Why does this board lean Democrat?

[bldysabba]

I haven’t been here too long, but I do spend more time than I should reading the board. To those posters who say there isn’t a left lean, or that it isn’t ugly, take off your blinkers. I am, like XT fortunate enough to be on the same position regarding many(if not all) social issues as the left. But it bothers me (as an observer) how posters shout down opposition to their ideas. Don’t want socialised healthcare? You must want people to die painfully of cancer. Want less government regulation? You must want to let the fat cat robber barons starve their workers. Express the opinion that people deserve the government they get? You’re a sick, twisted person.
And it’s not just Der Trihs. This is a fairly common phenomenon on this board, all across the internet(and unfortunately, much of the real world now).

[Condescending_Robot]

I don’t think the board chases off crazy right-wing opinions, I think it embraces them. Most of the active posters and most of the moderators want their Obama worship to be constantly validated through the most low-hanging confirmation bias available. So, if you want to be an open racist on this board, that’s fine. If you want to be a Fox News talking point recycler, no one has a problem with that. If you want to support loathsome Republican values such as homophobia and dominion over the bodies of women, stay and make a few ten thousand posts–having some punching bags from the President’s more dimwitted opponents around just makes the Democratic loyalists feel so GOOD about their own decisions!

But if you offer a critique of Obama that’s NOT coming from a conservative noise machine principle, or you don’t subscribe to the animating myths underlying the two-party system in general about soldiers being heroes or Jesus being real and agreeing with whatever belief in the acceptable American window of politics you happen to hold, then you’re going to find yourself pointed towards the door in short order. That’s what upsets people, and we can’t have that.

[magellan01]

@GIGObuster

Like I said before many times, if you have nuanced views that should not be a problem, but the reality is that the usual result is for you to ignore how inadequate the sources you rely on are and you end up defending them, that should not really happen once it is found how debunked the sources of information the right relies on are, when one takes a closer look one finds that the nuances you are referring to are something that does not exist in their universe, ignoring that does indeed makes many to realize that the religion part you are referring to is there alright coming from the Republicans a lot, but is not in reality part of the left leaning (in this case) evidence.

BTW Roy Spencer, the scientist in the link is also a creationist, indeed religion is one of the main things that keeps him going in his FUD efforts.

WTF? Did I type S-A-N-D-M-A-N three times in that post. Gotta be more careful.

So, he’s a scientist and a religionist. So are you. :D:D

[Mosier]

@XT

some woo oriented 'dopers

There are woo oriented dopers?

[GIGObuster]

@magellan01

WTF? Did I type S-A-N-D-M-A-N three times in that post. Gotta be more careful.

So, he’s a scientist and a religionist. So are you. :D:D

No, you did not checked the cite that links to the science, and you are being insulting even if you use smilies, I’m already posting in this thread, so you are also imagining that I’m stalking you.

The take home lesson here is to look at the evidence before jumping to the accusations of religion, that is a card that in reality is a favorite woo proponents use against the ones talking about science.

[magellan01]

@GIGObuster

No, you did not checked the cite that links to the science, and you are being insulting even if you use smilies, I’m already posting in this thread, so you are also imagining that I’m stalking you.

:rolleyes: Uh, no. You think too highly of yourself. I had no feeling you were stalking me. Congratulations on being wrong again.

[Shodan]

@Condescending_Robot

But if you offer a critique of Obama that’s NOT coming from a conservative noise machine principle, or you don’t subscribe to the animating myths underlying the two-party system in general about soldiers being heroes or Jesus being real and agreeing with whatever belief in the acceptable American window of politics you happen to hold, then you’re going to find yourself pointed towards the door in short order.

No doubt you can point to all the people who were banned for not supporting the troops or not believing in Jesus.

Regards,
Shodan

[magellan01]

@Czarcasm

Sometimes a pile-on happens while you’re in the middle of it, which I’m sure happens to a lot of people(and not just the Moderators) when a thread runs fast.

That I can understand some. But take a look at Post 10 in the pit thread. Behavior like that does not help the reputation of the Mods or The Dope.

[GIGObuster]

@magellan01

:rolleyes: Uh, no. You think too highly of yourself. I had no feeling you were stalking me. Congratulations on being wrong again.

Not going to work here, deal with the cite or you are just showing all that the accusation that I and many others use religion or that I and others are religionists in this subject is just a baseless one.

[Czarcasm]

@magellan01

That I can understand some. But take a look at Post 10 in the pit thread. Behavior like that does not help the reputation of the Mods or The Dope.

Which Pit thread are you referring to?

