# What were you THINKING? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 13, 2023, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532 "2023-10-13T19:36:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 219
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2025, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4660 "2025-04-06T15:37:34Z")
In the general Trolls 'R Us thread, @John_DiFool’s prescriptive recipe for long-time lurkers who post for the first time. > [@Trolls R Us Resurrections](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trolls-r-us-resurrections/950518/13373): > > The point is, if you hadn’t bothered to selectively edit my post and strawmanned said point, is that an actual long time lurker (another detail you edited out and ignored) would just quietly join in participating on the board somewhere innocuous, and NOT have made an OP like that. We’ve seen this kind of 1st post stuff before, many times, and 99% of the time they end up in the cornfield within a few days. Care to lay odds? > > Yeah, we need to be more welcoming to newbs, because certainly we have been severely lacking in such lately. Dismissing a likely trock thinking they will soon become a regular non-disruptive poster is pretty naive, however. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2025, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4661 "2025-04-06T17:27:32Z")
Yeah. That is wacky CT-level suspicious and to no good end. If I (the generic “I”, not just me) am a long-time lurker, I’m somebody that doesn’t care to post about existing topics. I’ve demonstrated that by my silence since forever. The only thing I am likely to post, if I ever do, is an OP. And it’ll probably be an OP on something I don’t know who else or how to ask. To be sure, posting an FQ on a topic that is readily wiki-able or google-able is mentally lazy. But if the person wasn’t mentally lazy (or just not thinking that day), they’d already have done that. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2025, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4662 "2025-04-06T17:59:05Z")
Guess I should’ve looked here before posting in the other thread. I think we have a sizable contingent of posters who like to jostle for “look I found the troll/sock” street cred when it comes to new posters. Sometimes they’re right, but posting in troll threads doesn’t get these actual bad actors banned or corn fielded any sooner. What it does definitely do is create an unwelcoming environment for new posters who are posting in good faith. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2025, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4663 "2025-04-06T18:25:19Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > I think we have a sizable contingent of posters who like to jostle for “look I found the troll/sock” street cred when it comes to new posters. But sir, sir, I’ve admitted to my crimes and done my penance! I’m a reformed man I am! [points parent thread in which he was chastised (with cause) for being overly suspicious] ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4664 "2025-04-07T00:18:35Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Sometimes they’re right, but posting in troll threads doesn’t get these actual bad actors banned or corn fielded any sooner. When you’re talking about a new poster with very little activity who just did something suspicious, I think you’re right. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4665 "2025-04-07T00:25:24Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > If I (the generic “I”, not just me) am a long-time lurker, I’m somebody that doesn’t care to post about existing topics. I’ve demonstrated that by my silence since forever. The only thing I am likely to post, if I ever do, is an OP. Not sure how you’re defining “long-time” lurker; but I’m gonna disagree with both of you. I lurked for probably most of a year, studying how people posted here, what people did and didn’t get scolded for posting here, and wondering if the snopes boards were definitely dying and then dead or if they were coming back. And when I did finally post, it wasn’t either an OP or in a thread I thought innocuous; it was in one where I wanted to correct some posters who I thought were being Wrong On The Internet. (I have, admittedly, hardly shut up since.) ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4666 "2025-04-07T05:43:56Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > And when I did finally post, it wasn’t either an OP or in a thread I thought innocuous; it was in one where I wanted to correct some posters who I thought were being Wrong On The Internet. Pretty much this. I lurk on boards all the time, some for years and on most of them I have no presence whatsoever and on others I’ve only made rare appearances. This is the only one I engage with regularly, I lurked for some months even before first posting here and I first did so in response to someone else. In fact in my very long history here I’ve only rarely started a thread - it’s usually not my thing. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4667 "2025-04-07T11:16:11Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > You’re a bad faith piece of shit liar. As you’d damn well know if you’d ever read a single one of my posts on the topic, I find the statement abhorrent as well as morally and factually wrong. …says the person who has repeatedly denied doing the things they literally did _in this thread_. So tell us all about being a “bad faith piece of shit liar”. This remains true: > [@](#): > > Not a trans genocider. Just actively minimizing the pogrom on trans people openly being pursued, in the same way the effects of the DEI purge were minimized. As indeed you have repeatedly done about this thing you find “abhorrent”. Let’s have a look at some of your “posts on the topic”: Continuing the discussion from [How much transphobia is permissible before banning](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-transphobia-is-permissible-before-banning/1015457/49): > [@How much transphobia is permissible before banning](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-transphobia-is-permissible-before-banning/1015457/49): > > Everyone here who compares debating issues like trans women in women’s sports to debating the pros and cons of segregated water fountains or of Nazism. > > This is of course ridiculous: the first is actively being debated by sporting bodies, as well as by governments, in the press etc. it’s fairly often brought up by posters in other contexts because it’s a topic of