# What happened to Bricker?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [August 25, 2018, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249 "2018-08-25T09:51:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2018, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/61 "2018-08-27T18:10:55Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#):
>
> All you have to do is assert that the Second Amendment provides for him to be in a militia that can resist tyranny with his AR-15 and he’ll consider that “thoughtful, thought provoking, or interesting”. :rolleyes:
Perhaps he should read up on what the “militia” was back in those days. The literal translation was “Indian killers”.
---
### Author:  [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2018, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/62 "2018-08-27T21:00:16Z")
> [@Bone](#):
>
> There are several posters on the board whose posts I will read in any thread on any topic because they tend to have thoughtful, thought provoking, or interesting responses.
> [@Richard Parker](#):
>
> I wish this board had more like him.
Seconded on both counts.
The depth and breadth and detail of **Bricker’s** knowledge on such a wide variety of subjects is remarkable. His verbal and grammatical skills are superb. He has a wonderful ability to explain complex issues in concise and easy to understand ways. And he is able to cut through the detritus in an opponent’s argument or point of view and reveal, with a pointed question or observation, the suddenly obvious flaw that lies within.
And he’s likely the pre-eminent poster on the boards who is willing to admit it on those occasions when he has come to feel he is wrong, and to apologize without reservation or attempts at mitigation. And he will readily congratulate an opponent should the opponent score a clever gotcha.
Further, he’s been an academic standout all his life and is obviously one of the board’s most intelligent posters. This board is literally peppered with comments alluding to **Bricker’s** intelligence that come from friend and foe alike. Can the same be said of his detractors here?
As **Richard Parker** said, **Bricker’s** not perfect. But over the years he has brought more to the board on a wider range of subjects and in a more substantive way than any other poster I can think of, and it would definitely benefit the board had we more here like him.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2018, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/63 "2018-08-27T21:49:59Z")
He sure is obsessed with liberal hypocrisy though, real or imagined.
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### Author:  [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2018, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/64 "2018-08-27T22:42:57Z")
> [@Richard\_Parker](#):
>
> …I wish this board had more like him. He’s not perfect. None of us are. But he has a number of sterling qualities–including a willingness to admit errors–which is more than most posters can claim.
He’s more prone to sidling away _without_ admitting to an error than he is to owning up to one, though.
For example, in an Elections folder thread on Trump’s revenge on John Brennan, he claimed this:
> [@Trump revokes security clearance of John Brennan](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-revokes-security-clearance-of-john-brennan/819680/64):
>
> … The bulk of people condemning Trump would be explaining how the Republicans simply want to see Obama fail, and that a security clearance cannot be used as a sword against the administration that grants it. And the same people now defending Trump would be apoplectic at the politicalization of clearances by Obama. …
[https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=21154492#post21154492](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=21154492#post21154492)
I replied with a challenge to him:
> [@Trump revokes security clearance of John Brennan](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-revokes-security-clearance-of-john-brennan/819680/87):
>
> You appear, here, to be asserting that John Brennan has used his security clearance “as a sword against the administration that grants it.”
>
> If that is what you are asserting, can you provide some examples of Brennan’s public utterances that could not have been made, if he had not had a security clearance? …
That was on 18 August (of this year); the thread’s last post at the moment is dated 22 August. Bricker did not return to the thread after the challenge, though he posted a couple of dozen times elsewhere on the board between the 18th and the 22nd.
It’s certainly not impossible that his sudden loss of interest in the topic had nothing to do with having been challenged.
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> He sure is obsessed with liberal hypocrisy though, real or imagined.
Yep. He’s prone to going to indefensible lengths to ‘prove’ it exists, too.
---
### Author:  [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2018, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/65 "2018-08-27T23:13:32Z")
> [@Richard\_Parker](#):
>
> Is it already time for the annual \*\*Bricker \*\*pitting? Next you’ll tell me that pumpkin beer is back on the shelves!
>
> I wish this board had more like him. He’s not perfect. None of us are. But he has a number of sterling qualities–including a willingness to admit errors–which is more than most posters can claim.
So far as I have seen (and I have said nice things about **Bricker** before), his willingness to _admit_ errors follows his willingness to _commit_ casuistic or sophistic or even factual errors not at all: it follows his intentional substitution of these errors for actual facts or logic, and then being caught, and even then, only after a substantial number of posters catch on. I have a cat that behaves only when I catch it misbehaving too. The rest of the time, it sits on the windowsill, pretending it’s wiser than all of us.
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### Author:  [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2018, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/66 "2018-08-27T23:25:50Z")
> [@Shodan](#):
>
> It is richly ironic that one of the few Dopers who is willing to concede a point or be persuaded, comes in for this same kind of accusation.
>
> Regards,
> Shodan
You _do_ know we’re talking about **Bricker,** right? :dubious:
I realize that he’s not stupid by any means, but he engages people on this board in ways that are truly beneath a man of his intellect and education. I would almost pay real money to see him perform in court. I would like to know how many times he argues small, meaningless points before the judge gets fed up and says, “Bailiff, whap that man’s pee-pee.”
