# 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:** 84
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1661 "2024-03-20T04:02:33Z")
Don’t make this about me and my issue. They were very much different. Remember Not About Me. Suntan never argued her point with anyone. She said her feelings and now has said why. I find them very believable, knowing her. And just like you, and everyone else this is allowed. The whole thing was never pit worthy. IMO. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2024, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1662 "2024-03-20T04:05:47Z")
In retrospect I think that some posters – including me – may have been overly hard on you. The problem is that this idea that COVID restrictions impact personal “freedom” is an old refrain that we hear constantly from right-wing nutjobs and it’s very tiring and annoying. Restrictions on social gatherings, masking, and social distancing are essential temporary measures that save lives and help keep the pandemic from getting even worse. They do not lead to “dictatorships”. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2024, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1663 "2024-03-20T05:33:12Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Not only does his post seem entirely coherent to me, but I sympathize with his frustration. I don’t leave things out to thaw, but I have left out food that I had to throw away. That is really frustrating when you’re on a low budget. > > Maybe I’d feel differently if his defensiveness had hijacked the thread. Or if he had a history of getting upset like that. But, from that thread? I didn’t even think about posting about him here. He’s not being a jerk. Yeah, I don’t get the animosity, either. Lots of people post the same rants over and over again. Like daily. So he left his food out twice and posted it again. That’s worth giving him a bad time over? And griping about it here? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1664 "2024-03-20T05:53:18Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Restrictions on social gatherings, masking, and social distancing are essential temporary measures that save lives and help keep the pandemic from getting even worse. They do not lead to “dictatorships”. Right. I remember seeing quarantine notices posted on neighbors’ doors when I was a young 'un. We didn’t get a dictatorship then. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1665 "2024-03-20T06:45:42Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Yeah, I don’t get the animosity, either. I don’t know, maybe the three years without a question about refrigerator repair or how to force his landlord to fix the problem with said refrigerator, maybe that’s it. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2024, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1666 "2024-03-20T07:13:54Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > I think hes peeved I told him he was crazy. Tough shit for him and awesome for you. 👍 And I’m not too kind, just trying to be honest. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1667 "2024-03-20T10:38:55Z")
Let’s talk about, maybe, it’s food insecurity he’s more concerned with. Not whether he can have his favorite cut of meat or a lovely preparation from his favorite chef. But whether he chooses to throw out something, if viable, he could have tomorrow and not be hungry. Not whether he can afford a new fridge or a nicer apartment who manages the units in a timely manner. If his straits are so dire that he eats everything before bedtime so he won’t be hungry through the night I assume he’s living in subsidized housing. Not the best housing to abide in. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1668 "2024-03-20T12:15:16Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Don’t make this about me and my issue. They were very much different. It’s just a bit difficult to countenance your advice when you’re so unwilling to take it. When, in the same post, you ask people to be civil, and compare people to your squabbling grandchildren, it’s hard to believe that you actually think the advice you’re offering is sound. Thing is, it IS good advice. We SHOULD treat people well. I hope you’ll take a look at how you’ve treated folks, and take some accountability for your mistreatment of others instead of getting defensive, and do better. I hope you’ll treat people civilly going forward. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2024, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1669 "2024-03-20T15:03:09Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > I don’t know, maybe the three years without a question about refrigerator repair or how to force his landlord to fix the problem with said refrigerator, maybe that’s it Must be nice not to have problems. As I just stated, there are posters here who gripe about the same goddamn issues every day, sometimes several times a day. Nobody beats them up over it. The guy posts the same thing years apart when he made the same mistake of leaving his food out once again, and people act like he’s a troll or an idiot? “Aha! You posted this once before, doofus!” The guy couldn’t even get a working refrigerator for awhile and he can barely afford food. He’s allowed to post his dismay again at making the same mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1670 "2024-03-20T15:21:06Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > > [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > > > I don’t read a lot of Covid-related threads, so I haven’t really noticed **SunTanLotion** as a nonsense-poster. > > I’ve spoken quite a bit with **SunTanLotion** (PMs and stuff). I can tell you that she asks a lot of questions and she is open to learning things, as most of us are (or I hope we are - I learn crap every day on this board, that’s the main reason I’m here). In all the time I’ve talked to her I never got the impression that she has a mean bone in her body and if she posts anything that’s wrong, it’s not out of maliciousness or pushing an agenda, but just from misinformation. Definitely she has spent time with the wrong kind of people in the real world and I think she’d be the first to admit that. > > I always thought that one of the reasons she spends time here is to find an alternative to that kind of nonsense. It takes a great deal of wisdom to recognize when there is bullshit around you and to go out of your way to try to find something that’s not bullshit. So I forgive her if she slips up. > > If she’s aggressive about pushing something, I do worry about her, she hasn’t had the easiest time of things of late and might be trying to vent, just in the wrong place and in the wrong way I didn’t express myself clearly, then. I meant that **SunTanLotion** has never pinged my radar as any sort of problematic poster; she’s always seemed a decent, noncontroversial Doper. I knew she is a Christian, and therefore a bit of a rarity around here, but I’d never seen anything weird or hateful from her. That’s why I was a bit surprised that she said she believed in demons; most of the Christians who stay on the board aren’t quite so literal in their theology. In any case, I didn’t read the Covid threads that generated the kerfluffle, and I generally don’t think she’s a detriment to the board. It sounds like she might have showed her ass in that thread, but we all do that from time to time. I have no problem with her. