# Why does this board lean Democrat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 24, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626 "2013-04-24T23:00:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/41 "2013-04-25T12:41:41Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Not only that, but all of the mods are shamelessly liberal, and moderate according to that bias. **Rand Rover** got suspended over a group “insult” that liberals never get sanctioned for, as the most recent example. In the Boston Marathon thread, Tea Partiers were smeared on the first page, with no mod sanction, but as soon as someone took a shot at liberals, all of a sudden here come the jackboots and mods are all over it. That sort of clear favoritism is routine here, and the mods deny it happens. It’s pretty clear the mods wish all conservatives would leave this board, and they’ll do whatever they can to make things unpleasant for us here. True dat. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/42 "2013-04-25T13:12:13Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Conservatives are not welcomed here. Now, now. The plural of anecdote is not data. To the OP : > [@Running With Scissors](#): > > We’re not really a special interest board, the only thing we really have in common (re General Questions and The Straight Dope column itself) is a pursuit of the truth, **which would not appear to appeal to one side over the other.** That’s the funniest thing I’ve read all day. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/43 "2013-04-25T13:21:56Z")
Liberals need online community more than conservatives do because conservatives have more communities in real life. Churches, civic organizations, military organizations, all provide community and are heavily conservative. Likewise conservatives are more likely to be married with kids and have less need to consort with strangers on the internet. Conservatives and Liberals also have different approaches to politics. The average liberal seems more emotional about politics than conservatives. So when a topic is debated the conservative says we believe what we do because of x, y, and z. The liberal says conservatives believe what they do because they are evil, greedy, hateful, bigoted, crazy, etc. This thread is an example \*\*Oakminster \*\*has a list of reasons, and **Slimy Tove** had a profane unreasoning hostility. I understand it, since if liberals could reason like conservatives do, they would no longer be liberals, but all the name calling can get tiresome and cause conservatives to leave the board. ---
**Author:** ![BorgHunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@BorgHunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BorgHunter)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/44 "2013-04-25T13:49:57Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > I understand it, since if liberals could reason like conservatives do, they would no longer be liberals, but all the name calling can get tiresome It’s truly rare that I get to enjoy this much irony and cognitive dissonance in the span of merely one sentence. Thank you for this. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/45 "2013-04-25T13:55:26Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Fuck them, I just think the Republicans are bullies and liars and I’d like to spit in their eye. One of the reasons the boards lean Democratic is that comments like the above are just part of the background noise. There is no equivalent from the conservative side, either in number or in vehemence. > [@samclem](#): > > Conservatives is such a big category. Can you narrow it down? As well as stuff like this. **samclem** knows perfectly well what **Bricker** is talking about, but wants to nitpick it to death. [QUOTE=Oakminster] Not only that, but all of the mods are shamelessly liberal, and moderate according to that bias. [/QUOTE] This is part of the self-reinforcing nature of the boards mentioned elsewhere. **manhattan** used to moderate here, and left explicitly because of the efforts to make conservatives feel unwelcome here. One of the mods actually caused the servers to crash because he requested the help of the other (liberal) members of the Dope to hunt down instances of a conservative Doper trolling, and the number of searches overwhelmed the resources available. All this crap about how much better liberals are is self-serving nonsense. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/46 "2013-04-25T14:08:45Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Not only that, but all of the mods are shamelessly liberal, and moderate according to that bias. **Rand Rover** got suspended over a group “insult” that liberals never get sanctioned for, as the most recent example. In the Boston Marathon thread, Tea Partiers were smeared on the first page, with no mod sanction, but as soon as someone took a shot at liberals, all of a sudden here come the jackboots and mods are all over it. That sort of clear favoritism is routine here, and the mods deny it happens. It’s pretty clear the mods wish all conservatives would leave this board, and they’ll do whatever they can to make things unpleasant for us here. Wrong. Before you put **Rand Rover** up on that cross, go read [the ATMB thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=688851) explaining his suspension. He repeatedly insulted liberals _on this board_. Had he kept his drivel aimed at liberals in general, he wouldn’t have been suspended. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/47 "2013-04-25T14:21:25Z")
> [@Richard\_Parker](#): > > Would there still be a liberal lean? Almost certainly, if for no other reason than that the lean necessarily predated the out-group hostility (unless you think liberals are uniquely less tolerant of opposing ideologies, in which case I direct you to exhibit A, the rest of the internet including all of the conservative hotspots). Alternate theory: the liberal lean commenced because of The Straight Dope’s origins in alternative print media. The out-group hostility was present, but muted, from the start, and grew as the lean became more pronounced. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/48 "2013-04-25T14:24:35Z")
