What are your current pet peeves

[TZ]

about DU? I know we've done this before, but I've noticed a lot of new bullshit thats getting under my skin.
Outside of the obvious anti-vax tripe, here's whats really irritating me right now.

The extreme disrespect for scientific/technical/white collar professionals. People seem to think educating themselves on Google gives them an edge over years of study. I know this is nothing new to the people here, but there is one of THE most insulting threads to professionals I have EVER seen here in GD (and insults just about every member of this group, I think). Basically it says that anyone who posts their scientific creds (degrees/experience) is a liar. There are SOME defenders of the knowledgeable in the thread, but the amount of people agreeing with this poster (who has pgosted his share of wooshit, by the way) is completely horrifying to me. Not that there aren't people like that here (one anti-Gardasil idiot, who btw was recently claiming birdflu is gonna be used by the US as a bioweapon) but to make such an insulting broadbrush! Gaaah!

Finally the idiots in GDP who claim that either Obama or Clinton (both Hillary and Bill) are NO different than Bush and Co...
Bet thats a jaw dropper to our international friends....
:rant:

Off my soapbox...Now its your guys turn to vent....

[mr blur]

1. There are quite a few jaw-droppers on DU to be honest to those of us not in the US

at the moment, but your never-ending election process is, dare I say it, extremely tedious.

It doesn't seem to occur to some people but there's a whole world going about its business outside the US. Yes, the result of the US election is going to effect all of us in the long run but to those us watching from over here the constant squabbling over which of the non-lunatic candidates is worth putting in charge of the most powerful war machine in the world is irritating in the extreme. Sorry.

[Book Lover]

6. Loathing the tedium of the never-ending campaign/election cycle

is not limited to those living outside these united states :-)

[salvorhardin]

2. The new bullshit, same as the old bullshit...

We're seeing more strains of pseudoscience, conspiracism and quackery but it's all the same in my book. The rampant anti-intellectualism, the willful ignorance, the inability to recognize or think about complexity in any realm, the exceptionalism, and the bigotry (both soft and hard varieties) make for a rather depressing community at times. Sure, there may be the woo of the week but with the most ardent supporters of such it all comes back to those things I enumerated. At least that's my opinion, but surely I don't know anything about it because I'm on the payroll of the NWO elite (aka The Jooos) donchaknow.

[cosmik debris]

3. I hate "Mommy Threads"

The ones that say:

"You children aren't living up to my self-righteous standards of behavior and I'm not smart enough to find the "ignore" button, the "alert" button, or the "hide thread" button, so I expect everyone in DU to change their behavior to suit me. After all, I know better than the mods, and my rules should prevail."

You can find those threads in almost every forum where there is any dissent.

Fortunately my "hide thread" button works just fine.

[lizerdbits]

4. Distrust of scientific professionals

Anything beyond their comprehension is not trusted and for people who haven't had any science since high school is going to be just about everything. There's a lot of anti-establishment feeling on the left so when someone with a scientific clue says something that is accepted by a vast majority of professionals that doesn't agree with that person's pre established world view the information is automatically discarded. Their stated reason usually involves a general distrust but I think in reality it's more like "it doesn't conclude what I already agree with and I don't have enough of a scientific clue to counter it so I'm just going to accuse them of a conspiracy or hand out some ad hominems."

[Warpy]

5. GD-P is the site's official shitpile

which is why we're now given the option of hiding it. I have taken the option since I no longer have a horse in the race and DU has gotten downright civil without it.

As for dissing the managerial/professional class, that's the Great American Pastime. Forget about baseball. Too many managers out there are the kiss up, kick down variety who might have college degrees but know fuck all about the actual work being done. I can't fault people for resenting them, and the party had better realize what's going on before appealing to a yuppie class that is shrinking every day while ignoring the working class base.

As an autodidact in a lot of fields, some of which I've actually been able to BS my way into with a truthful resume, I can't fault people who try to educate themselves online. However, they need to realize as I do that there are gaps here and there that people with guided education don't have.

Anyone who claims that the Democratic candidates are on any par with the Republics gets an alert.

My main peeve on this board are the habitual offenders who start their sentences with "So.." Any sentence that starts with "so" will contain a strawman, and I've taken to calling them on it immediately.

Anyone who tries to put words into my mouth will soon be eating them and they won't like the flavor.

It might be time for another 5-6 month vacation from DU. :evilgrin:

[Anarcho-Socialist]

7. a number of things

1. GDP - many ardent Obama or Clinton supporters trying to portray the opposition as worse than basement kitteh. My pick was Edwards, and I have reservations about Obama and Clinton but I don't believe they are as bad as their opposing supporters say them are.

2. Anti-intellectualism, like what salvorhardin mentioned. The great mistrust of professionalism and and empiricism in favour of woo fairy tales. Populism seems to run hand-in-hand with anti-intellectualism, and they tend to be the ones who bring accusations of "élitism" and unsubstantiated charges of being in the pocket of "Big Pharma/AIPAC/Joooos/BushCO/MSM" etc against professionals.

3. Racism. I have found many comments about India and China to be pretty nasty in LBN and GD. In Nine-eleven-Twoof circles the "Arab cavemen" talking point is particularly racist.

4. Ignorance about politics outside the United States. This is not so much a problem in itself, but many DUers try to speak with authority about events and cultures which they have little knowledge of. As a Briton, I've been on the receiving end of this when some DUers come up with strange ideas about Britain (i.e. the Queen is the real power, the PM is a front; Scots are being oppressed by the Brits (sic);" the Brits want to take over the USA).

