# Why have conservatives left this message board? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [April 14, 2025, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016 "2025-04-14T01:14:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/61 "2025-04-14T13:28:36Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Der\_Trihs and a couple others are actively working to drive anyone with any non-progressive views away from this board so they can have an ultra-liberal sounding board. For the 1438th time, _can you provide any actual examples?_ ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/62 "2025-04-14T13:37:49Z")
I have many times. Discussing it with you is like talking to a Flat Earther because you ignore all evidence presented saying nothing has been shown. Like a Flat Earther you refuse to answer questions that show your errors. Oh, and also a SovCit where you ask the same questions incessantly because you get answers you don’t want to hear so you act like no one answered you. So go ahead, challenge me again. Refuse to answer any time I challenge you. And feel like you won like all the Flat Earth / SovCits do. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/63 "2025-04-14T13:39:46Z")
And who here didn’t have “But I already told you!” on their Bingo card? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/64 "2025-04-14T13:45:36Z")
Why have conservatives left this message board? Not complicated. Being in a small minority can’t be fun, nor is knowing that everything you post and link to has to be impeccably constructed or you’ll get slammed by the overwhelming majority. Most of all it has to be a dreary business defending policies that the pseudo-conservatives in power abandoned long ago. Judging by a recent thread, if David Brooks posted on the Dope 😆 he’d be unmercifully ripped for his current whining about how the-Left-made-us-do-it in respect to Trumpism, and he’d be out of here like a shot. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/65 "2025-04-14T13:47:29Z")
Truth is its own defense. Note: Vermont is not a red state like you claim. At least have the integrity to admit I was right on that one point and you were wrong. Ha ha like you have any integrity when you are wrong. What was I thinking? OK, time to do to you what I do to Flearthers and SovCits and ignore you. You’ll claim you won of course because like I say in the other threads you make your own reality. Have fun arguing with the æther. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/66 "2025-04-14T13:50:08Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Truth is its own defense. And facts are facts and evidence is evidence. Got any? ---
**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:** [April 14, 2025, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/67 "2025-04-14T13:56:49Z")
CALLED IT!!! > [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > There are no actual examples. Ya know how you can tell? On this board, where ‘CITE!’ is our shibboleth, no preemptive examples are ever given. > Up Next: ‘I could give examples but you all would just deny them.’ ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/68 "2025-04-14T14:01:00Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > Is it really about the Dope per se, or more about the general sorting and siloing of the internet in general? > > I think the general trend has been for fora to develop politics and beliefs that are considered acceptable, and those that go against them get dogpiled into the dust. > > Heck, I’m a pretty damn orthodox Liberal, and I get dogpiled if I try to say anything that isn’t perfectly consensus stuff. How often do you see people setting up real debates or proposing original ideas here? Not a lot, IMHO. It’s not rewarded behavior. Very good points there - it’s indeed a development of online culture that this community is not immune to. And yes, the expectation of 100% unanimity on every policy plank is a curse in any sociopolitical debate (though not necessarily new, it has been intensified by the online environment.) ---
**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:** [April 14, 2025, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/69 "2025-04-14T14:03:55Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > And yes, the expectation of 100% unanimity on every policy plank is a curse in any sociopolitical debate (though not necessarily new, it has been intensified by the online environment.) Good that Democrats/liberals/leftists can never even get close to 100%! ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/70 "2025-04-14T14:04:38Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > I think it would be refreshing to have an _authentic_ libertarian here; but I don’t think they exist (/Princess Bride). Yes I recall @Liberal (whose original handle was indeed **Libertarian** ), but he has been gone from here for more than a decade now. I think @Bricker counts too but he swerved hard right for some reason and got piled on (I was one of them piling on). ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/71 "2025-04-14T14:31:15Z")
I think that’s because for some of us, the social conservatism IS the problem. And at the same time, some of the items the > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Note: Vermont is not a red state like you claim. At least have the integrity to admit I was right on that one point and you were wrong. Ha ha like you have any integrity when you are wrong. What was I thinking? Wait- what? Someone thought Vermont is a red state? I will admit I’m often surprised at how many people have misconceptions about Northern New England. It’s neither conservative nor liberal in the current Republican/Democrat paradigm. It’s probably the closest to libertarian we have in this country, in that it loves guns AND gays. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/72 "2025-04-14T14:59:51Z")