I took no IQ exam in order to become a member/guest of this board. The assertion that “this board” is smarter than the average internet is, IMO, unproven at best. I think that having an active group of moderators (which the SDMB does) with a clear set of rules keeps a board from sounding like the darker side of the Internet, not IQ of the membership. The assertion that this board skews liberal because conservatives are old (and therefore, I presume, not tech savy?) seems to ignore, what appears to me, the fact that a lot of the dominant posters (at least in GD) seem to be no spring chickens themselves. Including the mods, who can most greatly impact the “tone” of a board. The assertion that “reality skews liberal”, I think, only reinforces my belief that Humans seem to have a wonderously powerful ability to mentally reject information that runs counter to those beliefs that have already taken root. Look at some people’s reaction to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev being fingered as one of the Boston bombers. It appears to me that they refuse to accept that he may be guilty because it doesn’t fit the impression they got of him (maybe from a face to face relationship), or that he has a pleasant photo on his Facebook page. (This doesn’t even cover the people who seem to be attracted to conspiracy theories…) Another example would be those who are religious. In the end, it (their religois beliefs) all boils down to faith. I don’t think Liberals are more immune to this mental bias filter than Conservatives. [These example are not meant to show Liberal bias. I don’t want to derail the thread.] ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/49 "2013-04-25T14:26:38Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > But when they spout selfish, intolerant bullshit, they will be called on it. And conservatives don’t seem to like that too well. The problem is, in my view, that your definition of “selfish, intolerant bullshit,” seems to match a great many ideas. Is the opposition to immigration amnesty, tax hikes for the wealthy, universal background checks for gun purchases, and abortion ALL “selfish, intolerant bullshit?” ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/50 "2013-04-25T14:30:48Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Conservatives is such a big category. Can you narrow it down? As a working definition, I’ll propose: "persons who score solidly in the “Authoritarian Right” quadrant of the [Political Compass](http://www.politicalcompass.org/analysis2) and who engage in board discussion defending those beliefs. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/51 "2013-04-25T14:36:38Z")
Painting with a broad brush, left-leaning people tend to be ‘bottom-up’ organizers. Right-leaning people tend to be ‘top-down.’ In bumper sticker phrasing ‘Democrats fall in love; Republicans fall in line.’ Left-leaning thinking (not just the US, not just Democrats, not just right now) tends to be about collecting all contributions from everywhere and filtering the good ones toward the top. The wisdom dictating our best course, in that model, is the sifted wisdom of the collected society. Right-leaning thinking (not just the US, not just Republicans, not just right now) tends to be about accepting authority, and trusting the best among us. The wisdom dictating our best course, in that model, is the wisdom of the best and brightest. A message board is more appealing to those who sift wisdom. If you are pre-wired to listen to the best and brightest, you’re more attracted to a medium that is one-way communication - like radio. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/52 "2013-04-25T14:51:13Z")
A lot of people get unfairly labelled with a “Conservative” sticker that are really just concerned with single-issues. From my perspective, the big 4 polarizing issues are gun control, abortion, gay rights, and illegal immigration. If someone has a strong conservative opinion about any of those issues, it usually doesn’t even matter what they feel about any other issue, because people will call them conservative. The reason there aren’t many conservatives here is because there are already big, strong communities online dedicated to people who feel strongly about a particular issue. Why would they go here, a message board where their particular issue isn’t the focus of most of the discussion? Liberals get polarized by single issues like that, but I don’t think it’s to the same degree. It’s easy to imagine a poor, white, middle aged working man who’s a union member and thinks the tax code ought to be more progressive, but who votes republican because he’s concerned about gun rights. It’s not so easy to imagine a self-made multi-millionaire who thinks he already pays enough taxes and the middle class aren’t paying enough, who thinks abortion is murder, but who votes democrat anyway because he’s concerned about gay rights. The “liberal” side of most issues are typically not something people feel are important enough to put all of their focus on, and completely ignore everything else. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/53 "2013-04-25T14:52:47Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > The problem is, in my view, that your definition of “selfish, intolerant bullshit,” seems to match a great many ideas. > > Is the opposition to immigration amnesty, tax hikes for the wealthy, universal background checks for gun purchases, and abortion ALL “selfish, intolerant bullshit?” Leaving aside your phrasing of these issues, I’d generally say there are significant elements of selfishness, intolerance, and bullshit in many of the positions most conservatives - including you - espouse on these matters. Just my opinion, of course. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/54 "2013-04-25T14:54:28Z")
