Ok something that is really bothering me

[nadinbrzezinski]

so help me.

Is it the shellacking that has led to even less civility on DU... or have we always been in disagreement and unable to disagree?

And yes some of the attacks have been mind boggling...

That is all.

[stevedeshazer]

1. The former, I believe.

There is a lot of disillusionment. It's to be expected on the heels of a big defeat.

We'll never be united, but it will get better.

Just my 2¢.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. I hope,

i am about to just take the rest of the evening off, quite honestly.

[JuniperLea]

2. I think "the shellacking" pushed DU over the edge...

But that the major issue is the general inability to disagree without exacting a pound of flesh. I don't recall it being this bad until the presidential primaries... and it's so much worse now. I really feel there is a concerted effort to disrupt DU, and ultimately scare true progressives away, and shut the damn place down.

I'm pretty damn sad about the whole thing. This was my refuge... my safe place. I have no InterTube flack jacket.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. It does feel like a concerted effort

that it does indeed...

[JuniperLea]

8. Especially when you feel the same alligator teeth nipping at your heels...

Over and over again, day in and day out.

I always take the weekends off, and I used to always feel refreshed and regenerated with new spirit and resolve when I came back on Monday... that hasn't happened in a while. And it's only been a couple of months since I took a two week break... perhaps the breaks will be more frequent and the visits fewer and father between. That's seriously screwed up.

I can't even use this place as a serious news aggregate anymore because there's really only two or three streams of news... over and over... I really hate this. I feel like I did when I was talking myself into a divorce.

[leftstreet]

5. I'd like to challenge the speech writer who first used 'shellacking' to a duel

Suddenly pols and pundits are using that term.

It's embarrassingly scripted

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Dictionary definition

shel·lac Noun /SHəˈlak/
shellacs plural
Lac resin melted into thin flakes, used for making varnish
A thin varnish containing this resin
shel·lac Verb /SHəˈlak/
shellacks 3rd person singular present; shellacking present participle; shellacked past tense; shellacked past participle
Varnish (something) with shellac
Defeat or beat (someone) decisively
they were shellacked in the 1982 election


Adequate use even if not nice.

[frogmarch]

17. Shellac! is the sound that bugs

make when they hit my windshield. I think it's interesting that shellac, the resin, is made from secretions of the female lac bug of India and Thailand.

Whenever I hear someone use shellac as a verb, as in "The Dems got shallacked," I think of bugs being splattered on windshields. ugh.

As for some DUers being feistier since the midterms, I've noticed it too. I unleash my feistiness in real life, but not here very often anymore. I'd rather fight with republicanz than with my fellow Democrats.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Well that is an interesting take

it is an older term too.

:-)

And yes people have gotten like on raw egg shells. I remember the feeling oh two cycles ago...

And it is back.

[lob1]

7. I'm shaking my fist at you because you want to

take away my right to be rude! Fistshake, fistshake!

[JuniperLea]

9. LOL!

:rofl:

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. May I join you?

[JuniperLea]

13. Please do!

The floor on which I roll is roomy... all are welcome!

You know, maybe that's why you and I never came to blows... I don't recall us ever getting rude with one another... if we did, we overlooked. But I do know we've argued! And lived to tell! And I consider you a great resource, to boot.

Thinking out loud... trying to figure this out... keep coming back to the above-referenced concerted effort.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Nope we kept civil

I keep it civil until a pattern develops, then I do get nasty and for that I apologize.

:-)

[Angry Dragon]

11. The left worked their asses off to elect Obama

The left can not understand what his goals are.
He says one thing and then the next time you look
he is far to the right. The left has a fear they are
losing their country to people that said to trust them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Not about the left

please do notice the pattern. You are in for a shock. I have been the brunt of this all day.

Like there is a target or 'thing!

It has the feeling of ... oh never mind, we've been here before.

About this site, not really national politics, even if both are closely related.

For the record I am one of those "progressives," (more like a social democrat), which might explain some of the animus.

[Lurks Often]

14. It's gotten worse

It's one of the reasons I don't post very often. I don't particularly have a thin skin, but if you don't agree 100% with someone's views on a given subject, you are ridiculed, called a troll and in the past called Freeper.

It takes more energy and time then I am willing to invest to argue with people here.

I will note that I am seeing this on other, non-political boards that I frequent, so it isn't just here.

It just seems people are getting ruder and ruder, both on the Internet and in the real world.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Oh I wish it was freeper this morning

among others.

Some people simply cannot take disagreement, It is a personality trait, but it is becoming the majority way of doing things. Yes I am aware that on the interwebs people get far more ahem shall we say loud. It is in the scientific literature, But it is getting out of hand, or at least today it's gotten out of hand.

Oh well, to keep my sanity I guess my ... lovely ignore list will grow.

[End Of The Road]

18. Few here debate. They judge.

And they judge without the mere effort to digest what someone else has to say.

I miss the debate. I think it used to be better here. (Yes, if you check, I've only been here a couple of years under my current username. But I was here under a different name for several years before that. We've changed.)

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. My guess though it is beyond just

growing pains...

And it saddens me. I miss that too.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

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

[proteus_lives]

25. +1

[Exilednight]

22. Someone, in another thread, stated that it is impossible to find anyone on ............

DU that agrees and defends Obama 100% of the time. I had to laugh at the fact that the person who wrote it was one of those people he/she claimed didn't exist.

I supported Obama up until the point he traded away a federally run Public Option and then pushed the vote through with a tactic he vowed wouldn't be used. Personally, I had no problem with the tactic, but he traded away the PO so he wouldn't have to use said tactic.

It was a bitter pill to swallow. I knew Obama didn't run as far to the left as I would of liked, but many of us believed that he was about as far left as the country as a whole was willing to go. I would of love to have single-payer health-care, but was willing to accept the public option. I wanted a 100% draw-down of Iraq and Afghanistan (including military contractors, but was willing to accept getting out of at least one quagmire.

I believe that if you have true small (d) democratic values then you are sincerely disappointed in the lack of progress that has been made in the past two years. This was the president who, as a candidate, said he could walk and chew gum at the same time, but only takes on one issue at a time and manages to water it down beyond belief. This was the president who, as a candidate, stated that if elected he would view his election as a repudiation of Republican policy and convince Republicans to vote for his legislation. This was the president who, as a candidate, promised change the faces of Washington, but immediately filled more than half of his senior cabinet positions with former Clinton appointees.

I am not naive, and I understand that no president will ever achieve 100% of their agenda. Most will never achieve 35-40% of their agenda. But to be honest, Obama has yet to fully achieve one of his major campaign promises, and with the new make-up of the HoR, it looks as if it will stay that way.

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. And that is what I am talking about

some folks are invested in exactly what you described at the beginning of your post... and I got the feeling that the criticism did not go well. And after the elections they've gotten worst about it.

[Exilednight]

24. Yep, exactly. I do give Obama credit where credit is due, but many of ...........

his achievements are not ground breaking legislation. I appreciate that he made getting student loans easier, but that is not a major policy. It's a good policy, but not a major one.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. Well things have gotten this bad before

but it seems that silence is the preferred way for some.

I hope you do not remain quiet... but I guess I will need to take a break... one of these days.

It is no longer fun...

[UTUSN]

27. Neh, not theGeneral stuff. What hurts is thePERSONAL crap. n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. YEP, you got it

:-)

You gotten some of that too I take it.

[UTUSN]

29. Sometimes even friends clash. n/t