I HEREBY STEP DOWN FOR NOW

[Gadianton]

My recollection is that Rush Limbaugh took the word liberal and made it a slur

Your memory is correct. And I'll take the opportunity again to remind everyone that all this hatred in the name of standing up for the truth is a right-wing phenomena. I don't get leftist emails from my liberal friends. My right-wing friends would drown me if they could with their junk political emails. You know, "California Senate just past a bill to let out all the murderers this year..." Originated in 1996 and updated every year since. My right-wing friends and family in the real world are driven by politics to where even their religious beliefs are ancillary to their political beliefs. And they are swimming in a pool of a half inch of water. There is a broad range in terms of intelligence, but even the smartest don't know anything. What they all have in common is an inability to shut up about their politics, and you can't say anything. Just have to listen and look for an 'out' to change the topic or you'll end up getting "cancelled".

It's always amusing to see right-wingers come to this forum and cry persecution given the runaway freight train that is Trumpism.

I see that SPS has taken it down, but you can find clips of SouthPark's "Dances with Smurfs" on YouTube. In that (very old) episode, Cartman becomes the morning announcer for the school, and takes upon himself the mantra of Rush Limbaugh. He writes a 540 page book castigating Wendy, who is school president, as a wretched "liberal", calls for a return to moral values, and makes up stories such as himself living among the Smurfs before Smurfville is destroyed by Wendy. True to form, he complains voraciously about being silenced and censored, even though Mr. Mackey and other school officials basically lecture him while yet allowing him to pull the same stunts over the school intercom again and again.

[honorentheos]

I don't think we can give Limbaugh as much credit as to have turned the term "liberal" into a slur. He certainly capitalized on using it as such, and rebranded neocon ideology for a generation of people working at jobs with a radio playing in the background all day, which is no coincidence.

[Res Ipsa]

I don't think we can give Limbaugh as much credit as to have turned the term "liberal" into a slur. He certainly capitalized on using it as such, and rebranded neocon ideology for a generation of people working at jobs with a radio playing in the background all day, which is no coincidence.

I’d have to agree. That was a tactic by the Republican Party.

[Kishkumen]

I don't think we can give Limbaugh as much credit as to have turned the term "liberal" into a slur. He certainly capitalized on using it as such, and rebranded neocon ideology for a generation of people working at jobs with a radio playing in the background all day, which is no coincidence.

This is another place where we will have to agree to disagree, although I am not sure how much it matters in the end. Someone comes up with an idea, and another person packages and delivers it in a way that makes it many times more effective. I get that Republicans were disparaging liberals, but it took a Rush Limbaugh to use his popularity, vacuousness, and venom to really make this as potently toxic as it became.

I mean, we might bring William F. Buckley in here, as he was certainly very cutting and hateful about the left. The difference is that he brought real intellectual acuity and heft to the table. Buckley is certainly part of the story too, but it took a couple of generations of popularization before we got to the broadly marketed vacuous hatred of Limbaugh that sets things up nicely for a Donald Trump to come along.

[Kishkumen]

It's always amusing to see right-wingers come to this forum and cry persecution given the runaway freight train that is Trumpism.

And they perfected the art of false equivalence, or, rather, adopted it lazily and ignorantly as they aped their masters. "If there is an A, have its counterpart is B, which is really much, much worse than A, but you're too stupid to understand that."

In this way Trump is countered by a distorted image Joe Biden, regardless of the fact that the two people are hardly comparable at all. Yes, Trump occupied the White House for four years, and no one was able to end his presidency before he nearly destroyed the Republic. But any objective look at the man's life would result in someone quickly concluding that he is a completely different animal from Joe Biden.

I mean, I'm no "fan" of Joe Biden, but I'll take a doctor with a real licensed MD from a second-rate medical school before I'll take my medical advice from a sleazy actor playing a doctor on a late-night infomercial. Joe Biden is the second-rate doctor with a real medical education and a real license. Donald Trump, of course, is the terrible actor who plays a doctor on an infomercial.

And we all know there are people out there who, yes, are stupid enough to prefer medical tips from Alex Jones over Sanjay Gupta. They are also itching to explain to me why they are right to do so.

They are idiots.

[Markk]

What is the absolute benchmark and datum point for the demarcation of trolls and I might add nanny’s? Maybe we are are both confused and saying the same thing and talking over each other?