> [@BorgHunter](#): > > In other words, it may not matter if “conservatives are not welcomed here” is true or false. But that will certainly by the _perception_—that people with political views x, y, and z tend to get a lot of people arguing them and people with political views i, j, and k are broadly agreed with, and this has some relationship with feeling welcomed—of more Republicans visiting this board than it will of Democrats. I agree, assuming what you’re saying there is that it’s the perception that conservatives aren’t welcome that counts, even if it’s not actually true. I think a lot of the unwelcome feeling is that there _are_ some regular posters on political topics who do come in and say hostile things about the group as a whole, not the idea, and this turns off a lot of Republican posters or conservative-leaning posters. I mean, if you’re a person who votes Republican and is conservative, but not a Tea Partier or member of any arch-Conservative group, I can totally see how coming on here and seeing your political party equated with being retarded, sociopathic, stupid, rustic and ignorant might turn you right off. I mostly don’t post on political threads because I don’t want to deal with the bum-rush of people who will tell me that I’m stupid, ignorant, sociopathic, etc… just because I happen to not agree with them. **Dinsdale’s** post above is a perfect example of what I’m talking about- Republicans are described as "selfish, bullshit and intolerant. Which isn’t fact, it’s opinion, as he states. But it’s widely accepted here, and it turns people who do think that way right off. Personally, I feel that it’s a moderation failure; they’ve let it get very one-sided for reasons unknown to me. We’d have much better political discourse if both sides were represented more equally, but right now, the board leans very Democrat, and is very vocal and condescending about it, and unless there’s some protective moderation, all we’re going to have is **Bricker** and some of the other conservative posters to represent the other side. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/55 "2013-04-25T14:55:37Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by Bricker View Post > The problem is, in my view, that your definition of “selfish, intolerant bullshit,” seems to match a great many ideas. > > Is the opposition to immigration amnesty, tax hikes for the wealthy, universal background checks for gun purchases, and abortion ALL “selfish, intolerant bullshit?” Yes. How is that even debatable? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/56 "2013-04-25T14:56:32Z")
**Procrustus’** post is example #2 of what I was saying. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/57 "2013-04-25T15:26:20Z")
> [@bump](#): > > **Procrustus’** post is example #2 of what I was saying. Especially the second sentence. There is a contingent that takes it for granted that no one can possibly dissent from the Democratic party line in good faith. It has to be because we are selfish, intolerant, evil, ignorant, bad, etc., etc. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/58 "2013-04-25T15:40:40Z")
> [@](#): > > Is the opposition to immigration amnesty, tax hikes for the wealthy, universal background checks for gun purchases, and abortion ALL “selfish, intolerant bullshit?” > [@Procrustus](#): > > Yes. How is that even debatable? Thanks for illustrating the point nicely. OP, do you have any further questions about why this board leans left? The answer is that responses like the one above are legion, and largely tend to be ignored by the board’s liberal majority – if indeed not not echoed and cheered on. In fact, each of the those propositions is debatable. People may, in good faith, reach opposite conclusions on any of those topics. I disagree with the need for universal background checks for gun purchases, but I recognize that others may hold a different view. Neither conclusion is bullshit, to say nothing of selfish or intolerant. That’s the conservative view I bring to the board. And **procrustus** feels perfectly safe answering as he did, even in a thread like this one…because he knows that responding as he did is perfectly acceptable to the board’s liberal culture and the majority of active, posting members. So you wonder why the boards leans left? This is your answer. ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/59 "2013-04-25T16:04:29Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Not only that, but all of the mods are shamelessly liberal, and moderate according to that bias. **Rand Rover** got suspended over a group “insult” that liberals never get sanctioned for, as the most recent example. In the Boston Marathon thread, Tea Partiers were smeared on the first page, with no mod sanction, but as soon as someone took a shot at liberals, all of a sudden here come the jackboots and mods are all over it. That sort of clear favoritism is routine here, and the mods deny it happens. It’s pretty clear the mods wish all conservatives would leave this board, and they’ll do whatever they can to make things unpleasant for us here. This. ---
**Author:** ![DrumBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e79b87/32.png) [@DrumBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrumBum)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/60 "2013-04-25T16:43:56Z")
Well for what it is worth, I value the opinions of both Democrats and GOP regardless of my moderate position. I suppose that **Bricker** , **Oakminster** , and others can take comfort in the notion that it is quality, not quantity that matters. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626.md?page=4)