Freepers among us? How can you tell?

[Bucky]

I admit to being pretty unaware of what goes on in Freeperville. Life is too short to check the joint out. But I did follow a link over there tonight out of one of our threads. In the Freep page I visited, I noticed that a couple of Freeps admitted to lurking here and posing as DUers just to stir things up.

One of them even concocted a subliminally homoerotic fantasy about arranging a meeting with a DUer face to face and "recruiting" them to becoming a "registered Republican." Sound kinky? You bet!

But back to my point. If there are Freeps around here, how can we tell? Having never considered the possibility before, it takes a little thought. My guess is that most of the flame threads are the work of Freepos:
* "Deanies" attacking Clark,
* "Kerrions" attacking Dean,
* "Clarkies" running down everybody else,
* anyone calling Lieberman LIEberman (so transparently Freepish - it's their old 2000 slur)

Anyone stirring up the pot with goofy ad homonym attacks is very likely to be a Freep. Petty name calling, repeating discredited RW attack points, and just close-minded personal vindictiveness would be their hallmarks. The pose for an "undercover Freeper" would be to pretend to like one candidate, but then to smear & insult another. They could claim to be Deanos, Sharptonites, Kerrigans, Koochies--my God, even a Clarkista! They'd have recent start up dates, like since the last time Rush mentioned us to his listeners.

I have my suspicions about a couple of posters now. I don't know if it's okay to name them here. I don't wanna seem dinky hearted, so I'll refrain from pointing fingers. But anybody who attacks your guy or gal isn't a loyal Democrat. If they're not actual Freepers, they're still doing the work of Freepers by antagonizing relationships and undermining respect and comradery within our party.

Worrying too much about who's a Freep and who ain't is also a pretty good way to go paranoid. I don't go there. I don't believe in conspiracies. But just let me put these warnings out into the ether. Before you respond to anyone flaming your candidate, remember that the person on the attack--even if you've seen them here for several months--may well be a Freeper acting out one of his many split personalities. 90% of the time, such attacks are simply not worth responding to.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[eileen_d]

3. LOL - Welcome to DU!

:hi:

Have you been to this so-called "FREEPERVILLE" you speak of?

[AWD]

5. ...and then...

...there's the ones that are so stupid, they blow up and defend Freeperville on their 2nd post.

[liberalmuse]

8. Pssssst!

<pointing my finger up>

[Bucky]

12. HA!

I thought this post might pull a few cockroaches out of the woodwork. Didn't expect it to happen so fast, tho.

[xultar]

17. I was defending you for being a newbie. Don't make me regret it n/t

[Bucky]

26. I wasn't calling Libmuse a cockroach. I was calling (deleted) poster one

But thanks for defending me, even if I'm not a newbie.

[arcane1]

9. well, obviously they troll the board, and register, and post too

welcome to DU! :hi:

[Catch22Dem]

10. In the words of Eddie Murphy...

"You must be outta yo goddamn mind..."

FREEPERVILLE is a bastion of moronic behavior, racial slurs, anti-semitisim, anti-Islam, anti-gay, anti-woman, and blind faith. That shithole is a total joke and so are the freaks who hang out there. If you've never been there, you should check it out and come back with a report. However, my gut tells me you're quite familiar with it. Not that I'd be calling you out or anything.

[leftyandproud]

30. freepers are idiots

you know you have a freep when you see someone with 10 anti bush posts start to spout nonstop anti dean/democrat rhetoric. They aren't smart enough to be subtle.

[xultar]

2. Clarkies running down everyone else...I take offense to that, Please

post some examples of where Clark supporters attack all the candidates. Please post the examples where Clark supporters run down or attack everyone else. I need some PROOF.

I for one know there are lots of Clark supporters who like Dean as a #2 (I do not). I know lots of Clark supporters who like Dennis K and Kerry.

I'd suggest you edit your post to reflect the truth.

[LTR]

7. Hell, I like em all (even Holy Joe - kinda)

I'm a Clarkie, but I will support whoever becomes the nominee. And I have made it a personal rule not to make a malicious attack toward another candidate (as tempted as I have been a few times). I just see it as counterproductive.

I won't put down other candidates. I'd rather pump up my own.

[Bucky]

23. Did you (a Clarkie) just attacked me (a Clarkie) ? :o)

Actually, if you re-read my post, I avoided attaching the verb "attack" to Clark supporters specifically because we're not going at it quite as bad as self-declared Kerry & Dean backers are. They tend to attack one another, while us Clarkazoics only "run down" the electibility of our opponents.

But also, my main thesis is that the worst of the flamebaiters are only claiming to be a given candidate's supporter; I think they're really self appointed disinformation operatives. They assume identities of Kerry and Dean and Kucinich supporters to stir up trouble. We can spot the obvious Freepios. I'm pretty sure that there are many many others going undetected.

We're assuming they're just ill mannered Democrats. I think more than we know are clever Freepers.

[incapsulated]

27. Total Garbage

He can't prove it because it isn't true.

[Bucky]

28. I answered this point in post # 23 (just above you)

I didn't say Clarkies "attack". I said "run down". I felt the need as a Clark supporter myself to be inclusive of any unfairly harsh or divisive criticisms any of us Clarkies might have made. As a Clark supporter, I didn't want to be seen as attacking the other candidates' supporters while pretending that my side was without sin.

Certainly you're not suggesting that not a single person who is supporting General Clark has never ever said something divisive about another candidate. I'm not saying it's the over riding pattern of Clark supporters, but certainly you can't assert that Clarkies are all perfectly well mannered.

