# 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:** 256
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5403 "2025-07-10T06:12:34Z")
Why is all this Dinsdale guff in this thread? I thought it was for bad posts by posters in _good_ standing. Dinsdale is pure dick, always has been. Just Pit him directly, already. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5404 "2025-07-10T13:25:01Z")
Hoist by my own petard. ---
**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:** [July 10, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5405 "2025-07-10T15:20:18Z")
I already feel guilty for pitting him here. I’m not good with conflict. ---
**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:** [July 10, 2025, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5406 "2025-07-10T17:26:53Z")
I note that there are two existing **Dinsdale** pitting threads. One from 2004 and one from 2007. The latter started by the OP himself in one of his periodic attempts at self-flaggelation as a route to greater self-understanding. Neither thread drew much attention as these things go. They fizzled out within a month-ish of the OP. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5407 "2025-07-12T06:25:04Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I note that there are two existing **Dinsdale** pitting threads. One from 2004 and one from 2007. I could have sworn there was a newer pit thread, like in the last 5 years. ---
**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:** [July 12, 2025, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5408 "2025-07-12T10:56:56Z")
All I did was **[Search results for ‘#the-bbq-pit in:title Dinsdale’ - Straight Dope Message Board](https://boards.straightdope.com/search?q=%23the-bbq-pit%20in%3Atitle%20Dinsdale%20order%3Alatest_topic)**. I think we nearly always include the name of the guest of honor in the title of a personal pitting thread. Be kinda hard for anybody else to join the pile-on if they can’t tell who it’s about. From this search: **[Search results for ‘#the-bbq-pit Dinsdale in:first’ - Straight Dope Message Board](https://boards.straightdope.com/search?q=%23the-bbq-pit%20%20Dinsdale%20in%3Afirst%20order%3Alatest_topic)** I found that he did start a couple of pit threads, but not about other posters; rather about annoyances in the larger world. In a couple other threads he’s also named in the OP as one of several people holding various unpopular attitudes. You’re welcome to refine my searches or try a different approach. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5409 "2025-07-12T13:51:15Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > You’re welcome to refine my searches or try a different approach. Your search-fu is undoubtedly better than mine. I’ll poke around later when I’m not on my phone, but if it was a thread that didn’t call him out in the title, or it was inside an omnibus thread, oh well. ---
**Author:** ![MW\_Degen\_Gamblr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ec9cab/32.png) [@MW\_Degen\_Gamblr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MW_Degen_Gamblr)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5410 "2025-07-13T03:09:32Z")
Dinsdale is a bull in a china shop in mental health related threads. He said had little sympathy for someone suffering from depression if they have a second house, in a thread about anxiety and depression. He has said other inappropriate things in other mental health threads. If I ever need to go on disability or whatever, I hope I never have a judge like him. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5411 "2025-07-13T07:08:39Z")
Can you imagine the lawsuits if any of the people who passed in front of his desk ever linked him to his posts here? ---
**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:** [July 13, 2025, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5412 "2025-07-13T12:50:24Z")
I used to avidly read a long-running thread on another board that was essentially war stories told by folks who work in the emergency department of hospitals or work EMS. Lots of “You won’t believe what happened _today_ at work!” In addition to the medical tales of daring do, and of failures, there was lots of gallows humor and stress defusing going on. I learned a lot. Clearly it helped at least some of the people to vent to peers who got it, and receive supporting noises in return. As one might expect, there were a couple of characters who sort of turned that thread into a blog / diary. One guy’s hobby horse was the homeless coming in seeking either drugs or just time in a warm building and a sandwich. Over and over and over at astonishing expense and waste of medical resources. He also hated fixing criminals, since somehow they always survived, while crime victims rarely did. Anyhow one day he disappeared from the thread. A bit later it emerged from a cow-orker that he’d been sued hard for a bad outcome on a criminal patient and the entirely of his contributions to the thread got fed to the jury. And the medical board. His life was thoroughly upended. For each of us here, it’s easy to believe we’re talking to the names & avatars we know and love. But we’re really talking to the entirety of the internet, and every bot on it. And to posterity; the internet remembers everything and forgets nothing. That long-running thread mostly petered out not too long after the news about the doc’s legal problems came out. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5413 "2025-07-13T13:12:00Z")
Confession is good for the soul, but it night be bad for your licensure. ---
**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:** [July 13, 2025, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5414 "2025-07-13T19:44:42Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > For each of us here, it’s easy to believe we’re talking to the names & avatars we know and love. But we’re really talking to the entirety of the internet, and every bot on it. And to posterity; the internet remembers everything and forgets nothing. As such, I could never run for office. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5415 "2025-07-13T19:52:22Z")
Trump did. I’m sure you’ve got no dirty laundry worse than that shitbag motherfucker. ---
**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:** [July 13, 2025, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5416 "2025-07-13T20:12:33Z")
That only works if you’re willing to lean into being a shitbag motherfucker. I mean way in, like falling into the pit of shit. ---
**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:** [July 13, 2025, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5417 "2025-07-13T20:14:17Z")
Don’t mistake me.. I don’t _want_ to run for office, so it’s a moot point. ---
**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:** [July 13, 2025, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5418 "2025-07-13T20:35:58Z")
Switching gears … Here’s a darn fine example of not THINKING before posting. Or of being terminally stupid. I just don’t know which. In this thread > [@US Postal Rate Goes Up Today July 13, 2025](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-postal-rate-goes-up-today-july-13-2025/1020820): > > Just heard on NPR that the first class rate for a Forever stamp went up from 73 cents to 78 cents, effective today. poster **dolphinboy** launches off in the stupid direction then when called on it chooses to double down, not even a “Hmm, lemme think about that.” ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5419 "2025-07-13T20:41:20Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > poster **dolphinboy** launches off in the stupid direction then when called on it chooses to double down, not even a “Hmm, lemme think about that.” Yeah. I considered, but chose not to make, a response in that thread, along the lines of: > [@](#): > > Presented with more information, dolphinboy could choose several responses, including: > > 1. “I hadn’t thought about it that way, thank you for the additional information.” > 2. “Even if the USPS is useless to me, I guess I can see how it’s still important to some people.” > 3. “Nope, I don’t care what you all say, it’s a useless, outdated service and should be hauled behind the barn and put out of its misery.” Obviously, they chose #3. I ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5420 "2025-07-13T22:54:04Z")
Well, you know, if rural Texas voters and the like would stop voting for the “dismantle USPS” candidate, I might care about their ability to receive mail. But as it stands… maybe it is time to take USPS out back and shoot it. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5421 "2025-07-15T19:18:05Z")
@wolfpup really showing his ass in this thread: [https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancel-culture-and-canceling-versus-consequences-for-actions/1020644/288?u=iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancel-culture-and-canceling-versus-consequences-for-actions/1020644/288) Insists that a big corporate investigation in which no findings or facts were released somehow exonerates the rich white guy accused, and somehow demonstrates that the accuser was dishonest. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/5422 "2025-07-15T19:32:20Z")
Before I respond to that, you might want to fix that badly mangled quote. Been drinking a little tonight? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=255) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=257)