# The "No, Both Sides Don't Do This" Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 1, 2015, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990 "2015-05-01T13:18:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/41 "2015-05-02T04:20:12Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > I thought we were talking about how one side is crazier than the other. Nothing is crazier than that (although it’s fairly harmless). Agreed, you cited one bit of Democratic craziness. But the problem is that we can respond with twelve times the amount of Republican/conservative craziness. The two do not balance; the conservatives are far crazier. Lung cancer and the sniffles are both diseases…and both produce a nasty cough…but it’s absurd to say they’re equally bad. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/42 "2015-05-02T04:26:11Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > I thought we were talking about how one side is crazier than the other. Nothing is crazier than that (although it’s fairly harmless). Assuming he wasn’t making a metaphor about the ecology reaching a tipping point, that’s not crazy, it’s ignorant. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/43 "2015-05-02T17:14:51Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > I don’t know of any Republicans that have stated that [Guam might tip over](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Johnson#Comments_on_Guam_tipping_over). And how many Democratic state governors are mobilizing the national guard to monitor the situation, just in case it does capsize? ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/44 "2015-05-02T19:23:33Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Or they’re mixing up a fresh batch. Good point. ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/45 "2015-05-02T19:32:15Z")
> [@sqweels](#): > > And the final insult: When none of these crazy conspiracies come to fruition, the conspiracy theorists will give themselves credit for preventing them. The mom of a good friend of mine has bought into all the craziness that’s out there. Occasionally, there’s some sort of date attached to something (at one point, Obama was supposed to take everybody’s guns, or something). The date comes and goes, and it doesn’t happen. Apparently, it doesn’t matter. I predict when Obama leaves office, on schedule, that won’t matter either. It’s the essence of craziness. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/46 "2015-05-03T04:53:14Z")
These masturbatory threads are ridiculous. Its kinda like ‘I know you are but what am I’. Somehow, manifesting itself from the crowd of crazy, was a Republican sweep in the last elections. Maybe in an insane world its the sane man who appears crazy. ---
**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:** [May 3, 2015, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/47 "2015-05-03T14:44:21Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > These masturbatory threads are ridiculous. Its kinda like ‘I know you are but what am I’. > > Somehow, manifesting itself from the crowd of crazy, was a Republican sweep in the last elections. Maybe in an insane world its the sane man who appears crazy. No, he appears _evil_ and soon calls go up to burn him at the stake, hence the need for sane people to remain vigilant. The U.S. has been on the verge of doing itself a fair amount of damage for some time, i.e. since 1980 or so and the political rise of a faction for whom reason is irrelevant or even flat-out undesirable. ---
**Author:** ![parkona\_driveway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d26b3c/32.png) [@parkona\_driveway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parkona_driveway)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/48 "2015-05-03T15:42:57Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > … the political rise of a faction for whom reason is irrelevant or even flat-out undesirable. Which faction specifically? If it’s politically ascendant, someone must have given it a name. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/49 "2015-05-03T16:06:27Z")
> [@parkona\_driveway](#): > > Which faction specifically? If it’s politically ascendant, someone must have given it a name. I’ve heard tell of it, but fuzzy on the name. Is it the Bee Party? The Pea Party? Closer, I think. The Sea Party? Not quite… ---
**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:** [May 3, 2015, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/50 "2015-05-03T16:50:01Z")
I wasn’t trying to be coy, though I admit I may have come off that way. I was referring to the Religious Right. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/51 "2015-05-03T17:04:04Z")
Actually, both sides do it (whether “it” is promoting idiotic conspiracy theories about governmental malfeasance/takeovers/racial extermination/etc., [inane](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-liberals-war-on-science/)[anti-science proclamations](http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/democrats-have-a-problem-with-science-too-107270.html#.VUZQ-lq8FFI) and so on). What’s really important is how leaders on both sides handle their crazies and tamp down stupidity. On that score, I find that Republicans/right-wingers do significantly worse than their Democratic/left-wing counterparts, but the latter still have considerable work to do before than they can sit back and crow.\* \*Obama while a U.S. Senator said the science on whether vaccines caused autism was “inconclusive” and (along with Hillary Clinton) also helped push the C.D.C. to waste money doing a study of “Morgellons disease” (a form of delusional parasitosis). ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/52 "2015-05-03T18:56:06Z")
Yeah, we’d never see liberals upset and fearful about the military trying to do their job in places the liberals think they shouldn’t. Only the right has that kind of phobia. [http://www.refuseandresist.org/resist\_this/032099oakinvas.html](http://www.refuseandresist.org/resist_this/032099oakinvas.html) [http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll016.xml](http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll016.xml) Have fun with the true-scotsmanning, I’m off to the “facts won’t change your mind” thread. ---
**Author:** ![parkona\_driveway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d26b3c/32.png) [@parkona\_driveway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parkona_driveway)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/53 "2015-05-03T20:08:53Z")
furt wins the thread 🙂 But back to the crazy Republicans for a moment, I think the Tea Party insanity was originally motivated by contempt for GWB. Bush was viewed as a lavish spender with only slightly different priorities than the Democrats. Obama was assumed to be a megalomaniac, so there was no sense of betrayal because he behaved as expected. My guess is that you folks here loathe the Tea Party primarily because it threatens to roll back the size and scope of government, which in your view would reverse decades or centuries of progress. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/54 "2015-05-03T20:23:54Z")
> [@furt](#): > > Yeah, we’d never see liberals upset and fearful about the military trying to do their job in places the liberals think they shouldn’t. Only the right has that kind of phobia. > [refuseandresist.org | Knot DNS](http://www.refuseandresist.org/resist_this/032099oakinvas.html) When the guy who wrote that gets elected governor somewhere, maybe you’ll have a point. > [@parkona\_driveway](#): > > My guess is that you folks here loathe the Tea Party primarily because it threatens to roll back the size and scope of government, which in your view would reverse decades or centuries of progress. As a wise man once said, you guessed wrong. Of course, I don’t speak for everyone in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/55 "2015-05-03T20:24:42Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Having a state military keep an eye on the U.S. military to assuage wingnut fears that they’re going to do a military takeover of Texas? > > Yeah, I consider that pretty extraordinary. It is worth clarifying that the [Texas State Guard](http:// [Texas State Guard - Wikipedia](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_State_Guard)) is not the same thing as the T[exas National Guard](http:// [http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas\_Army\_National\_Guard](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Army_National_Guard)). I’m not saying that the TSG is entirely made up of cranks, wannabes, and old men who still want to play soldier. I am saying that evetybody I ever knew who was in the TSG met that description. They have no real training of their own. They are not armed. Having them keep an eye on the real army is hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/56 "2015-05-03T21:35:18Z")
> [@parkona\_driveway](#): > > . . . My guess is that you folks here loathe the Tea Party primarily because it threatens to roll back the size and scope of government, which in your view would reverse decades or centuries of progress. I disagree with them on that, but the reason I loathe them is that they jumped immediately onto social conservative issues, such as anti-abortion, creationism, religious bigotry, a poisonous opposition to gay rights, and so on. They lied about being an anti-tax movement: they’re really religious bigots. ---
**Author:** ![parkona\_driveway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d26b3c/32.png) [@parkona\_driveway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parkona_driveway)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/57 "2015-05-03T22:21:53Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > They lied about being an anti-tax movement: they’re really religious bigots. I honestly have no idea because I don’t pay much attention, but Wikipedia suggests somewhat otherwise: > **[Tea Party movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement)** > > Defunct > Newspapers > Journals > [@](#): > > The Tea Party has generally sought to avoid placing too much emphasis on traditional conservative social issues. National Tea Party organizations … have expressed concern that engaging in social issues would be divisive. Instead, they have sought to have activists focus their efforts away from social issues and focus on economic and limited government issues. I suppose one could interpret that stance as deceptive behavior. But via the same link, 44% of Tea Partiers are born-again Christians, versus 34% for the general population – a moderate over-representation. I think it’s a very conflicted collection of frustrated people, probably not unlike Occupy Wall Street in that respect. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/58 "2015-05-04T00:55:26Z")
> [@parkona\_driveway](#): > > My guess is that you folks here loathe the Tea Party primarily because it threatens to roll back the size and scope of government, which in your view would reverse decades or centuries of progress. “Loathe”? I would not flatter them so, that they would be worth my enmity. I pity them, for being pawntomatons of the fiendish astroturfers who seek to turn them against their own self interest. One does not _loathe_ a person (who should be) in a straitjacket, one feels kind of sorry for them and hopes they get better. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/59 "2015-05-04T01:57:37Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Agreed, you cited one bit of Democratic craziness. But the problem is that we can respond with twelve times the amount of Republican/conservative craziness. The two do not balance; the conservatives are far crazier. > > Lung cancer and the sniffles are both diseases…and both produce a nasty cough…but it’s absurd to say they’re equally bad. I strongly disagree. The problem with threads like these is that they’re doomed by: 1. Massive confirmation bias, unless you can come up with some way to objectively compare the crazies. 2. Unbalanced anecdotes; given that the SDMB leans heavily liberal there will be more anecdotes about stupid conservatives than stupid liberals, even if they were equally stupid. 3. Perceived level of crazy. To a liberal, someone on the far right is going to seem more crazy than someone on the far left, and vice versa. Given that the SDMB leans liberal then the perceived level of crazy is not going to be equal. For example, I consider myself moderate/centrist; to me the Tea Party is no more crazy than Green Peace. I’m sure that is a controversial comparison for most Dopers. 1. Bias of beliefs. Both sides are willing to believe unfounded “crazy” of the other side. For example, plenty of conservatives believe that Gore took credit for inventing the internet. Likewise, plenty of liberals believe that Palin said she could see Russia from her porch. This bias makes a thread like this untenable. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990/60 "2015-05-04T03:33:45Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > . . . 4) Bias of beliefs. Both sides are willing to believe unfounded “crazy” of the other side. For example, plenty of conservatives believe that Gore took credit for inventing the internet. Likewise, plenty of liberals believe that Palin said she could see Russia from her porch. This bias makes a thread like this untenable. Bad example, for two reasons. 1. The Gore slur was used as a major campaign issue, and repeated in campaign advertising. The Palin slur is only a joke, and liberals know that. 2. When the Gore thing was repeated, conservatives held silent, but when the Palin thing was repeated as if believed, liberals were among the first to say, no, that’s just a joke. Conservatives are more willingly complicit in the craziness than liberals are. Liberals have a long tradition of disagreeing with each other, and thus profit from correction. Conservatives almost never criticize each other. When one of them says something utterly insane on Fox News, you will see the others in the room nodding solemnly, and not starting up to say, “Whoa! That isn’t true!” The giveaway moment of this was when McCain spoke in defense of Obama…and was booed by his own supporters for it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-no-both-sides-dont-do-this-thread/718990.md?page=4)