[mlees]

@Airbeck

You refer to this as one small and easy change, but your suggestion is that the majority posters to all change how they post. Do you think its easy to get a large group of people to all change their behavior at once? I actually think that’s incredibly hard, if not impossible.

In my experience, if you have a problem with a large group of people, and your solution to that problem is that everyone in that large group needs to change, then you will be waiting a very long time for your problem to be solved.

The only one who’s behavior you can change is your own. Many times in my life I’ve thought something along the lines of ‘If only everyone else would just stop doing this thing, I’d be happy’. However, I’ve learned that if I’m waiting for everyone else to do something different for me to be satisfied, then I’ll never ever be satisfied.

The board is what it is, as this is what is has organically become over time based on who has been participating. Expecting this organic system of individuals to all of a sudden go through an across the board change to make certain other individuals feel better about their perceived treatment is not a realistic expectation , and will certainly lead to disappointment when this change inevitably fails to materialize.

Changing one’s own behavior does not make the lurking experience any better. So, the whining.

If I didn’t like the pile-ons (as I perceive them), I can refrain from getting involved in the debates where they happen. (Typically, politics & religion.) Also, if a “win” in these forums includes (but does not have to be limited to) getting the conservatives to shut up and go away, than the pile-on strategy obviously works, and it will continue to happen as long as it keeps working.

I don’t think the board culture is going to change. But the OP asks why the board leans left. IMO, part of the answer is that the “mob” chased away [some of] the conservatives.

[Slypork]

@Czarcasm

How very clever and witty of you! Just the thing to show us that conservatives want to be taken seriously on this board and not be dismissed with stereotypes.

But why should any group be taken more or less seriously or treated with more or less respect than any other? There is a perception of us vs them which is, quite frankly, appalling. I do love this board because it can be very informative (especially in General Questions), entertaining (MPSIMS) or thought provoking (IMHO). I’ve literally had to bite my lips to keep from laughing out loud when I’ve read some threads (my favorite is still the evil blimp).

But being dismissed out of hand because you express a contrary view or being labeled as an evil member of an extremist group (Nazi/KKK/Tea Party/Birch Society/Cabbage Patch Doll collectors) is plain nuts and wrong. I am a man, an individual, with my own thoughts, opinions, feelings and desires. While some of the opinions I express might be ones you hear from right wing groups (smaller government, lower taxes, immigration reform) I don’t subscribe to all of their beliefs and am appalled and offended by quite a few of them. If something I say sounds like a “Republican talking point” it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m quoting Limbaugh (a bloated gas-bag), Beck (nuttier than a pecan log), Robertson (when will God call him home?) or any of the others. It is my opinion and no one else.

Don’t lump me in, treat me as an individual. Just as I will not automatically assume that because you want to offer complete amnesty to all people who entered this country illegally (I don’t know if that is the case, it is just an example) that you also are for the complete elimination of all gas and coal production, confiscating all weapons from citizens, legalizing abortion to the 4th trimester, outlawing all meat production and switching us to a barter system in a commune so we can all be free of the oppression of the dollar. Is that fair or right?

Take me as I am on the issue in question. If I say X and you say Y then try to convince me why my interpretation and opinion of X is incorrect and how Y makes more sense. Just as it is wrong to assume stereotypes about a race/religion/gender/etc., it is also wrong to make assumptions about someone because of their political persuasion. Remember, you and I are more alike than different. To paraphrase the Bard:

Hath not a Conservative eyes? Hath not a Conservative hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Liberal is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Conservative wrong a Liberal, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Liberal wrong a Conservative, what should his sufferance be by Liberal example? Why, revenge. The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

[mlees]

It’s much more satisifying to quote The Bard in the original Klingonese…

[GIGObuster]

@mlees

Changing one’s own behavior does not make the lurking experience any better. So, the whining.

If I didn’t like the pile-ons (as I perceive them), I can refrain from getting involved in the debates where they happen. (Typically, politics & religion.) Also, if a “win” in these forums includes (but does not have to be limited to) getting the conservatives to shut up and go away, than the pile-on strategy obviously works, and it will continue to happen as long as it keeps working.

I don’t think the board culture is going to change. But the OP asks why the board leans left. IMO, part of the answer is that the “mob” chased away [some of] the conservatives.

Well, as items like Nuclear power and Genetic engineering in food have been mentioned, I have to report that when there are leftist posters that post unsupported woo about them there are also pile-ons against them, and I have also crushed a few of their points too, I guess the point here is that the “leftists” in this board are different.

Just the very basic opposition a board like this one has against ignorance guarantees that there will be a lean against Creationists and ID proponents, and the fact is that many of those proposing those ideas are currently Republicans, that would be **enough **to make a board like this one to lean to the current progressive party.