---
### Author:  [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2018, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/67 "2018-08-28T00:05:12Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#):
>
> You _do_ know we’re talking about **Bricker,** right? :dubious:
>
> I realize that he’s not stupid by any means, but he engages people on this board in ways that are truly beneath a man of his intellect and education. I would almost pay real money to see him perform in court. I would like to know how many times he argues small, meaningless points…
_“When in Rome…”_ would be my estimation for this. I doubt that **Bricker** comes in for the petty nitpicking, goalpost moving, dishonesty, insults and just plain wrongheaded nonsense in the courtroom or in discussions with his peers that he comes in for here.
He’s also stated that one of his prime motives for posting here is to test his own thinking on various subjects. Perhaps **Bricker** obtains a more thorough level of understanding by testing his thinking on a ‘street level’, so to speak, with ordinary people who are more likely to raise concerns, complaints or points of view that may not necessarily occur or be of interest to other men of his intellect and education.
I often perceive in him an effort to educate also, and what to you may be meaningless points might in his mind be points intended to educate his opponent or lurkers as to a certain fact or philosophical viewpoint that he considers to have value.
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### Author:  [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2018, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/68 "2018-08-28T00:06:06Z")
Yes, I know who we are talking about. Did you read the linked posts?
Regards,
Shodan
---
### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2018, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/69 "2018-08-28T00:12:45Z")
> [@Richard\_Parker](#):
>
> Is it already time for the annual \*\*Bricker \*\*pitting? Next you’ll tell me that pumpkin beer is back on the shelves!
>
> I wish this board had more like him. He’s not perfect. None of us are. But he has a number of sterling qualities–including a willingness to admit errors–which is more than most posters can claim.
This is fair, and it’s also unfairly why I get irritated at him. A oneliner dumbass like Shodan, or a loquacious pervert like Starving Artist, or an angry nincompoop like GunSpot? Whatever, I can generally roll my eyes and move on.
But you’re right, that Bricker does have some good qualities. I disagree with the realm in which he operates, and I think that’s due to some baseline disagreements about underlying assumptions, but I’m not 100% sure of that, because he’s very good at arguing. And Bone’s right, there are several people in the thread criticizing him who are a lot less interesting (although not everyone; I’m criticizing him and am obviously fascinating.)
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### Author:  [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2018, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/70 "2018-08-28T00:14:38Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#):
>
> You _do_ know we’re talking about **Bricker,** right? :dubious:
>
> I realize that he’s not stupid by any means, but he engages people on this board in ways that are truly beneath a man of his intellect and education. I would almost pay real money to see him perform in court. I would like to know how many times he argues small, meaningless points before the judge gets fed up and says, “Bailiff, whap that man’s pee-pee.”
It’s my understanding that he hasn’t worked in a courtroom in decades. I think the SDMB has been his litigation substitute for his entire time posting here.
---
### Author:  [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2018, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/71 "2018-08-28T00:27:11Z")
Although I often disagree with **Bricker** , I’m very glad he’s on the board and enjoy his posts a lot.
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### Author:  [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2018, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/72 "2018-08-28T01:23:55Z")
> [@septimus](#):
>
> What happened? When I first came to the Board, **Bricker** seemed to be an intelligent and fair-minded right-winger. Has wallowing in the cesspool of today’s GOP left him drinking the same fetid Kool-Aid as the crooks and hypocrites that have taken over that Party use to gull the stupid?
When you’ve been told 100,000 times “you’re better than this”, I guess you start believing it and stop trying.
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### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2018, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/73 "2018-08-28T04:55:25Z")
By coincidence a seven-month old thread where **Bricker** was active was just bumped. (Clicking the **Bricker** link below will take you to the middle of that thread.) It seems the North Carolina legislature insisted on gerrymandering their Congressional districts in outrageous fashion, _ **gleefully and proudly proclaiming that their purpose was to win a disproportionate number of GOP seats** _, and defying federal court orders to draw fairer districts. Even now, don’t expect the NC Republicans to comply with the Constitution — they’ll probably appeal to SCOTUS and cry “Foul!” if the vote there is 4-4. (The N.C. election on November 6 will presumably be illegal or non-final in any event. Will this provoke a constitutional crisis? Or, worse :), necessitate rule clarification in SDMB’s 2018 election contest?)
Our erudite **Esquire** , of course, likes the law when it’s on his side, otherwise goes with his pretense of Old Testament “morality” when guns or raped women are the issue, but is also happy to endorse partisan cheating when it favors the Trumpists. (“Your side would have done it too if you were smart enough, but we did it! Ha ha hah!”)