5. Highly-speculative conspiracy narratives. Related to 2, many DUers squash complex events, cultures, institutions, processes and relations in a narrow analysis of conspiracy. Some DUers even think that when things go wrong for the GOP, that it really was a Rovian plot and BushCo benefited somehow (i.e. Katrina). In LBN, there are claims of a "false-flag happening!!111" every week.

[salvorhardin]

9. Anti-rationalism

I think that's Susan Jacoby's term but I like it and think it's a good overall description of everything that's been mentioned so far.

[onager]

8. Our buddies, the Muslim Brotherhood...

Everyone has made good points about recent DU stuff that annoys me, too.

But this one really leaped out and grabbed me by the throat. It sure made me think about the herd instinct at DU...for lack of a better term.

A week or so ago, somebody posted about Cindy Sheehan coming to Egypt and demanding the release of Muslim Brotherhood members held in Egyptian prisons. Some DU'ers definitely gave me the impression that if Saint Cindy did it, why, it must be great.

To their credit, quite a few other DU'ers reminded the Cindy Groupies that under a Muslim Brotherhood government, Cindy would be doing her public speaking thru a face-mask, probably just a few minutes before her public stoning.

The MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD?!?! Never has Stalin's phrase about "useful idiots" seemed so apt.

The Muslim Brotherood is a terrorist organization, and has been ever since Hassan al-Banna founded it in Egypt in 1928.

The MB has always maintained 2 wings: an external front which admittedly does good things, like run free clinics and schools. But it has always had an armed, underground wing.

When the Egyptians were trying to kick out the British, the MB temporarily joined forces with Nasser and his Young Officers group. After the 1952 Revolution, the MB (as always) felt slighted and expressed their displeasure by trying to assassinate Nasser several times. He finally outlawed the group.

If you've ever seen old video footage showing the trial of Anwar al-Sadat's assassins, you may remember one bearded freak who shrieked religious gibberish throughout the trial...or at least whenever cameras were on him.

That charming fellow was Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, who later became Osama bin Laden's right-hand man. And lifetime member of the MB.

In the past few years, the MB has tried to put on a happier public face and run for political office. The curious phrase you see about them most often in the local Egyptian newspapers is "banned-but-tolerated."

The MB won 88 legislative seats in the 2005 elections--a result that horrified Egyptian moderates, liberals and especially the brave handful of feminists living here.

In 2006, the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood publicly denied that the Holocaust ever happened. (He immediately tried to deny his denial, which was pretty funny.)

This year, the MB decided it was time to bring back a real blast from the past, in this case the Seventh Century. They want to restore the old religious tax on all non-Muslims living in Egypt.

It was just amazing to see so-called "progressives" defending these wackos.

OTOH, one of my pet peeves is fairly odd for a Militant Atheist, I guess. I really get irked by general, knee-jerk attacks on Muslims. As I sometimes point out, I've literally trusted my life to Muslims every day for nearly 3 years now, and I'm still walking around.

[Tindalos]

10. I'm a bit out of touch

I've been lock up studying for exams for weeks, so I'm a bit fuzzy on what's happening in the real world. However, I saw an article in the Vancouver Sun a few days ago that stunned me. Something about a school board (Kansas, maybe?) agreeing to teach evolution as a "theory" and not a "fact" like the Law of Gravity. I don't even know where to start. I'm tempted to send them a dictionary, but I'm not sure that would help.

[trotsky]

12. It was Florida, and yes, they included the "theory" language.

To placate the fundies. Weak.

[LeftishBrit]

11. Mine are:

(1) Opposition to all modern medicine

(2) Right-wing attitudes. A few DU-ers are against the war, but otherwise right-wing (e.g. anti-socialized-medicine; racist in various ways).

(3) Xenophobia, and especially blaming all America's misfortunes and its government's misdeeds on other countries. Israel is the commonest - there was someone the other day who insisted that the Israelis run the world; and one suspects that 'Israelis' in such cases is often a substitute for something else that would get the poster banned. But Britain comes in for its share of the blame, especially by the serious LaRouchies.

(4) The attitude that 'divisions between left and right are meaningless' because of the global conspiracy to destroy us all.

(5) Support for Ron Paul! - though I've seen less of that recently.

(6) People who get so involved in the primary disputes that they end up hating Clinton/Obama more than Bush/McCain! (And this foreigner *still* wonders why you can't have all your primaries on the same day like the general election - surely it would simplify things considerably?)

(7) And last but not least- People quoting the Daily Mail as though it was a serious newspaper!!!

[semillama]

13. My no. 1 pet peeve is, has been, and always shall be

those who cannot accept they have lost an argument or were incorrect in use of facts.

[lizerdbits]

14. It can be fun to watch sometimes

as they dance around, bring in red herrings, use ad hominems, etc to avoid admitting "I'm wrong" or "I'm talking bullshit out of my ass because I'm clueless." Only when someone else is involved, if you are it's a pain in the ass and pretty much futile.

[Dr. Strange]

15. This isn't really a pet peeve, but...

there seem to be (at least to me) a lot of Intelligent Design posts here. Not overt, but there's an unstated ID assumption floating around. For example, read this post:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2934909#2934973
To me, there is an assumption of ID. Or am I misreading it?

[TZ]

16. I'm not so sure that's ID , more like the

New ager/pagan school of thought that earth is a living breathing woman...the earth as mother idea. IMO anyway. But there IS a surprising amount of support for ID on this site..There is at least one blatantly creationist poster in R/T with several more who try to hide it.
There is also one self admitted "atheist" in R/T whom discards Darwinism as being "racist".:eyes: