“Did a plane really crash into the Pentagon?”
My personal favorite, as far as “dark horse meltdowns” go, is the guy who went stark raving berserk, and got banned, arguing over the origin of the nine-note “Kung Fu Fighting” riff.
As was the amazing meltdown over making your guests take their shoes off, and its converse - its rude to just take your shoes off.
In the house - Shoes on or shoes off?
Is using “literally” as an intensifier wrong?
I told the innocent story about my friend that touched that one off. Someone pitted me and the story and it spiralled out of control for several hundred replies. Some people insisted that I even made the story up as though I could have anticipated it and made up such a stupid, mundane thing.
Mine is: Would a BMW sedan or a Prius be better for me?
Why do nice guys finish last?
Star Wars Episodes I-III were brilliant
Anything about minimum wage
Any thread I participate in that has “women” in the title
“Is being religious better or worse for society than atheism ?”
“Do you consider Bush a good Christian ?”
“Would you have preferred to be born a man or a woman ?”
“Would you have preferred to be born gay, bi or straight ?”
The most obvious one that hasn’t been mentioned yet: smoking. You have the idiots on one end who think all smokers should be in some kind of gulag on Mars, the other kind who think smoke magically stays in the smoking section of the restaurant as if held in my invisible force fields, and the people in between who want you to do just what you like, as long as you please don’t blow it on my kids.
Those threads always get nasty.
Threads on…
Smoking (pro and con)
Childfree (pro and con)
Poor people
Obesity
Vegetarianism
Nice Guys who can’t get a date
Transgender/Transsexual issues
… almost always degenerate into utterly wretched trainwrecks. My own personal vote for threads least likely to be missed are:
- European Dopers, what do you REALLY think of America? REALLY?
- Tell me why I don’t need a passport to go to [insert country here] so I don’t have to shill out the hundred bucks for a passport I really do need if I want to visit [insert country here].
Threads with names like these will lead to meltdowns:
-
“Have you ever seen an uglier baby? (link to picture included)”
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“Cellphones should be illegal to use while driving”
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“(Motor)cyclists: mild-mannered road co-users, or highway menace?”
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“Why can’t everyone drive the speed limit?!”
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“You don’t really grow up until becoming a parent” VS “Having kids is selfish, and your parenting skills suck”
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“My Dog/Cat/Ferret/Wombat is like a child to me”
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“Shaving your legs just makes the mysogenists happy”
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“Why are religious people stupid/have mental illnesses?” vs “Athesists are pompous, wrong, and have no morals”
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“Why are Republicans evil/hate poor people?” VS “Is it possible to be a liberal and not stupid OR on the dole?”
I missed that one! Got a link? Or tell me it comes up easy on search (before I add to the hamsters’ workload).
I came in here to post this very thing. As Bob is my witness, I will never get involved in that trainwreck topic again.
Harry Potter Qualifies as Literature
This Painting/sculpture/picture isn’t art, I don’t care what the critics say
What can we do to stop Global Warming?
Tattoos: What do you think of them?
Star Trek ships could beat Star Wars ships (or vice versa)
Obscure stupid ass news story makes me so mad! (I like the between the lines taunting in some of the replies.)
Why you [gays, women, bikers, goths, atheists, Muslims, Fundies, whatever] just don’t get why you aren’t liked. Allow me to explain …
My boss/wife/student/ferret/alien overlord/plumber is a racist because he said [some borderline offensive phrase/word]
[Certain Admin] lied!
[Certain Doper] is an idiot because s/he disagrees with me in this dumb ass thread about [some lame, dumb ass topic].
I gots more!
There are certain types of general science GQ/marginal GD thread that are just doomed; the ‘plane on a treadmill’ is perhaps the most memorable examples. ‘Is the image in a mirror 3D or 2D?’ is on its way to a similar fate right now, I think. The more mundane the scenario, the mosr likely it is to run and run - in the end, people just ignore each other and keep on restating their positions using slightly different wording.
Woe betide anyone who tries to introduce their own observations on the scenario; no matter how carefully they observed it; they will be told that the plural of anecdote is not data (not that they necessarily claimed it ever was).
The ever-popular People shouldn’t drive in the left lane unless they’re passing! will always veer off the highway.
I’ve got one:
Prostitution (acting in pornographic movies / posing naked in Playboy) is demeaning to women. The fact that some women do it willingly is not a proof of the emancipation of women being able to accept and openly display their sexuality; instead it demonstrates that the US feminist movement of the 1970s is truly dead (witness the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1982) and theat the patriarchal power structure has managed to convince women that portraying youself as a sex object is somehow “liberating”.
In fact, I’m tempted to start this discussion in Great Debates right now - as we all know, from heat comes light.
(just kidding, Gaudere, MEBuckner, tomndebb)
Ooh, I have one:
Suicide should never occur because people only attempt suicide when they are not in their right mind; we know they’re not in their right mind, because nobody in their right mind would want to kill themselves.
“Don’t bring your screaming kids to the restaurant/movie theater”
“Tattoos are artistic personal statements / Tattoos are tacky and passe”
“How do I beat my speeding ticket” (Always brings a parade of people lecturing the OP for skirting the law.)