Yeah, that’s what the little shield next to his name means. And if you look at his account, he’s in the “moderators” group. I’ve mostly seen him in action in the Game Room forum. (He’s one of the mods there, along with Chronos and raventhief.)
Check out the link for the list of mods, he’s there:
https://boards.straightdope.com/g/moderators
ETA: He is also a moderator for Comments on Cecil’s Columns forum (see here).
I have to agree.
I just think he really, REALLY does not like the thought of the powers that the Emergency Act gives the government. Any government.
ETA: He’s been arguing in good faith, and admits when he makes an error.
Meanhoo billy-jack is in quasi-AGW denial mode. Sorry, correction: he doesn’t deny the reality per se, but thinks it will be beneficial. Oy vey.
D_Anconia is also there, wouldn’t you know it?, beating the dead horse of his shot messenger fallacy, I guess he does really think that any science show or educational site that does not have a scientist is unscientific. That is the kind of logic that would declare that Science Friday on NPR is unscientific, just because Ira Flatow is just an engineer.
Well, in the long run, we are all dead.
Ninjaed!
Continually missing points and moving goalposts demonstrates that he is not completely arguing in good faith.
Yes, but that can happen when someone passionately believes something and is arguing in anger about it. They get in a one-track mindset. miss obvious flaws, and won’t admit any faults. (And I do see a lot of places where he refuses to acknowledge error. He doesn’t keep arguing it, though. Just kinda lets it drop.)
RickJay is over in the “Jumping Jesus” Pit thread wondering why anyone would possibly see him as conservative or in any way support the convoy. He doesn’t seem to realize how he came off in that thread to a lot of people.
He was doing that in the Is JK Rowling Transphobic thread, too.
Yeah, on the one hand he’s calling the protestors and organizers idiots, and is celebrating the dispersal of protestors. But then he’s also criticizing the response, and (if I’m reading properly) what he sees as government overreach in response. So, I can understand how if you only read his later posts he will come off as Conservative. And I can see how he is confused that people are seeing him as a Conservative, but he has to realize that not everyone reads every post in a thread (especially a thread with 650 posts). And even a few of his earlier posts read a bit Conservative, such as his insistence that the protestors had more public support than the posters in the thread were assuming. (I still didn’t see that as him supporting them, though; I think he tried to make it clear that he didn’t in any way.)
Classic examples of posters not reading each others’ posts carefully, but reacting to something they’ve interpreted in a poor light. It’s the real harm of trolls–they cause us to be skeptical of each others’ motivations.
I think I’ve even been guilty of that, if I’m being honest. 
And not just here, other boards too. I try to “assume good faith” (a principle I learned from Wikipedia) but it gets harder the more often you have your time wasted by a troll playing games.
One to watch: Pepe has been here 1 day; two posts, two zombies reanimated, both on - ah - fringe subjects (instant diarrhea, medical masturbation, both in FQ). Not the usual MO, but interesting.
j
Well, at least he came to the right place!
I find a healthy skepticism is a perfectly fair way to approach most new people and new material. Not agreement or disagreement, but just giving yourself time and space to say “hmm, I’m not sure about that,” and then hold that thought for as long as it takes to become reasonably sure. It’s even fair to type that in a thread. No need to immediately jump to one side or the other.
And I think it’s pointless to try to judge motivations. Is this poster stupid or a troll? Does it really matter? There is one poster here who I am pretty sure is quite sincere, but his posts are so stupid I don’t waste my time engaging with him.
I have one such poster on my ignore list. I think they’re sincere, but just so stupid it’s not worth talking to them, no more than it would be sensible to have a conversation with a Chatty Cathy doll.
Hopefully he doesn’t turn into a frog. You know the one I mean…
Ahhh! Triggered!
Yep. I think it’s important to distinguish between long-time posters and newbies. I try to give the benefit of a doubt to any long-time poster. Anyone who has been regularly posting for years is a more-or-less reasonable person, who may have off days or sore spots. (I’m ignoring everyone on my ignore list.)
With newbies, any provocativeness or gross stupidity puts them in the troll category. I won’t respond to them and if the mods don’t fix the problem, they’re ignored. It’s really not that hard to diagnose; I know the mods need to be circumspect with the hammer, but time is too valuable to waste views on borderline cases.