Posted on 05/04/2012 10:15:31 AM PDT by lacrew
After 283 Posts at DU, I have been Tombstoned.
I used the same username I have here, and have generally tried to be argumentative, rude,…and educational. Alas, I have been found out. The last straw was abortion…and let’s face it, most of modern liberal philosophy revolves around abortion. So, I flew too close to the sun, and my wings have melted.
I really thought I could gently nudge people on DU in the right direction. But what I found is a group of immature and emotionally damaged children, constantly craving for attention and an idol who will ‘make it all better’. Yet, they are very dangerous. What did I learn:
1. No logic skills. Any attempt at thoughtful discussion, or bringing facts into an argument will immediately be dismissed. DU posters will disengag, with epithets and other dismissive ‘I’m done with you’ statements. They absolutely cannot back up their beliefs in any logical way, and will always resort to name calling.
2. Immaturity. I suspect many of them are college students, too dumb to know how the world works. And some are what I call the ‘gray ponytail crowd’. These are the truly sad ones – people in their mid 60’s with the emotional IQ of an 8 year old. They have lived for over half a century, yet still blame a nebulous group of bogeymen for all their troubles. And, quite frankly, they seem to have lived very unfulfilled lives.
3. Affirmation. There is a groupthink mentality at work. Often threads start with an all caps ‘THIS IS WHY’…and then you fill in the blank with the cause de jour. Comically, however, these poor souls in search of positive reinforcement get none – as nobody replies to their thread. Which leads to the next observation:
4. Dead end threads. People will log on and post random thoughts, almost like a Twitter tweet. Often times the title gives no hint at what the post is even about. The vast majority of these have no responses. This results in a fast moving procession of threads. Also, less than half the threads have a link of any sort…they are merely somebody so pleased with their own opinion, that they just have to post it (I know pot meet kettle, but it’s rare for me).
5. Victimization. If you peruse the threads on this board, we find examples of bad policy, and our disdain for how it erodes our system, our constitution, the future for our children, etc. On DU, the threads are about threats to me, me, me! The GOP is going to take away stuff from ME! This overlaps my immaturity observation.
6. Jealously. They are very concerned with what goes on at Free Republic. They all know who Jim Robinson is…most here do not know who their leader is, nor care. They often link to Free Republic, to point out the terrible things being said. They even copy and paste text from this site fairly regularly. I have been tempted to do the reverse, but I just consider it ‘bad form’. There is one person here who posts the Dummy Funnies already…I’m certainly not going to duplicate his work, and I don’t think anyone wants this to become a ‘look how bad they are’ posting society (again my own hypocrisy is not lost on me). They often bash this site, not for its content, but for being ‘outdated’. Honestly this has puzzled me, because their site may be new (and certainly expensive); but, I don’t like the way the threads are organized, and it seems impossible to search for posts by individual user. In short, their derision of this site’s technology is misplaced. They also seemed stunned that rating services which measure hits and unique visitors give similar scores to the two sites. They just cannot fathom that Free Republic has just as many members as they do….and it bothers them greatly.
7. Idol worship. This also falls in with affirmation. Out of the blue, a poster might post a photo of MO, and declare how wonderful she looks, or just post how glad they are that BO is ‘my president’. And these threads do get lots of responses – a groupthink lovebomb approach that cult leaders have used for decades.
8. Sadness. These people cannot be happy. It is fundamentally impossible for them to exist, without worrying about green Armageddon, how some employer is screwing them, how the bankers have more money than them, etc. Most also live a life completely without God. And, they are so consumed with themselves, they don’t experience the joys of helping other people, sacrificing their aspirations for their children, etc. Just hollow souls – very, very sad.
I plan to post this on DU….it won’t stay up long, but maybe it will help one person there escape from the deranged society. Maybe.
“7. Idol worship.”
Reminds me of those “Day in the life of President Bush” threads. To our credit, all the idol worship WAS encapsulated in ONE daily thread.
haha. Glad you did the research and not me :).
:)
They won’t make the Jim Thompson mistake, because they use a perjorative nickname most of the time.
I left it off the list, but name calling is a comon tactic.
Reptard, Rethuglican, etc, etc,...as well as prolific use of profanity....such as a common thread title: John Doe needs to F Off (in all caps with exclamation points).
I forgot about that part. When Breitbart died, some posts were downright nasty, while others used the “I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but....” format.
Some members there even tried to clean that up...but were rebuffed (usually with the F word).
I always feel like I need a shower after I go there.
I once tried to explain Chinese infanticide to a liberal. They’ve got over a billion people, so any movement in the boy/girl ratio has to have been a result of hundreds of thousands of (often forced) abortions, and infanticide.
He just flat did not believe me. So that was the end of discussion as far as he was concerned.
I'll cut the turds some slack on Breitbart because he so successfully showed the public what a bunch of liars and scumbags liberals are.
Likewise, it would take restraint higher than what I currently have to feel sorrow over the passing of David Brock or George Soros, if it were.
That is so tr...oh, wait.
Ah, never mind. Already taken care of.
Too bad you got squished on DU
But! Now that you’re probably going to be bored - pop in on some of your local newspaper sites article comment sections.
This is where middle-moderate-America hangs out to get their news and opinions - when they aren’t watching Colbert and Letterman....It’s relatively safe work-viewing sites that they glean their info from...In my area the sections are filled with progressive liberals and a few of us Conservatives commenting.
283 posties? I have to ask, how many conversations with nadinebrezinsky? The DU hysterical expert on EVERYTHING! It’s amazing to watch her unravel when she makes other DUmpsters “dead” to her.
It's my sincerest rainbow hopey, from the smiley huggy depths of my heart, that some shining unicorn day we can simply . . .
. . . with those assclowns !
I only tangled with nadinbrzezinski once. It was on a thread about the post office financial woes. She (I assume she)jumped in and said I was wrong about something....just found it in the Google cache...her title in her response to me is “No they did not”.
I immediately replied with a link (to Huffington to keep it legit in their eyes) which proved her to be the fool. Its an example of how I was able to be pretty rude, and get away with it, since facts are hard to fight. Here’s a snippet:
They absolutely did defer the pension payment, from FY 11 to FY 12. The $5 billion loss in FY11 was exclusively the difference in income and expense...completely outside of any pension payments, which were delayed until November ($5.5 billion). So, I really have no idea what you are talking about....I did not remember wrongly at all.
She did not respond.
I tended to avoid her, and many of what I call the ‘core’ group. There are probably around 50 members there with post counts over 40,000, and they make up the bulk of the posts. They are mostly zealots, and I imagine have diagnosed mental disorders (and I’m not being flippant). They have a sense of personal ownership over the site, and are quick to ‘tattle’ on people. I have seen people who crossed their path get tombstoned for very minor slights.
But I got away with it that one time. Obviously I didn’t get away with it today, though.
Good point. I’ve actually commented on a few local articles...but at my local paper, the atmosphere in the comments section is toxic. A dozen ‘regulars’ just launch personal attacks at each other...so nobody bothers reading the comments section.
The Colbert crowd worries me greatly....and I really don’t know how to counter it. There is some solace in knowing that the ratings for the likes of Colbert and Letterman are relatively low....they may be good ratings for the time slot and format...but the total number of viewers is still low.
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