[miss_elizabeth]

@Condescending_Robot

But if you offer a critique of Obama that’s NOT coming from a conservative noise machine principle, or you don’t subscribe to the animating myths underlying the two-party system in general about soldiers being heroes or Jesus being real and agreeing with whatever belief in the acceptable American window of politics you happen to hold, then you’re going to find yourself pointed towards the door in short order. That’s what upsets people, and we can’t have that.

Yes, you are so right. Saying that Jesus isn’t real upsets many people on this board. Also, everyone here believes soldiers are heroes and Obama is the Messiah, and no one can disagree with that, and if you do you will be banned. This is a very accurate description of the board, and not at all stupid.

[miss_elizabeth]

@Slypork

But why should any group be taken more or less seriously or treated with more or less respect than any other?

Because some ideas are stupid, or wrong, or harmful and this is a board dedicated to fighting ignorance. People are allowed to disagree, and to not respect others. Jerkishness is banned, and that should be enforced. But I will not take scientific racism (for example) seriously, nor will I respect it as a viewpoint. Nor will I respect a proponent of racism.

It’s called discernment, and it’s a sign of intelligence.

[Airbeck]

@mlees

Changing one’s own behavior does not make the lurking experience any better. So, the whining.

If you’re lurking at a board and you keep reading things that you find insulting, but you do not participate, aren’t you really doing it to yourself? Noone is forcing anyone to read things they don’t like to read. Expecting the entire board culture to change so that your reading experience is more pleasant to you personally is not a reasonable expectation IMO.

In that case, the behavior change would be to stop reading things that piss you off, rather than expecting the things you are reading to change more to your liking.

[Bryan_Ekers]

@Mosier

There are woo oriented dopers?

They pop up occasionally.

[mlees]

@Airbeck

If you’re lurking at a board and you keep reading things that you find insulting, but you do not participate, aren’t you really doing it to yourself? Noone is forcing anyone to read things they don’t like to read. Expecting the entire board culture to change so that your reading experience is more pleasant to you personally is not a reasonable expectation IMO.

I have already stated that I do not expect the board culture to change. (They don’t want to. It’s as simple as that.)

In that case, the behavior change would be to stop reading things that piss you off, rather than expecting the things you are reading to change more to your liking.

You wouldn’t do that if you truly consider yourself open-minded, would you?

[Slypork]

@miss_elizabeth

Yes, you are so right. Saying that Jesus isn’t real upsets many people on this board. Also, everyone here believes soldiers are heroes and Obama is the Messiah, and no one can disagree with that, and if you do you will be banned. This is a very accurate description of the board, and not at all stupid.

Please tell me I am being whooshed here. From just one thread:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16195630&postcount=125
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16194561&postcount=112
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16196057&postcount=132
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16198888&postcount=198
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16227741&postcount=405
Funny but none of them are banned.

@miss_elizabeth

Because some ideas are stupid, or wrong, or harmful and this is a board dedicated to fighting ignorance. People are allowed to disagree, and to not respect others. Jerkishness is banned, and that should be enforced. But I will not take scientific racism (for example) seriously, nor will I respect it as a viewpoint. Nor will I respect a proponent of racism.

It’s called discernment, and it’s a sign of intelligence.

So debate the point, don’t shout it down as “stupid, or wrong, or harmful”.

Everyone on this board, from the posters who have been here from day one to someone who signed up 30 seconds ago, is a teacher. Teach me what you know, explain to me your reasons, point out any mistakes or fallacies I might have with my view. I, in turn, will do the same for you. Who knows? In my presenting my side I might give you some food for thought and make you question some of your most hard fought convictions. All it takes is an open mind and the willingness to listen.

On one of the threads about the new Pope being a Jesuit, someone said that Jesuit schools turn out a lot of atheists because the priests made the students really question their faith structure and, in many cases, it just couldn’t stand up to scrutiny. If freaking priests are willing to face the loss of a worshipper, why can’t people on this board do the same?

Maybe I’m naïve and idealistic. Maybe I’m placing too much faith in the ability of people to be civil to each other and engage in rational intercourse (hey there!) but I prefer to take people as they come and not lump them into groups unnecessarily. If you can only identify as a liberal, then that means you are not thinking for yourself. If you identify yourself as a mother/sister/trombone player, then you are still part of a group. But if you come to me and say, “I am miss elizabeth and I believe X, Y, and Z because of such and such and I think your views on A, B and C are incorrect because of so and so,” I can sit with you and we can talk.