interest. The latter are long-discredited fringe views which few people are interested in discussing. > [@How much transphobia is permissible before banning](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-transphobia-is-permissible-before-banning/1015457/53): > > I agree with you that these people are being ridiculous. But they aren’t the moderators (or even if the moderators personally believe that, they aren’t moderating accordingly). > > Andy outlined exactly how you can make the point you want to make without running afoul of the rules. > > That doesn’t mean the rules are perfect; for example, I think that if “trans women are biologically male” is banned, which is fine, then the argument “trans women belong in women’s sports because they are women” should _also_ be banned, because that argument is tautological and serves no purpose but to invite contention over the forbidden question of whether or not trans women are women. > > But that quibble with the rules doesn’t prevent you from expressing disagreement with the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports, or any other women’s space. You two think segregation was a “fringe” view? Remember, we’re talking about when it was happening, not now ([although…](https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/03/18/nx-s1-5326118/segregation-federal-contracts-far-regulation-trump)). And you think comparisons between the Nazi treatment of trans people and other minorities and what the current administration are pushing are “ridiculous”? Feel free to explain how you are not minimizing what is actively happening right now. > [@What is the maximum extent to which we are allowed to disagree with transgenderism (on the Dope)?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-maximum-extent-to-which-we-are-allowed-to-disagree-with-transgenderism-on-the-dope/1015807/53): > > > [@What is the maximum extent to which we are allowed to disagree with transgenderism (on the Dope)?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-maximum-extent-to-which-we-are-allowed-to-disagree-with-transgenderism-on-the-dope/1015807/52): > > > > For example, I doubt there is more than an extremely tiny minority of transgender-rights supporters who really believe that people should be treated in every area of life without regard for any aspects of birth-assigned sex, genetic or anatomical sex, etc. > > Interesting! Can you name an area that you feel trans people should be treated as their birth sex for, regardless of their personal wishes? > > Can you name any area that involves someone _other than the trans person’s romantic partners and doctors_ identifying the trans person based on their sex assigned at birth rather than the sex they want to be identified with? > > Or would you withdraw all objections to this part of her argument if @DemonTree instead said: > > _people should be treated accordingly in every area of **PUBLIC** life without regard for aspects of biological sex, and various other things._ > [@What is the maximum extent to which we are allowed to disagree with transgenderism (on the Dope)?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-maximum-extent-to-which-we-are-allowed-to-disagree-with-transgenderism-on-the-dope/1015807/54): > > > [@What is the maximum extent to which we are allowed to disagree with transgenderism (on the Dope)?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-maximum-extent-to-which-we-are-allowed-to-disagree-with-transgenderism-on-the-dope/1015807/53): > > > > Can you name any area that involves someone _other than the trans person’s romantic partners and doctors_ identifying the trans person based on their sex assigned at birth rather than the sex they want to be identified with? > > Why exclude the two main ones? > > > [@What is the maximum extent to which we are allowed to disagree with transgenderism (on the Dope)?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-maximum-extent-to-which-we-are-allowed-to-disagree-with-transgenderism-on-the-dope/1015807/53): > > > > Or would you withdraw all objections to this part of her argument if @DemonTree instead said: > > > > _people should be treated accordingly in every area of **PUBLIC** life without regard for aspects of biological sex, and various other things._ > > But she didn’t, did she? And is treating people in the qualified way you present an extremist position? The mod note in that thread prevented any response to this. Perhaps you’d like to answer now? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4668 "2025-04-07T13:54:46Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > You two think segregation was a “fringe” view? No? Are you as stupid as you are fanatic? Where the fuck did I say that segregation was a “fringe” view in the past? DemonTree was clearly talking about segregation _today_, which is indeed a long discredited fringe view. > [@Gyrate](#): > > And you think comparisons between the Nazi treatment of trans people and other minorities and what the current administration are pushing are “ridiculous”? The current administration is trying to shove trans people back in the figurative closet. This is incredibly fucked up, represents decades worth of progress lost, and will very likely cost lives. The Nazis put trans people in _literal_ gas chambers and then killed them. You can call out the first one for being bad while recognizing that these are not the same thing, yes. Actually, correction - most adult human beings can do that - but I refer you to the previously posted diagram: [https://i.ibb.co/p6H1jqs6/Screenshot-20250405-145400-Samsung-Internet.jpg](https://i.ibb.co/p6H1jqs6/Screenshot-20250405-145400-Samsung-Internet.jpg) To quote Order of the Stick again… Evidence for this theory continues to accumulate at an alarming rate. > [@What is the maximum extent to which we are allowed to disagree with transgenderism (on the Dope)?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-maximum-extent-to-which-we-are-allowed-to-disagree-with-transgenderism-on-the-dope/1015807/54): > > > [@What is the maximum extent to which we are allowed to disagree with transgenderism (on the Dope)?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-maximum-extent-to-which-we-are-allowed-to-disagree-with-transgenderism-on-the-dope/1015807/54): > > > > > [@What is the maximum extent to which we are allowed to disagree with transgenderism (on the Dope)?