There isn’t an ‘absolute benchmark and datum point for the demarcation of trolls’. Besides, that’s not the thing you’re looking for. As pointed out before, ‘trolling’ in and of itself isn’t prohibited. It’s how the behavior manifests that is the issue.

Imagine the parallel example of flirting. Striking up a clever conversation with the woman in 303 might be OK, whereas walking in, dropping your pants and waving your wang around in the air would be problematic.


Let me ask you this, in return - what ‘benchmark and datum point(s)’ would you like to see used to determine when someone should (1) have their comment be edited/moved, (2) be placed on queue, or (3) be banned?

Okay, so back to my point, as and example, Kevin, Dr Cam, Jersey Girl (as a trolling nanny) and a few others are obnoxious trolls, which is against the rules. And again, because they are in your tribe they are “protected.” This reminds me of the old Fair Boards where the elite mopologists were allowed to break the rules admittedly. It was great when the World Table was started and they thought it would be the same and they suspended DP. But anyways one of my points is your datum point, what ever that is, excludes tribe members. It is obvious to those outside your tribe that are continually a target of the mentioned trolls. Only think skinned conservatives survive here, like Ajax, Ceebo, and myself…my guess is there are conservative that post on the terrestrial forum that would never post their politics here because this.

In regards to your question…I can pretty much ignore anything, or let it roll. I believe Shades did a perfect job of managing this board. Actually I respect the hell out of him for the way he managed Paul O when he was struggling with some issues.

So again I believe many here punked and disrespected Shades and HIS vision and HE alone was the perfect benevolent dictator for HIS site and I think HE did a great job in managing all of us a-holes.

If I was King I would not allow porn or vulgar material invading real life personal data or imaging…and families would be off limits…LoL…no Mamma Jokes.

[Marcus]

My recollection is that Rush Limbaugh took the word liberal and made it a slur

Your memory is correct. And I'll take the opportunity again to remind everyone that all this hatred in the name of standing up for the truth is a right-wing phenomena. I don't get leftist emails from my liberal friends. My right-wing friends would drown me if they could with their junk political emails. You know, "California Senate just past a bill to let out all the murderers this year..." Originated in 1996 and updated every year since. My right-wing friends and family in the real world are driven by politics to where even their religious beliefs are ancillary to their political beliefs. And they are swimming in a pool of a half inch of water. There is a broad range in terms of intelligence, but even the smartest don't know anything. What they all have in common is an inability to shut up about their politics, and you can't say anything. Just have to listen and look for an 'out' to change the topic or you'll end up getting "cancelled".

It's always amusing to see right-wingers come to this forum and cry persecution given the runaway freight train that is Trumpism.

I see that SPS has taken it down, but you can find clips of SouthPark's "Dances with Smurfs" on YouTube. In that (very old) episode, Cartman becomes the morning announcer for the school, and takes upon himself the mantra of Rush Limbaugh. He writes a 540 page book castigating Wendy, who is school president, as a wretched "liberal", calls for a return to moral values, and makes up stories such as himself living among the Smurfs before Smurfville is destroyed by Wendy. True to form, he complains voraciously about being silenced and censored, even though Mr. Mackey and other school officials basically lecture him while yet allowing him to pull the same stunts over the school intercom again and again.

Wow. Thanks for the recap, Gad. Why does this Cartman episode sound so familiar? !

[Chap]

Kevin, Dr Cam, Jersey Girl (as a trolling nanny) and a few others are obnoxious trolls, which is against the rules. And again, because they are in your tribe they are “protected.”

No they are not.

If you find a post by any of those three that appears to you to break the rules, report it to the mods by clicking on the "!" icon and stating your reasons in the window that then appears. You will find that a mod then either deals with the post, or PMs you explaining why the post does not justify any action.

In the past I have complained on more than one occasion about posters in that list, and have felt the response to be fair and reasonable.

Let me just add - you are annoyed by Jersey Girl's posts, but it appears that you can't manage to complain of any actual rule-breaking, so you have created a special new category of "trolling nanny". Referring to the board rules, what rule or rules do you believe she is breaking?

(HINT: there is no rule saying that one is not allowed to annoy Markk).

[Res Ipsa]

There isn’t an ‘absolute benchmark and datum point for the demarcation of trolls’. Besides, that’s not the thing you’re looking for. As pointed out before, ‘trolling’ in and of itself isn’t prohibited. It’s how the behavior manifests that is the issue.