[incapsulated]

32. It could've been better phrased

The way you wrote it makes it sound like Clark supporters are indiscriminately running around in attack mode.

If someone accused me of "attacking Dean", I would have to plead guilty. I've left the rest alone for the most part. Even Lieberman, that would be like kicking a half-dead dog, heh.

[liberalmuse]

4. Most of the time they're easy to spot...

but we're not supposed to accuse anyone here of being a freeper--just hit the 'alert' button. I've only hit the thing once in all the time I've been visiting DU and that was because some person kept posting the same thing over and over and over again, claiming to be a hacker, LOL. I do know that a lot of the attacks on candidates are from regular DUers, though, which is disheartening.

[KFC]

6. I would guarantee the fact, except

that the obtusiveness of the meme is too overwhelming.

That said, your point is absolutely brilliant.

[AntiCoup2K4]

11. There are at least two fairly recent arrivals here who are likely Freeps

...you can tell just by reading their spew. And neither is sporting the avatar of a specific candidate that I can recall. Of course there WAS a third one tombstoned earlier in the week who was the "supporter" of a non-candidate who the Freeps would love to run.

No names mentioned, of course. ;-)

[xultar]

16. Just remember Skinners notes often the offenders are 1000+ posters

so don't go around blaming newbies. What you are doing is wrong. If you have suspicians report to the mods. Don't go around breeding mistrust though the membership. That is not an ADULT thing to do it is rather "Freepish" to some extent.

[AntiCoup2K4]

34. Of course some of them are 1000+ . They're the careful ones.

I could infiltrate Freeperville and post in character and they would never suspect a thing. Only reason I don't is that it's hard to type and puke at the same time :puke:

I suspect that once we get through the primaries and it becomes a somewhat unified DU against Bush Jr these better closeted Freeps will find it much harder to stay hidden ;-)

[Must_B_Free]

13. It's because they are effiminite losers of the Civil War

They were emascualted by losing the Civil War.

They have since maintained this overt search for masculinity through guns and war games. They have fostered an military mentality because it makes them feel that they have testes.

As a result, they bought right into a hate movement. So, combine their military mentality with a spoonfed hatred for an enemy that was created for them by a Drug Addled Junkie and Hockey Stick with an Adam's Apple.

So they organize these "Psyops" and come and terrorize their fellow Americans on DU to help the Facists who are successfully destroying Democracy.

Face it, they never were part of the American experience. The Pilgrims didn't land there. All they are famous for is Slavery, Booze, and fire and brimstone Religion that defies the bounds of reason.

Add some hate in the mix and you have a new breed of Facist dupes ready willing and motivated to destroy their own country as an outlet for their anger and their own self disappointment.

[arcane1]

18. as a child of the Repube South...

may I say, that was most excellently well-said

:toast:

[KFC]

19. Then how the hell did Jimmy Carter grow them peanuts?

Your post makes no sense to the legion of peanut-lovers out there. Bolied, even.

[Must_B_Free]

25. Not everyone drank the koolaid,

at least at that time. They sill had some appreciation of Christian Values in their Christianity.

[xultar]

14. Even when the Dean supporters were posting racially insensitive

stuff to prove that Dean had black supporters. I didn't attack DEAN because it wasn't his fault. I concentrated my anger on the stupid supporters who thought it was o.k. to post pictures of black folk and say see, Dean has black supporters. Why should Dean's campaign suffer from the ignorace of some of his supporters?

Instead of going on a rant through out DU. I took sometime off to cool down. As a matter of fact a young Dean Caucasian supporter asked me to have a little patience with them. I thought it was a nice jesture and I decided that I would.

Please don't make me regret taking time to try to understand and have patience with you.

[PaDUer]

15. Doesn't surprise me..

they've been here for awhile, then they go back to their harem and post what they wrote, and sometimes include the link from here for the others to read..Most of the time they blow their own cover quickly and are bounced, then come back..Don't forget they're obsessed..No matter what goes on, they continuously have to blame Hillary or Bill even if the thread has nothing to do with them! Don't let them rattle your cage, remember they haven't a brain.

[MoonRiver]

21. Father forgive them for they have no brain!

O8)

[Robbien]

22. No they do not post the link back here

unless they receive special permission from Jim. It is in their rules that DU cannot be linked. They do not want to give DU higher ranking credits in Google.

[PaDUer]

31. They post the link

from here at their site.

[meow mix]

20. ima freeper too!

well at least i been cleverly accused of it a few times so i guess i am. :P

but even so,
im looking forward to meeting some DUs at the clark fundraiser dec 26!
woot =)

[NNN0LHI]

24. This board has consistently had the best mods on the web

I let them take care of such stuff.

Don

[salinen]

29. Does the same work in reverse?

Does anyone from du ever enter freepville and pretend to be a freep? I hope not, even though I detest everything they stand for. We may loose an election, we may loose this democracy, but if we adopt the murderous ways of the freep, we become them. In the end, we will retain our integrety.

[Eloriel]

33. My prediction --

This thread isn't going to survive without getting locked.

[Moderator]

35. I'm locking this thread.

"Please note that, strictly speaking, sweeping statements about entire groups of fellow progressives are not considered personal attacks. However, they are often inflammatory and counterproductive and the moderators have broad discretion to remove such posts in the interests of keeping the peace on the message board."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/forums/rules.html#civility

Thanks for your understanding and cooperation,
DU moderator