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-maximum-extent-to-which-we-are-allowed-to-disagree-with-transgenderism-on-the-dope/1015807/53): > > > > > > _people should be treated accordingly in every area of **PUBLIC** life without regard for aspects of biological sex, and various other things._ > > > > But she didn’t, did she? And is treating people in the qualified way you present an extremist position? > > The mod note in that thread prevented any response to this. Perhaps you’d like to answer now? If by “every area of public life” you include sports, then yes, that’s an extremist position held by under 20% of the US population, and under 30% of Democrats. If you don’t include sports, and since “public” already carves out the exceptions most people would find it reasonable to consider sex assigned at birth for, like picking sexual partners or interactions with doctors, then it becomes a much less extreme position that’s supported by a much wider swath of the population (And a majority of Democrats). I really don’t think anything I’m saying there is particularly controversial. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4669 "2025-04-07T14:23:00Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > …says the person who has repeatedly denied doing the things they literally did _in this thread_. So tell us all about being a “bad faith piece of shit liar”. Gyrate, move the fuck on and stop spamming this thread just when it stopped being about one fucking poster. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4670 "2025-04-07T15:00:05Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > , move the fuck on and stop spamming this thread just when it stopped being about one fucking poster. Fine. [I’ll take it here](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1). Mods - feel free to shuffle any of the above posts you like to the other Pit thread. ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4671 "2025-04-07T17:13:41Z")
I think that prolific posters have no idea or relevant perspective on lurkers. Ive been a regular visitor to this site for at least 25 years. I’m not sure when, but before the purge, before 2000. Ive seen plenty of posters come and go. I post more often now than I used to, but nothing like many here. I have mostly lurked my time here. There is no reason to assume anything about where or what a long lurker would choose to post. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4672 "2025-04-07T17:24:41Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > No? Are you as stupid as you are fanatic? Where the fuck did I say that segregation was a “fringe” view in the past? DemonTree was clearly talking about segregation _today_, which is indeed a long discredited fringe view. The _fuck_ it is, you bigoted asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4673 "2025-04-07T17:25:06Z")
I cannot recall any poster whose initial contribution to this board was opening a provocative thread who later did not turn out to be a troll (sock or otherwise). ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4674 "2025-04-07T17:31:02Z")
Well, that’s the internet. Except for a very few carefully moderated forums, the loudest, crassest idiots get the most attention. While the vast majority don’t have the brains of a common sea slug, some have turned it into nearly an art form. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4675 "2025-04-07T17:31:27Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The _fuck_ it is, you bigoted asshole. Cite, motherfucker? What percent of the US population supports segregation in 2025? ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4676 "2025-04-07T17:40:09Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > > [@Babale](#): > > > > No? Are you as stupid as you are fanatic? Where the fuck did I say that segregation was a “fringe” view in the past? DemonTree was clearly talking about segregation _today_, which is indeed a long discredited fringe view. > > The _fuck_ it is, you bigoted asshole. Back to the topic of “What were you THINKING?”, why did you have to bump this? Take it to your target’s personal pit thread. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4677 "2025-04-07T17:42:43Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > I cannot recall any poster whose initial contribution to this board was opening a provocative thread who later did not turn out to be a troll (sock or otherwise). I think you’re suffering from confirmation bias. We have plenty of weird threads started by someone who posts once and disappears. No one remembers them because they didn’t stick around long enough to make an impression. But they aren’t all trolls. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4678 "2025-04-07T17:44:03Z")
A report on the rise in school segregation in schools from Stanford: [70 years after Brown v. Board of Education, new research shows rise in school segregation | Stanford GSE](https://ed.stanford.edu/news/70-years-after-brown-v-board-education-new-research-shows-rise-school-segregation) A report on segregation from NPR: [U.S. schools remain highly segregated, government report finds : NPR](https://www.npr.org/2022/07/14/1111060299/school-segregation-report) A report on segregation from _Chalkbeat_: [Colorado school attendance zones keep segregation going, report finds - Chalkbeat](https://www.chalkbeat.org/colorado/2025/03/31/colorado-school-attendance-zones-maintain-segregation-report-finds/) A report from _Time_: [Segregation Is Increasing In America | TIME](https://time.com/6074243/segregation-america-increasing/) And there is a bit about the massive Presidential Step Backwards: [‘Segregated facilities’ are no longer explicitly banned in federal contracts : Shots - Health News : NPR](https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/03/18/nx-s1-5326118/segregation-federal-contracts-far-regulation-trump) ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/4679 "2025-04-07T17:51:07Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > > [@Pleonast](#): > > > > I cannot recall any poster whose initial contribution to this board was opening a provocative thread who later did not turn out to be a troll (sock or otherwise). > > I think you’re suffering from confirmation bias. We have plenty of weird threads started by someone who posts once and disappears. No one remembers them because they didn’t stick around long enough to make an impression. But they aren’t all trolls. Not weird, but _provocative_. That is, a thread designed to get others to object to the topic and/or argue among themselves. I really cannot _recall_ any poster. That will be remedied by a counterexample. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=218) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=220)