertarians can be useful allies. Second, I generally give libertarians the benefit of the doubt as I believe that they often are often very passionate about “making the world a better place.” I disagree profoundly with their approach to doing that; but I commend their interest in politics.

Here is a quotation from a review I’ve just been reading on Richard Sennett’s book, The Corrosion of Character. It makes a pertinent distinction.

“American conservatism’s two most powerful blocs are
contradictory forms. On one hand are libertarians who
worship the free market and want government to leave
them entirely alone; on the other are social conservatives
who want government regulation to enforce their moral
vision.”

Interesting, no?

http://intellectualcapitol.com/bibliotech/rev-110598.asp

17

Ya know, it seems that it’s more libertarians that are completely fed up with stoidela than conservatives (and there is a difference).

In the past I’ve tried to defend conservatism, and it’s always liberals who insist that social conservatism is a part of it. While you and I might agree that social conservatism is pretty dumb, it is a very integral part of conservatism. I never understood how a political philosophy emerged by combining a belief in the free market with the belief in government restriction of other matters. I tend to side with conservatives because I consider a free market more important to individual freedom than the lack of social restrictions.

18

waterj2: If you think The Ryan is fairly rational, you need to check out the Is Kwanzaa Racist? thread and the Thirteenth Amendment threads. Yikes.

Milossarian:

Of course you are. :rolleyes: And, of course, no one made that statement in the first place.

I said that knee-jerk right-wingers outnumber knee-jerk left-wingers, and that ad hominem conservatives outnumber ad hominem liberals. I also said that Democrats likely outnumbered Republicans. All of these, by the way, are in keeping with the national political makeup.

Mandelstam said that “liberals are outnumbered by posters of various stripes”–a statement which explicitly lumps in libertarians and conservatives, and one with which I’d find it very difficult to disagree.

'Kay, Milo?

19

This is exactly how I feel as well.

It’s volume! volume! volume! with her. A lot of people here are partisan, it’s just that you see so many more of her threads than anyone else’s. She’s just gotta keep posting new threads, so it seems. It’s tiresome.

No, I personally don’t want her to “go away”. “Stop posting so many NEW threads” would be sufficient.

20

Going away would be fine too:)