> [@OldOlds](#): > > Wait- what? Someone thought Vermont is a red state? Re: Phil Scott, Governor of Vermont > [@Awful yet predictable consequences of anti-abortion legislation omnibus thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-yet-predictable-consequences-of-anti-abortion-legislation-omnibus-thread/969787/54): > > Sure have. Pro choice, pro equal eights, anti–Trump…and probably the only reason he runs as a Republican is because a Democrat can’t win there. He supports the Republican platform about as much as I do. A Democrat can’t win in Vermont? > [@Awful yet predictable consequences of anti-abortion legislation omnibus thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-yet-predictable-consequences-of-anti-abortion-legislation-omnibus-thread/969787/55): > > Now I know you’re joking > You might want to look up their two US Senators > You might want to look up the party of their lone US Representative > You might want to look up the percentage of members of their General Assembly that are Democrats > Of the five top officers of the state, you might want to look up the party of the other four. > > OR > You could just admit the above statement is incorrect. Still waiting for him to admit he’s wrong ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/73 "2025-04-14T15:02:26Z")
“Vermont Republicans” are a different breed. > [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > Good that Democrats/liberals/leftists can never even get close to 100% Bug or feature? 🤔 But you know that’s a characteristic of _online political cultures_ these days; if you agree with someone on A you will be presumed to agree on B through Z. ---
**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:** [April 14, 2025, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/74 "2025-04-14T15:08:34Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Bug or feature? 🤔 Bug if you want to win elections, weak feature if you do win them. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/75 "2025-04-14T15:57:14Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Yes, but @Saint_Cad correctly points out that much of the conservative exodus from this board occurred before 2016. It was in 2006 that Stephen Colbert observed (in front of God and everybody) that “reality has a well-known liberal bias.”\* The conservatives may have been chewing on that empirical fact ever since, and not been able to find the time to post. \*I’m no math genius, but I’m pretty sure that 2006 also occurred before 2016 (and IIRC, another thing that occurred before 2016 was my conclusions that 1.) not acting CONSERVATIVELY _disqualifies_ one from being considered by a disinterested, objective observer as a _conservative_, and 2.) that it is a sin to ever use one’s franchise to facilitate the assumption of political power by a FUCKING Republican. Impediments ONLY 😡). ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/76 "2025-04-14T16:22:43Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > One thing I’ve noticed with just a couple of posters is that they do not distinguish between MAGAs, right-of-center and not-liberal. To them EVERYONE who does not agree with every aspect of their progressivism is MAGA. Again, not calling out all leftists here but a couple. N.B Without naming names, it’s not really accurate to characterize that as _calling out_ anyone. > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > My support of SSM, pro-choice, **hell even an EV in the household** made me as bad a woke progressive as AOC. An Electoral Vote in each household is an intriguing notion. It might even solve the problems caused by the retention of the College of Elecotrs. > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > That is why I’m not objecting in this thread to conservative = MAGA. Well, I am. Hell, I even object to _conservative = **Republican** _. ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/77 "2025-04-14T16:24:23Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > “Vermont Republicans” are a different breed. It’s not that rare. Massachusetts has had tons of GOP governors in the past, Kentucky has a Democratic governor. Kansas too (although I think that’s basically because the previous GOP governor was historically unpopular). ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/78 "2025-04-14T16:35:28Z")
> [@OldOlds](#): > > I will admit I’m often surprised at how many people have misconceptions about Northern New England. It’s neither conservative nor liberal in the current Republican/Democrat paradigm. > > It’s probably the closest to libertarian we have in this country, in that it loves guns AND gays. I admit my near complete personal ignorance of NE politics. All I’ve got is a SIL from NH who has talked about seeing confederate flags in the northern part of that state. And NH was the setting for the wonderful book [A Libertatian Walks Into a Bear.](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50358538-a-libertarian-walks-into-a-bear) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/79 "2025-04-14T16:37:02Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > I think it would be refreshing to have an _authentic_ libertarian here; but I don’t think they exist (/Princess Bride). Hmm. What set of beliefs would qualify? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016/80 "2025-04-14T16:43:17Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > “Made to feel unwelcome”, doesn’t necessarily involve moderation here. You got that right. Hell, how many times have my always trenchant, pertinent, and perspicacious observations gone unrewarded by a single “QFT”? It doesn’t _feel_ welcoming. And yet (unlike the radical reactionaries who self-identify as “conservatives,”) I soldier on. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > > [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > > > No Czarcasm, because plenty of conservatives have left this board without being banned. I agree they were not persecuted, but @Saint_Cad’s remark isn’t restricted to moderator action. “Made to feel unwelcome”, doesn’t necessarily involve moderation here. > > And none of them were able to leave a last word on why they left? Great googly-moogles, are you suggesting that _more_ flouncing-away posts would have been a _good_ thing? > [@Atamasama](#): > > Yeah, I didn’t leave the board, I left conservatism. Or probably more accurately, the term conservative doesn’t apply to me anymore It probably does, actually. It does _NOT_ apply to MAGAts and other Republicans. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-conservatives-left-this-message-board/1017016.md?page=5)