USA Politics

[Magnus]

never responded to

Since you keep asking the same question again and again, even though it has been answered more than once but apparently you either can't get it or pretend you can't get it, whatever, here's a blunt answer I can give you, and I hate being blunt normally:

If you happened to be on the other side of the political spectrum, and behaving the way you do here, you would have been banned a long time ago.
Just like some other former members who were more fun to communicate with than you, and certainly less annoying than you.
Do you realise what you've done to this place?

 

[Spaldy]

Don’t let the terrorists win. Seriously. The only way to introduce more sanity into the situation is to stick around and push back on the nonsense, rather than letting the loudest and most obnoxious voices in the room drown everyone else out.

Asking for sanity while calling those who disagree with you terrorists isn't helping your case.

 

[Spaldy]

If you happened to be on the other side of the political spectrum, and behaving the way you do here, you would have been banned a long time ago.

I can think of several right-wingers on here who regularly post disingenuous bollocks and have kept their stripes.

Just like some other former members who were more fun to communicate with than you, and certainly less annoying than you.

Who specifically has been banned from here that you refer to?

 

[Jer]

Asking for sanity while calling those who disagree with you terrorists isn't helping your case.

If you don’t understand the humorous relationship between the phrase “don’t let the terrorists win” and U.S. politics, then perhaps you need to do some more research before commenting in this thread.

Also, even if you took it at face value, where did I say that all those who disagree with me are terrorists, rather than just referring to those (one in particular) who use socially terroristic tactics in their posts? It looks like you’re off base on multiple levels here.

 

[JudasMyGuide]

regularly post disingenuous bollocks

Is there anyone in this thread, really, that would actually post anything disingenuous?

I mean, there's some newspeak, some dogwhistling, yes, I do think certain people do spin and manipulate facts somewhat, but that said, even I am convinced that they genuinely believe that, in a way. However stupid, obnoxious or downright evil people here may be, I don't think there's anyone who wouldn't drink their own kool-aid, so to speak.

I don't think anyone is trolling or misery farming or whatever else you're trying to imply.

 

[Spaldy]

However stupid, obnoxious or downright evil people here may be,

Do you believe that there are genuinely evil people on here?

 

[Perun]

If you happened to be on the other side of the political spectrum, and behaving the way you do here, you would have been banned a long time ago.
Just like some other former members who were more fun to communicate with than you, and certainly less annoying than you.

If that were true, we would have banned jazz from hell, a person I have no civil words for.

 

[JudasMyGuide]

Do you believe that there are genuinely evil people on here?

Why, of course I do. Me, first and foremost. Were my innermost self somehow revealed, with all the patheticness and sordidness, with all the depraved thoughts that are so ugly in their smallness they would put to shame nearly anyone, in short, taking into consideration my distance from the one that is Good, I am evil and wicked and surely "through me, the entire world is guilty", to paraphrase Fyodor Mikhailovich.

As one of my gurus had said

And I don't suspect others of being much better.

But my anthropo-scepticism notwithstanding, whether oriented towards myself or anyone else, to answer your question in a less flippant way, I have absolutely no idea whether there are or not.

I mean, I think I can speak for Perun and for Magnus, whom I genuinely believe not to be evil in the way you meant... but as for the others, I don't even know them, let alone vouching for the state of their soul. I mean, half of the accounts might be just some malfunctioning AI bots (I suspect Azas the most of this ), some can have ulterior motives and Mosh, seemingly the calmest, most decent and most well-rounded of the people here, might be spending his evenings methodically cutting up whores in his bathroom for all I know.

So take that statement as a hyperbole. The discussion here gets often rather heated, possibly a bit too much for everyone to truly believe the other party is also "good" or at least trying to aim that way. Your own original post felt like really dripping with scorn so that you would seem to consider those to whom it was addressed almost necessarily either stupid or evil... and you can't possibly think yourself just the smartest.

In short

 

[Vaenyr]

Since you keep asking the same question again and again, even though it has been answered more than once but apparently you either can't get it or pretend you can't get it, whatever, here's a blunt answer I can give you, and I hate being blunt normally:

If you happened to be on the other side of the political spectrum, and behaving the way you do here, you would have been banned a long time ago.
Just like some other former members who were more fun to communicate with than you, and certainly less annoying than you.
Do you realise what you've done to this place?

No, the questions I'm asking have not been answered, not even once. Every single time I posted that specific series of questions, the people I was asking stopped responding and ignored it, which is pretty telling in itself. I get that I'm obnoxious to you, but please verify your claims before going on the offense like that.

And I also remember that I made a rather thorough response to your allegation here which you never responded to either. We have already discussed this before. I have already explained to you that conservatives aren't banned here for being right wing and that I'm not getting any preferential treatment by the mods. From what I've seen very few people have been banned and none of them for their political reasons. You are free to dislike me as much you want, but let's stick with reality and not some made up nonsense, alright?
So no, I wouldn't have been banned because that's not a criterium that the mods take into consideration.

Also, I don't think I have enough sway to "have done anything" to this place. People can ignore me and if any of my posts go too far there is a report button. No one is stopping the other members of interacting with you or each other. So while I've certainly been at fault for causing some heated discussions I don't think my membership on the forum to be important enough to influence the forum to such a degree. If I'm wrong let the mods decide if they agree with your assessment and if they want to ban me then so be it.

 

[Magnus]

I shall paraphrase my previous statement thusly:

It is my impression that some of your activity here which I, personally, tend to find somewhat subpar and, occasionally, detrimental to the general mood prevailing on this esteemed forum, has been tolerated, at least partially, due to your views being what they are, similar lenience lacking on previous occasions.

I honestly have nothing more to say.

