RARG! I'm red hot from GD! Someone pour cold water on me...

[baby_mouse]

:banghead:
:grr:

[TrogL]

1. I've got some gasoline left

[Dave Reynolds]

2. Having fun over there?

I only rarely participate, although last week was a good one over there.

[baby_mouse]

7. Yeah, kinda. I got very annoyed and it was lots of fun...

What a weird person I am...

[miss_kitty]

3. Here:

[baby_mouse]

6. Sigh, thank you.... n/t

[asthmaticeog]

4. I got into some nastiness over there today, too.

I don't know why I even go in any more - so many tunnel-visioned jackasses who engage in linguistic pugilism for its own sake. Assholes, the whole lot of 'em.

[baby_mouse]

5. It's mostly my own inability to epress myself that's annoying me

Most of my opponents had very good points....but....ARGGGG

[jane_pippin]

8. Have a beer:

:beer:

[baby_mouse]

17. Thank you, slurp yum nt

[khashka]

9. Why does no one ever listen to me?

Stay the fuck out of GD, damn it!

There are so many more interesting forums where you can actually meet nice people.

In the last few hours both merh and baby-mouse have needed their wounds licked. Do you people never learn?


Khash.

[baby_mouse]

14. grins

I don't mind a few scars. Best to have the contents of my head tested from time to time.

[KitchenWitch]

19. Hey khashka

Thanks for posting in that thread over there...

I am just fuming.

[shanti]

27. hey, we're just masochists...

what can i say :shrug: ;-)

[BlueIris]

10. I've been there. But be warned...

the Lounge ain't so nice today, either, my fellow poster. Some people around here really need to take some time off, if you ask me.

[Gormy Cuss]

11. You make me smile, baby_mouse

even when you're red hot:

" I don't CARE if we're brothers on the Great Carousel of the Friends of Dorothy."

:loveya:

[KyndCulture]

12. I'm still smartin' from yesterday...

I'm too askeered to go back today..

Here's a bucket of water tho...

[TallahasseeGrannie]

13. I post like crazy over there

and not a damned person answers me, usually. I think they don't like old people.

[baby_mouse]

15. That's annoying.

Agism's weird...

[petronius]

16. I usually just assume that they've been beaten into submission

by my brilliant rhetoric, and that's why they don't reply. Sounds like the same thing is happening to you...

[TallahasseeGrannie]

24. Heh... maybe I will choose to think that!

I think the thing that disturbs me the most over there is the level of hate. I can almost understand hating the administration. They suck. But they hate and wish dreadful things to happen to anyone who voted for them and they seem to have no understanding that there are all kinds of people with all kinds of world views and that it really isn't functional to despise half of them. I like to look at what makes a person think the way he or she does and then kind of worm in a few uncomfortable questions and she is I can budge their brains at all.

Also, the whole "redneck" and Jesusland thing is getting old. Those folks have a right to their culture just like everyone else. And I think calling somebody a redneck is a racial slur the same as the "n" word. We aren't going to win the votes of these groups if we hold ourselves somehow above it.

There is a lot of tribal nationalism sometimes in the left and I like to think we should be above that.

Grannie is now jumping off her soapbox..thanks for listening. If I wrote this on GD I'd probably get canned for life.

But I should also mention that I LOVE the passion over there, too. Can't criticize them for that. These folks care and I sometimes find myself feeling very protective of them. Idealism can be hard on the emotions.

[petronius]

26. It's very easy to be a jerk from the anonymity of a keyboard

and I do think that a few people take advantage of that to say things they would never say in person. I also think that some of the perceived rudeness is just a function of the internet format - it's hard to convey a tone of voice in a post, so when I launch a barb that is supposed to sound like a joke, the recipient reads it as a genuine insult. Also, since we have so little space to make our points (few of us have time to write an essay on any given topic) we write short statements that sound more absolute and less nuanced than they really are. For a lot of posters, when they see a post that reads like an absolute statement that they don't agree with, it is taken as a challenge to a flame war.

I agree with you about the hate and tribalism though. It's not a lot of people, and a lot of people who don't engage in it still write it off as 'passion' or 'just a joke', but there is (and always is on the internet) some inappropriate bashing. What seems to be on the rise is dismissing another poster as soon as they stray from one's own narrow view of what a progressive ought to be - you can be completely accepted one day, but as soon as you say something a little unpopular (that you're going to vote for Feinstein, for example) then someone is right there to call you a freeper...

As for your posts - remember that a lot of good posts are read and agreed with but not responded to. Personally, when I see a really good post that says everything I'd want to say, I just nod and move on - the author doesn't know their post was appreciated, but it was. This probably happens to more of your posts than you imagine...

[crispini]

18. Well, I haven't seen your posts, but I would hazard a guess

that they don't like people who are moderate and reasonable. :P Everything I post over there that is sane and normal never, ever gets responded to. Now, take a bite outta someone's ass or post something wildly controversial and the responses roll in! I think it's just SOP over there. :7

[NMMNG]

20. Yep

Another way to get attention is to pop in on a thread and disagree with everyone else. Then sit back and watch the attack begin.

[crispini]

21. Or start a thread taking the opposite position from the groupthink DU line

DLC is great.
Can't wait for Hilary to run in 08.
Etc etc etc.

Instant firestorm.

[NMMNG]

22. Yes, dissent is unwelcome on GD it appears

Democracy???

[crispini]

23. Just like-to-pile-on phenomenon I think.

The ugly side of human nature. :7

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

25. there's really only one great reason to go over there

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=4075931&mesg_id=4075931