# To Liberal: I'm not pitting you.. I'm just confused **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 24, 2007, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489 "2007-02-24T07:42:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/241 "2007-02-25T22:45:24Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] An objection that applies to me in more than one instance. More in times past and less now, but still. Of course, it applies to all of us. People just choose to provide links to mine rather than to their own. 😃 [/QUOTE] A completely true post. You had been much better lately until last week. Then you had several, let us say interesting epsiodes. So please, take your advice to at least drop the attacks. This is a really good idea. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/242 "2007-02-25T22:45:55Z")
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster] Bottom line: there is no excuse, no matter how angry or irritated you are, to attack a person rather than attack what they say. Period. You can’t buy yourself off by saying ‘well, he should just get over it’. This is about appallingly incivil behaviour. [/QUOTE] A question: how many times, in your humble opinion, must one engage solely a person’s words, before one can consider a pattern of behaviour to be established? Assuming one believes a person to be behaving repeatedly, consistently in a certain way, must one really treat each new manifestation as if it were the first encounter? If your answers are “indefinitely,” and “yes,” I can only take issue in the strongest possible terms. We are under no obligation to indefinitely tolerate what we perceive as disruptive behaviour, any more than we are necessarily responsible for those perceptions. **Liberal** is beyond any objective assessment one of the most consistently disruptive posters on this messageboard. Some of this, certainly, is down to the relatively outlandish nature of his political views (and this statement is not meant to be pejorative). However it is insupportable to claim that it is exclusively this and mobbish nastiness that makes his presence so … prominent. I’ve been loath to post in this thread, precisely because I don’t want to be perceived as joining in with any pile-on (although I believe the perception of groupthink is _massively_ overdone in such circumstances). But for you to come along and insist that people should ignore 6 years of interactions for the benefit of your somewhat … precious sensibilities is just too annoying, frankly. As for this: > [@](#): > > People seem to be quite upset that I don’t. No, they’re upset that you’re calling them all rotters for having their own perceptions of behaviour that you have not observed. Perhaps… > [@](#): > > My objection is to mistreating someone and being vicious and vituperative about the person merely because you dislike him. …you might want to consider _how_ some of us came to dislike a person, given that some of us started with quite the opposite impression, and given that most of us have far more experience of interacting with said person than you. Can you honestly say that you approach each interaction, each conversation in your life with a blank slate? Really? Do you even think that’s wise? I would appreciate a direct answer. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/243 "2007-02-25T22:46:32Z")
> [@](#): > > Three words: Double bladed lightsaber. Oooh. I’m told there will be cookies there as well. …Tough one. ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/244 "2007-02-25T22:46:54Z")
[QUOTE=EddyTeddyFreddy] [Yes, that’s certainly objectionable, isn’t it?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8269025&postcount=56) [/QUOTE] That was narsty, yes. Seems to me I saw an apology for that someplace, though, did I not? **Lib** , what’s the scoop here? BTW, you did point me to yet another thread where people were piling on a poster and others were defending the poster, right? And it appears you two were on opposite sides of that one. Don’t you guys get tired of these donnybrooks? Me, I’m getting a headache. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/245 "2007-02-25T22:50:46Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Which was what I just mentioned to Wring. I shouldn’t have done that. I should have defended Lissa without attacking you on a personal level. I’m sure **an apology would fall flat, so I won’t insult you by offering it.** But I am curious about one thing. Can you recall, without searching, how you and I became so opposed? [/QUOTE] Yes, an apology would ring rather hollow, considering [how you tried to pass your vitriol off](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8270172&postcount=132) as merely “a mild and friendly ribbing”. :rolleyes: (Of course, **QF** , you’ll no doubt proclaim that an apology. I don’t, I consider it despicable weaseling.) Your behavior in that thread, added to your behavior as I have obseved it over the four years I have been a member of the board, is, as I have stated before, more than sufficient to form my opinion of you. As I have also said before, it’s my opinion and I don’t demand that anyone else agree. I do, however, expect from others the minimal civility of accepting that my opinion arises from my own observation and analysis rather than the unthinking pack mentality to which **QF** seems determined to reduce all the antipathy you engender. Heck, if I were you [we both shudder], I would be insulted by **QF** ’s facile dismissal of all hostility toward you as baseless groupthink unfounded in anything but the opponent’s pathology. Who the hell wants to be so colorless and unremarkable – so negligible – as that? I dislike you all right, **Liberal** , but you for damned sure aren’t colorless and negligible. ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/246 "2007-02-25T22:51:33Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] An objection that applies to me in more than one instance. More in times past and less now, but still. Of course, it applies to all of us. People just choose to provide links to mine rather than to their own. 😃 [/QUOTE] Well if I see you doing it, you know what to expect 😃 You’re saying you’re getting some of your own medicine back, are you? Tsk. ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/247 "2007-02-25T22:54:14Z")