 

[Vaenyr]

I shall paraphrase my previous statement thusly:

It is my impression that some of your activity here which I, personally, tend to find somewhat subpar and, occasionally, detrimental to the general mood prevailing on this esteemed forum, has been tolerated, at least partially, due to your views being what they are, similar lenience lacking on previous occasions.

I honestly have nothing more to say.

In other words you have no examples of anyone ever being banned for being conservative or being treated unfairly by the mods for being right wing, but you still want to dunk on me. That's okay, I can live with that.

 

[____no5]

Just noticed that Sherriff's messages are deleted. He has left?

 

[Magnus]

anyone ever being banned for being conservative or being treated unfairly by the mods for being right wing

Where exactly did I ever say that?
All that I've kept saying all the time is that you, in my opinion, seem to get away with things other people didn't.

 

[Mosh]

Sheriff deleted his own posts and requested his account be deleted (which is something only the admin can do and the request was forwarded to him).

 

[____no5]

Pity. I thought he brought a kind of freshness at least in the other threads. I didn't follow him too much here which was obviously too deep of an ocean too early for him to navigate.

 

[Vaenyr]

Where exactly did I ever say that?
All that I've kept saying all the time is that you, in my opinion, seem to get away with things other people didn't.

Opinions are usually based on some kind of information. Who are these "other people" who didn't get away with similar behavior to mine?
What are examples of conservatives or right wingers being banned for hostility and aggressiveness?
When have the mods stepped in to unfairly treat a conservative for doing stuff that I've done without facing similar scrutiny?

You have implied multiple times that the mods are lenient to me due to a political overlap, but how did you come to such a conclusion? Why do you think that's what's happening? Particularly when the mods have already said that they don't do stuff like that and seem to be just as confused as me about who exactly you're talking to.

I'd genuinely love to get an actual response that explains your thought process and hopefully mentions specific instances so that I can see what I've been missing, rather than simply reiterating that it's just your opinion. I want to understand where your opinion is coming from.

 

[Magnus]

how did you come to such a conclusion?

Lack of imagination, I suppose.
As in, I couldn't really imagine another reason why that kind of, er, idiosyncratic behaviour would be tolerated for so long.
My fault, I hasten to admit.

your thought process

By all means! Here it is, presented somewhat schematically, and disappointingly simple, I know (and my fault, again):

1. Non-Vaenyrs -> pissing fellow members off -> banned.
2. Vaenyr -> pissing fellow members off -> not banned.
3.

There it is.

Please don't hesitate to write back! This could go on and on, and with some luck, we could either achieve a Medal for Stupendous Boredom, or the first ever MaidenFans Vaenyrial Disease Award!

Or, we could move our friendly banter to the 1,000,000 thread? We could reach the goal in no time then! Everything for the cause!

Yours truly,
Magnus

 

[Vaenyr]

No worries, I'm almost done. I simply want to understand your viewpoint, as I'm genuinely curious. No sarcasm, no pettiness, no biting remarks, I just want to understand better.

1. Non-Vaenyrs -> pissing fellow members off -> banned.

Has this happened before? Do you remember specific examples? Maybe things were different before my time, since I haven't been a member on the forum as long as some other folks, but I'm not aware of something like that having happened. The mods, from some of the comments I've seen, seem to not have acted in such ways either.

I'm pretty sure that the mods aren't quite happy with my behavior during the more heated moments either. Even if we are generally on the "same side", I'm definitely more extreme with my views. Do you think they are lenient because I'm on the left? Or better yet, do you think anyone who is progressive and on the left, who would behave as I have done, would also receive "preferential treatment" and avoid a ban, or is that somehow unique to me?

Please don't hesitate to write back! This could go on and on, and with some luck, we could either achieve a Medal for Stupendous Boredom, or the first ever MaidenFans Vaenyrial Disease Award!

As I stated, I simply want to understand where your view on this matter comes from. Though the "Vaenyrial Disease" is admittedly hilarious, well done lol

Finally, from what I gather you are well respected on the board and your opinions matter to many of the regulars. As I mentioned before, if you genuinely think that the mods have been to lenient with me feel free to raise the issue with them. If this results in me being banned from the topic or even the forum outright, then that's that.

 

[Sheriff_of_Huddersfield]

Since this is apparently a forever account, I’ll hop in with more feedback.

My position wasn’t extreme. In fact, my argument was for moderate politics focused on solving practical public policy problems rather than ideological polemics.

I get jumped on by this person, who apparently thrives on the attention and is pulling what I see as online troll moves designed to irritate people rather than engage in a discussion.

These included:
Outright incivility. We’re not even that far apart on opinion but wow, it’s zero sum ideology, innit?

Recursive demands for evidence, ignoring what was provided, and them providing none in return. More irritating is using that laugh emoji tag in a dismissive way when asked to back up what they’re saying.

Demanding attention even when not directly addressed and when I was talking with others.

When mentioned — whoa, look out, that person was mentioned. Holy shit.

Then, a milder echo of disagreement from Perun, a little bit of reasonable disagreement or balance from Mosh, a ton of sincerity from Judas and Azas and some agreement from others like Jer.

But holy shit, some snark from a few other people (Black Abyss thanks for the lesson on ambiguity in subject/predicate.).

When it got to where it was the “Sheriff vs. the unnamed one” thread and wasn’t even about the topic anymore (thanks for that revelation, Diesel 11), I realized it was pointless. I was the one who had been trolled.

Well played. Hat’s off. Another person chased off.

For my part, I could’ve had a much thicker skin. My general frustration with US Politics right now contributed to my cranky disposition.


MODERATOR EDIT: inflammatory content removed

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

My general frustration with US Politics right now contributed to my cranky disposition.

I think that this, at least, we can all 100% relate to.