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2024, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1671 "2024-03-20T15:48:42Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > In any case, I didn’t read the Covid threads that generated the kerfluffle, and I generally don’t think she’s a detriment to the board. It sounds like she might have showed her ass in that thread, but we all do that from time to time. I have no problem with her. I’m (probably) the one who first called her out in this thread, and overall you’ve summarized my POV nicely. Although I did read the COVID thread and that’s what eventually, 50 posts in, triggered my feedback here. All of us, certainly including me, have said something dumb, ill-advised, or just plain ill-tempered here. And there are no take-backs. The best any of us can hope for is not to double down when already in a hole and digging. Ok, she filled her quota of dumb with that exchange. And got bopped with a rolled up newspaper here in the thread dedicated to nose-bopping, not troll-slaughtering. IMO about time for all of us to move on from this one. It’s served its purpose, as have many of the other exchanges about other people farther upthread. The fact we have almost 1700 posts here suggests this thread does serve a useful purpose. Its collective comments serve as an outline of where our community standards of agreeability, decorum, and yes, political beliefs, lie. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1672 "2024-03-20T15:56:15Z")
Agreed. In fact, I expect I’ll see my own name show up here for a nose-bopping at some point. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1673 "2024-03-20T16:00:45Z")
When someone says nose bopping, my thought goes to wolfpup, who, as a dog, may have gotten one. Not that I advocate anyone hitting their dog. My neighbor whacked hers with her hand for barking. It was a loud sound. She says it doesn’t hurt her dog. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1674 "2024-03-20T16:43:09Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > You are kind. My mistake was reading a new book from the library called Perceptions of a Renegade mind. > The author writes well, and is interesting but when I got to the part where Covid doesn’t exist, I know for a fact it does. I haven’t read that book but I bet the claim that Covid doesn’t exist might just be the least interesting thing about it. The author, David Icke, literally believes that lizard people are controlling the earth. He also endorsed _Protocols of the Elders of Zion_, a very famous antisemitic tract from 1903 that was also beloved by the actual Nazis. I read you a bit, **Suntan** , and I think you’re a good egg but you remind me of so many of my loony-right family members, who lack the discernment to reject certain voices that are insane. Their bookshelves are full of this sort of thing. They’re nice respectable people, themselves, and so they somehow manage to skim over the parts about the lizard people and hating on the Jews, but consider themselves better educated about the nefarious aims of the U.S. government and all liberals after reading this sort of thing. In my opinion, believing in lizard people, or being a Nazi, is absolutely disqualifying for having valid opinions on anything else. If David Icke told me the sky was blue, I’d have good cause to doubt that. Be careful of your reading, is what I’m saying. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Undeposable\_Hand](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_undeposable_hand/32/8502_2.png) [@The\_Undeposable\_Hand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Undeposable_Hand)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1675 "2024-03-20T17:01:31Z")
Low information people like Suntan are literally vectors for dangerous disinformation and tools of Russian propagandists. You can’t blame people for getting frustrated with her. She’s been here a long time and still has not seemed to absorb or benefit from the main purpose of this board. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1676 "2024-03-20T17:07:33Z")
> [@Briny\_Deep](#): > > The author, David Icke, literally believes that lizard people are controlling the earth. He also endorsed _Protocols of the Elders of Zion_ I’ve read that the “lizard people” stuff is antisemitic in origin, so really, he is all about the Jews. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2024, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1677 "2024-03-20T17:12:32Z")
> [@The\_Undeposable\_Hand](#): > > Low information people like Suntan are literally vectors for dangerous disinformation and tools of Russian propagandists. You can’t blame people for getting frustrated with her. She’s been here a long time and still has not seemed to absorb or benefit from the main purpose of this board. You’re in the wrong thread. Condescending bullshit is down the hall and to the left. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2024, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1678 "2024-03-20T17:25:29Z")
> [@The\_Undeposable\_Hand](#): > > Low information people like Suntan are literally vectors for dangerous disinformation and tools of Russian propagandists. You can’t blame people for getting frustrated with her. She’s been here a long time and still has not seemed to absorb or benefit from the main purpose of this board > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > You’re in the wrong thread. Condescending bullshit is down the hall and to the left Agree with @Roderick_Femm 100%. You’re not going to get anywhere with someone by calling them “low information people”. That’s a very good way of making someone dig their heels in more. Plus, you’re talking about someone who has been gradually absorbing information here, or at least considering it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Undeposable\_Hand](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_undeposable_hand/32/8502_2.png) [@The\_Undeposable\_Hand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Undeposable_Hand)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1679 "2024-03-20T17:49:46Z")
You’re seeing something I’m not I guess. I’ve been looking for signs of growth also. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1680 "2024-03-20T18:09:05Z")
For the record, I have read Icke’s books. You haven’t or you wouldn’t say he was antisemitic. He writes he is against the “Sabbatians/ lizards” who control Israel, not Jewish people. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=83) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=85)