Although I’ve been reading the boards pretty much daily for 10 years, I don’t post enough to be especially prolific or memorable; I’m hardly the person to speak for the group.
I hate, hate, hate when posters (especially people who have been here for a long time and who have lots to say) are banned. I think the board is worse off when we don’t get commentary, even if it’s frequently inane or churlish (Yes, I miss Gonzo, for some reason. Dio the Cynic, too).
But, come on already!
He NEVER gives as good as he gets. I am happy to read contrarian voices, but he doesn’t engage in dialogue with anybody. Rather, he makes a vapid point, lots of people respond (some with insults, some with substantive rebuttal), and he simply ignores everyone who puts him in his place. Maybe he’ll quote one of the insults to say something like “see…liberals don’t have anything of substance to say”, but that just underscores the point that he will never, ever ever ever, actually respond to an argument.
Perhaps part of this reasons is that, if I understand correctly, he has blocked a good number of posters. Which just makes me wonder why the fuck he is here.
We all know that he’s not good for a witty remark. He’s not good for any non-political insight (does anybody here utilize him as a resource for knowledge about martial arts, for example?). He basically just sits in the Pit and occasionally rears his head to say something completely unsupported and predictable (e.g. “Obama is a racist who was ruining the country, and the country is now 180 degree from his administration”), only to bury himself back into his hole until the next time he feels like being a dumbass.
And this is without getting into specifics; I would suggest that the validity of this post is confirmed by the fact that nobody is going to scratch their heads and ask me for a cite. But, if you really want to, he’s currently gleefully regaling the board with why his use of “wetback” is proof of liberal ignorance.
Please defend him if you feel it is justified. And if you need to do the “pit thing” and call me variations of “twatwaffle”, so be it. This is no award-winning Pitting. It is hardly my best effort. It is not even meant to be entertaining.
It’s really just a plaintive cry: Why does this board tolerate its worst member?
Isn’t “don’t be a jerk” our #1 rule? It would seem to me that, implied in that rule, is an obligation to, you know, actually engage with the people you are nominally in a discussion with. Random insults and consistently ignoring their responses would seem to qualify as jerkish behavior, in my opinion.
We’re the Internet’s Premier Collective of Overly-Contentious Assholes. I’d doubt you’d find any agreement that Clothahump is our worst member, even though he’s a regular contender for Stupid Post Of The Year.
Don’t be a jerk? If that held in the Pit, then the mods can go into the Troll thread and start throwing warnings and suspensions around for almost every poster.
Maybe. But in that case, with his reputation, you’d think the mods would be all over him for being a jerk in other forums outside of The Pit. I haven’t seen it though (latest “trolling” warning not withstanding)
The debate here seems to be how often is he trolling for the laughs versus how often is he actually that stupid. Weirdly, the odds favor him staying if he’s that stupid.
Anyone have any thoughts on the troll versus stupid? Yes, I know, it’s both.
So, one less puppy to kick?
I’ve never seen a “you’re being discussed in the mod loop” work out well for the guest of honor.
RIP Clothy, I liked you from the time you tried going to Hogwarts through the wall at your dojo, and only broke the window doing it.
That wasn’t the point of my OP. I am not offended by trollish behavior, and I can tolerate stupid.
My complaint is that he does NOT engage with the discussion he interjects himself into. He makes stupid, predictable comments, yes. But when he gets responses, he almost always ignores them. And if he does respond, he’ll ignore the reasoned, cogent responses in favor of snarking at the one or two posters who insult him.
It isn’t that he’s opinionated, or has a different opinion than me. It’s that he does not engage in discussion.
On a board where discussion is the essential element, this is the essence of jerkishness.
My suspicion is that he’s quick to put people on ignore, especially if they offend him. So he probably really doesn’t see many of the posts that are responding to him. In that sense, he’s not really a troll or stupid, just somebody who refuses to participate in any meaningful way.
And… why is he behaving that way? In my opinion he is behaving that way because he does not care about the standard of debate. Why doesn’t he care, because he’s trolling and/or he’s stupid.
I’ve met Clothahump in real life on several occasions. It would probably surprise a lot of people here to find out he’s a very pleasant person.
He’s not a troll. He’s not faking his political views on this board. He really believes this stuff.
I also don’t feel he’s stupid although I disagree with most of the political opinions he holds.
But in real life, we mostly avoid the subject of politics. On non-political topics, he’s an easy person to talk to and get along with. If he stayed off politics on this board and only posted on other subjects, he’d probably be a well-liked regular.
So I don’t understand why he’s let his output on this board be so dominated by politics. He’s chosen to post on the subject where he’s going to get the most conflict. Maybe he feels this is the subject the members of this board most need to hear. Maybe he posts here as an outlet so he can avoid confrontation in his real life. I don’t know.
bless his heart!