**Dear Esquire** is far too clever, of course, to come right out and say “I am a racist” or “I am a partisan hypocrite.” You have to study an ensemble of his posts. He likes to quote the law when it’s on his side. Here’s his “cite” in that thread:
> [@NC Federal House Districts unconstitutionally gerrymandered](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nc-federal-house-districts-unconstitutionally-gerrymandered/806306/54):
>
> So far, sure. If the _Gill v Whitford_ decision upholds “a broken-winged pterodactyl, lying prostrate across the center of the state,” then my answer may change.
```auto
And from this thread:
[quote="Bricker, post:35, topic:820249"]
The genius at work here is truly a credit to, and emblematic of, the left wing.
[/QUOTE]
Keep stroking that dick if it makes you happy, boy, or, more likely, keep stroking its surrogate — your Glock-19. A simple fact is that a strong majority of intelligent educated Americans and, yes, geniuses, oppose Republicans and Trumpists.
Some people were born with average intelligence and worked hard to attain above-average intellect. OTOH, **Bricker** probably started with the genes for a 120 IQ; it's a real pity what has happened to him.
.
```
---
### Author:  [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2018, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/74 "2018-08-28T05:07:52Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#):
>
> _“When in Rome…”_ would be my estimation for this. I doubt that **Bricker** comes in for the petty nitpicking, goalpost moving, dishonesty, insults and just plain wrongheaded nonsense in the courtroom or in discussions with his peers that he comes in for here.
>
> He’s also stated that one of his prime motives for posting here is to test his own thinking on various subjects. Perhaps **Bricker** obtains a more thorough level of understanding by testing his thinking on a ‘street level’, so to speak, with ordinary people who are more likely to raise concerns, complaints or points of view that may not necessarily occur or be of interest to other men of his intellect and education.
>
> I often perceive in him an effort to educate also, and what to you may be meaningless points might in his mind be points intended to educate his opponent or lurkers as to a certain fact or philosophical viewpoint that he considers to have value.
Wow. Just wow.
---
### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2018, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/75 "2018-08-28T06:31:33Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#):
>
> You _do_ know we’re talking about **Bricker,** right? :dubious:
>
> I realize that he’s not stupid by any means, but he engages people on this board in ways that are truly beneath a man of his intellect and education. I would almost pay real money to see him perform in court. I would like to know how many times he argues small, meaningless points before the judge gets fed up and says, “Bailiff, whap that man’s pee-pee.”
Actually, the way Bricker performs here is exactly the way an attorney, in my understanding, is supposed to perform in court. If his opposition makes a blunder he doesn’t have to - and shouldn’t - point it out and can use it in support of his client. His argument is by definition one sided. And legalism trumps morality any day, unless the law is against you and you try to ignore it with an appeal.
And trying to lead the jury in a direction benefiting ones client is perfectly appropriate.
So I get it. I’m not sure it is appropriate here. But I get it.
---
### Author:  [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2018, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/76 "2018-08-28T11:42:25Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#):
>
> \*I often perceive in him an effort to educate also, and what to you may be meaningless points might in his mind be points intended to educate his opponent or lurkers as to a certain fact or philosophical viewpoint that he considers to have value.
Wow. If there’s such a thing as verbal fellatio, I think Bricker jismed all over your keyboard.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2018, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/77 "2018-08-28T11:46:13Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#):
>
> Wow. If there’s such a thing as verbal fellatio, I think Bricker jismed all over your keyboard.
A true sycophant would swallow.
---
### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2018, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/78 "2018-08-28T12:19:45Z")
> [@Voyager](#):
>
> Actually, the way Bricker performs here is exactly the way an attorney, in my understanding, is supposed to perform in court. If his opposition makes a blunder he doesn’t have to - and shouldn’t - point it out and can use it in support of his client. His argument is by definition one sided. And legalism trumps morality any day, unless the law is against you and you try to ignore it with an appeal.
> And trying to lead the jury in a direction benefiting ones client is perfectly appropriate.
> So I get it. I’m not sure it is appropriate here. But I get it.
Yeah. Bricker has to learn someday that there is no jury here at the SDMB, no judge and no audience. Instead, he needs to convince the actual people he’s arguing with - something lawyers aren’t trained to do.
---
### Author:  [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2018, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/79 "2018-08-28T12:28:39Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> Yeah. Bricker has to learn someday that there is no jury here at the SDMB, no judge and no audience. Instead, he needs to convince the actual people he’s arguing with - something lawyers aren’t trained to do.
I’m sorry, what do you think a jury is, other than a group of people who are to be convinced? Perhaps Bricker’s difficulties run into assuming that he’s talking with people who will be unbiased in their interpretations of facts, opinions and arguments.
---
### Author:  [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2018, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-bricker/820249/80 "2018-08-28T12:31:20Z")
> [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](#):
>
> I’m sorry, what do you think a jury is, other than a group of people who are to be convinced? Perhaps Bricker’s difficulties run into assuming that he’s talking with people who will be unbiased in their interpretations of facts, opinions and arguments.
Unbiased by things like scope and context, perhaps…
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