Imagine the parallel example of flirting. Striking up a clever conversation with the woman in 303 might be OK, whereas walking in, dropping your pants and waving your wang around in the air would be problematic.


Let me ask you this, in return - what ‘benchmark and datum point(s)’ would you like to see used to determine when someone should (1) have their comment be edited/moved, (2) be placed on queue, or (3) be banned?

Okay, so back to my point, as and example, Kevin, Dr Cam, Jersey Girl (as a trolling nanny) and a few others are obnoxious trolls, which is against the rules. And again, because they are in your tribe they are “protected.” This reminds me of the old Fair Boards where the elite mopologists were allowed to break the rules admittedly. It was great when the World Table was started and they thought it would be the same and they suspended DP. But anyways one of my points is your datum point, what ever that is, excludes tribe members. It is obvious to those outside your tribe that are continually a target of the mentioned trolls. Only think skinned conservatives survive here, like Ajax, Ceebo, and myself…my guess is there are conservative that post on the terrestrial forum that would never post their politics here because this.

In regards to your question…I can pretty much ignore anything, or let it roll. I believe Shades did a perfect job of managing this board. Actually I respect the hell out of him for the way he managed Paul O when he was struggling with some issues.

So again I believe many here punked and disrespected Shades and HIS vision and HE alone was the perfect benevolent dictator for HIS site and I think HE did a great job in managing all of us a-holes.

If I was King I would not allow porn or vulgar material invading real life personal data or imaging…and families would be off limits…LoL…no Mamma Jokes.

Mark, I think part of the problem is that you are doing something that is pretty common: labeling people whose posting style you find obnoxious as "trolls." That doesn't give us any common ground to work off of, and I would suggest that what you are talking about is simply tribal behavior. The word "troll" appears to me to get in the way of the point you are trying to make.

But I think you miss the mark (ha! see what I did there) when you try to define the tribes in terms of politics. Kevin is left. Cam is center, and has gone after liberals he disagrees with just as obnoxiously as he has gone after conservatives. I would describe Jersey as center right, although anti Trump. And Kevin and Jersey are rarely aligned on anything. So, trying to cram those three into a box with a political label simply doesn't work. What I think what Shades would describe as the "clique" dynamics on this board are far too complicated to be explained by "politics." But these days politics seems to poison everything, including the ability to think clearly, identify problems, and make good faith efforts to solve them.

But you do raise a point that I think is important and that gets buried in attempts to make this all about politics. Out of the best of intentions, and not out of any desire to play favorites, there are past practices that have resulted at times through the law of unintended consequences of different application of the rules to different individuals. The current mod team is fully committed to applying the rules the same way to everyone. That's going to be an adjustment for some folks. And, frankly, we've had to waste a whole lot of time and effort addressing the behavior of a couple of folks who also misdiagnosed the situation here and decided to resort to self-help through conduct more obnoxious and extreme than the conduct they objected to. And it's probably pretty difficult to recognize our efforts through the chaff. Hopefully, they'll be a little easier to see. They won't be perfect or 100% consistent, but I think they'll be recognizable if you pay attention.

[Res Ipsa]

I don't think we can give Limbaugh as much credit as to have turned the term "liberal" into a slur. He certainly capitalized on using it as such, and rebranded neocon ideology for a generation of people working at jobs with a radio playing in the background all day, which is no coincidence.

This is another place where we will have to agree to disagree, although I am not sure how much it matters in the end. Someone comes up with an idea, and another person packages and delivers it in a way that makes it many times more effective. I get that Republicans were disparaging liberals, but it took a Rush Limbaugh to use his popularity, vacuousness, and venom to really make this as potently toxic as it became.

I mean, we might bring William F. Buckley in here, as he was certainly very cutting and hateful about the left. The difference is that he brought real intellectual acuity and heft to the table. Buckley is certainly part of the story too, but it took a couple of generations of popularization before we got to the broadly marketed vacuous hatred of Limbaugh that sets things up nicely for a Donald Trump to come along.

It really may be just a quibble on my part, my dear Reverend. I 100% agree with you that Limbaugh is responsible for amplifying the demonization to an extent that simply had not been possible before. He and his imitators are the reason, in my opinion, that eliminationist rhetoric has become so common in discourse on the right. I've been harping about the road to Rwanda for a while now, and am convinced we're much farther down the road than anyone wants to admit.