[QUOTE=Hunter Hawk] Three words: Double bladed lightsaber. Come, child, you _know_ you want one. It can be yours, all you have to do is give in, accept the haaaaate… [/QUOTE] Nuh-uh. Luuuve, baby. Feels goooood. But really, it does. Much easier on your whole self to drop as many angries as you can. A lovely breath of fresh air to the soul to allow ease and peace live there rather than irritation and frustration. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/248 "2007-02-25T22:56:07Z")
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster] That was narsty, yes. Seems to me I saw an apology for that someplace, though, did I not? **Lib** , what’s the scoop here? [/QUOTE] No, I didn’t apologize. The enmity between us is so great that an apology would have been like throwing gasoline on a fire. I spouted off, and she holds that moral highground. I don’t begrudge that of her. It is only right. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/249 "2007-02-25T22:57:05Z")
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster] Don’t you guys get tired of these donnybrooks? Me, I’m getting a headache. [/QUOTE] Oh, come now. Fifty posts to this particular “donnybrook” in less than 15 hours does not demonstrate fatigue so much as love of the sound of your own voice. You’ve already shown yourself to be a sanctimonious judgmental shrew; don’t feel you need to add disingenuity to your reputation as well. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/250 "2007-02-25T22:59:46Z")
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster] T BTW, you did point me to yet another thread where people were piling on a poster and others were defending the poster, right? And it appears you two were on opposite sides of that one. Don’t you guys get tired of these donnybrooks? Me, I’m getting a headache. [/QUOTE] I can’t be arsed to look for it, it was a long time ago and it might even be lost in the threads that have been offloaded from availability, but my first Pitting of **Liberal** was a two-for-one special Pitting both him and, I think, **Otto** for both behaving like socially inept five-year-olds in yet another feces-flinging exchange of their long-running feud. We actually came out of that in harmony, as I recall. Which didn’t stop **Lib** from launching vitriol at me, misrepresenting my position, and in general being an ass to me within a few months. By now I really don’t even pay much attention to his antics, mostly it’s :rolleyes: “there he goes again” and I move on. Sometimes I get irritated. This IS allowable for us lesser beings, is it not? I mean, me being human and all, and not some enlightened Bhuddist perfecto persona like you. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/251 "2007-02-25T22:59:59Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] An objection that applies to me in more than one instance. More in times past and less now, but still. Of course, it applies to all of us. People just choose to provide links to mine rather than to their own. 😃 [/QUOTE] For me, I find your self-expressed Christian devotion to be at odds with the nastiness of your temper. When you get angry, you go straight for the jugular. Sometimes it seems to come out of nowhere, for very trivial offenses. Now a number of posters also fly off the handle. Sometimes I _do_ this. But not many of us haven’t painted ourselves as solid exemplers of Christ, as you have. When you wear your principles on your sleeve, you set yourself up for higher levels of scrutinity and stronger kicks to the gut when you fail. Maybe that’s not nice for us to do, but it’s not unreasonable either, IMHO. :shrug: ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/252 "2007-02-25T23:01:57Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] No, I didn’t apologize. The enmity between us is so great that an apology would have been like throwing gasoline on a fire. I spouted off, and she holds that moral highground. I don’t begrudge that of her. It is only right. [/QUOTE] So there’s the scoop for ya, **QG**. He said it and he won’t apologize for it. I’ll be interested to see how that fits into your whole despising of meanness and encouragement of warm hearts. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/253 "2007-02-25T23:02:30Z")
[QUOTE=Dead Badger] A question: how many times, in your humble opinion, must one engage solely a person’s words, before one can consider a pattern of behaviour to be established? Assuming one believes a person to be behaving repeatedly, consistently in a certain way, must one really treat each new manifestation as if it were the first encounter? [/quote] Not saying that. Not saying you can’t hate, loathe, and despise someone if you must, though I’ve outlined my reasons why I think it’s a bad idea. Just saying none of it is a reason to attack a person personally. And **Liberal** , if you’ve done this, I’m looking at you, too. > [@](#): > > Can you honestly say that you approach each interaction, each conversation in your life with a blank slate? Really? Do you even think that’s wise? I would appreciate a direct answer. Not with a blank slate. However, if I am feeling the impulse to dislike someone, I check me out to see where it’s coming from. If I think it’s justified (there are few reasons that are; chief among them is that they mistreat others and do so willingly), then I still don’t allow myself to diminish everything about them and all they do because I don’t like them. And I don’t attack them and insult them personally. So if you mean that each time I meet the person, will I renew my determination to behave civilly no matter how I feel, then yes I suppose that’s a clean slate of sorts. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/254 "2007-02-25T23:02:42Z")
[QUOTE=EddyTeddyFreddy] Yes, an apology would ring rather hollow, considering [how you tried to pass your vitriol off](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8270172&postcount=132) as merely “a mild and friendly ribbing”. :rolleyes: (Of course, **QF** , you’ll no doubt proclaim that an apology. I don’t, I consider it despicable weaseling.) [/quote] It was actually just a dismissal. A statement so absurd (“friendly ribbing”) is obviously sarcastic. It was intended to be manifestly disrespectful. There’s no point in sugar coating it. My intention was to dig at you personally. I shouldn’t have done it, and the brow beatings from all concerned were deserved. > [@](#): > > Your behavior in that thread, added to your behavior as I have obseved it over the four years I have been a member of the board, is, as I have stated before, more than sufficient to form my opinion of you. Yeah, yeah. But you’ve forgotten. Before the incident, you and I were okely dokely, no problems. I’ll give you a hint. It concerned a certain item of kitch jewelry spotted on a subway train. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/255 "2007-02-25T23:05:06Z")
[QUOTE=Jodi] So there’s the scoop for ya, **QG**. He said it and he won’t apologize for it. I’ll be interested to see how that fits into your whole despising of meanness and encouragement of warm hearts. :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] But you know very well that an apology would be met with protests that, “There he goes again! Attacking and apologizing!” etc… Even ETF understands this, having agreed that “an apology would ring rather hollow”. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/256 "2007-02-25T23:06:52Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] But you know very well that an apology would be met with protests that, “There he goes again! Attacking and apologizing!” etc… Even ETF understands this, having agreed that “an apology would ring rather hollow”. [/QUOTE] I think \*\*Jodi \*\* understands that, it was **Quiddity** that thought she saw an apology. ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/257 "2007-02-25T23:06:53Z")
[QUOTE=Jodi] Oh, come now. Fifty posts to this particular “donnybrook” in less than 15 hours does not demonstrate fatigue so much as love of the sound of your own voice. [/quote] Well, no. People ask me a question or in some way expect a response here, do they not? ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/258 "2007-02-25T23:08:50Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] It was actually just a dismissal. A statement so absurd (“friendly ribbing”) is obviously sarcastic. It was intended to be manifestly disrespectful. There’s no point in sugar coating it. My intention was to dig at you personally. I shouldn’t have done it, and the brow beatings from all concerned were deserved. [/quote] That doesn’t let you off the hook for doing it, but I will accept that you’ve realized you were out of line. More I wouldn’t expect. > [@](#): > > Yeah, yeah. But you’ve forgotten. Before the incident, you and I were okely dokely, no problems. I’ll give you a hint. It concerned a certain item of kitch jewelry spotted on a subway train. Wow, you hold grudges that long? However long is it, since I don’t have the faintest idea what you’re on about, whatever seed of antipathy you’re still fertilizing. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/259 "2007-02-25T23:09:54Z")
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster] Well, no. People ask me a question or in some way expect a response here, do they not? [/QUOTE] Sure, they’re always happy to offer you a new shovel when you’ve worn out the one you’re digging with. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489/260 "2007-02-25T23:10:01Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Yeah, yeah. But you’ve forgotten. Before the incident, you and I were okely dokely, no problems. I’ll give you a hint. It concerned a certain item of kitch jewelry spotted on a subway train. [/QUOTE] For me, personally, it takes quite a bit before I recall posters from prior threads. Once, I posted in a thread that I didn’t recall having cross words w/a particular poster before, and some one ‘helpfully’ linked to a prior exchange. But you know what? I \*\* didnt\*\* recall the exchange. Some folks carry such wounds with them forever, like prized possessions. In most cases, it only serves to continue hurting the one carrying it. _fixed typo_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-liberal-im-not-pitting-you-im-just-confused/393489.md?page=14)