It's good advice, advice I've given to others. I don't deny it. D&D has become so polarized, though, that many moderate Republicans, and moderates in general, have stopped posting. More typical conservative Republicans, or conservative Democrats, an endangered species, have stopped posting as well. There used to be many conservative Democrats in Texas that held office, with several members of the House in DC fitting the description, conservative on fiscal issues and largely progressive on social issues. I wouldn't have described them as liberal on social issues at the time, but they almost seem so in the climate of today. They largely represented majority GOP districts, but were Democrats reelected time and again because their constituents liked them that way. I don't consider Texas as conservative as many do. I think many more moderate conservatives from both parties are drowned out by people vaguely resembling Junior. Those Democratic House members from Texas that I mentioned, all White, were successfully targeted by Tom DeLay's out of the census cycle redistricting. His aim was more than adding GOP House members from Texas to the group in Washington. He very deliberately intended to remove all White Texas Democratic representatives from the House, and he succeeded. DeLay wanted Democrats in Texas to be cast as a party of minorities, in contrast to the GOP in Texas, which would be seen the political party representing Whites. DeLay was successful. I would describe the entire thing as an outrageous act of racism that took away the representatives the people of those districts, despite being majority Republican, wanted in Washington. In my opinion. Why did I say all that in relation to Junior and the ignore list? At some point, who will we have discussions with? Each other? If all that is left here are progressive or liberal Democrats, and progressive or liberal Independents, along with the group of far-right trolls (some racist and/or bigoted, whether they own up to it or not) that so many here interact with, fruitlessly, I might add, what is there to discuss? Junior fits the description of those far-right extremists, but he seems so young and immature that I suppose I keep thinking that eventually a light bulb will go off and he'll realize what an idiot he has been. A waste of time on my part, I admit, but you got bored yourself, didn't you?
Sorry guys but I just can't sign off on the "look the other way" attitude all the time. We live in a media world now with Facebook, etc. that is chocked full of propaganda, and its dangerous when you can't tell the difference between what a regular poster who from Pearland says here and what is posted on Facebook from some far right wing conspiracy theory website that traffics in theories like the Pizzagate conspiracy, birtherism, or whatever. This kind of stuff, when its trafficked the way it is now needs to be called out as the crazy fake news that it is. Facts need to be brought back into the equation of public discussion. Anyone following my posts understands this about me where I've used the propaganda driven Antifa debate as a situation to educate people about exactly what is happening, how this is a propagated tool for political gain, and the historical context. It matters to our community and society where we have the ability to get in front of conspiracy and hive-minded group thought that allows millions of people to think a certain way for an extended period of time that they can never backtrack on because who wants to believe that they have been believing a lie for years? It makes me sad that Obama had to go out of his way to show his birth certificate and give the time of day to a troll like Trump to finally put that disgusting conspiracy to bed, but now The Trolls are in power, and you can't wait two years to put this nonsense to bed. If you see a conspiracy, and you see falsehoods... this sh#$ needs to be called out in 2017 until clowns and trolls are finally put back into the corner as the petulant spoiled children that they are.
I ignore less than handful of people, but he's consistently god awfully dumb. If I were to give him attention, I'd ridicule him for being twice(more?) banned hair gel boy with a wasted devry education who went full meltdown and talked **** about clutch fans on different forums, then came back to post racist alt right vitriol. I agree with the spirit of your post Deck. But this guy isn't worth the wasted breath. The people you want to dialogue with likely won't claim his topics.
In that case, you put up with a lot more than I do! My ignore list numbers around 50 members. I used to have about the same number on ignore that you do, but got disgusted and began stopping with essentially giving excuses for bad behavior. I've taken members off of ignore that I think have gotten tired of the trolling and regained sanity. Basso, for example. I still wish we had a feature I've called for in Feedback in the past. I would like to make the ignore function "forum specific." Some of those 50 odd members I have on ignore are fine to read in the GARM or in Hangout, just not here. And some I have on ignore are on there due to posts in the GARM, but might be OK elsewhere. Not a big deal, but if Clutch could make that change, it would make the BBS a little more enjoyable for me.
I also only have about a handful of people on ignore and IMO that's the way to do it. When you go full on Decard mode you are doing your best to create an echo chamber by ignoring all that don't agree with you and that can lead to people losing touch with reality.....as MANY in here seemingly have done. For me, I only ignore the worst of the worst who only seek to actively troll....and by troll I don't mean have opinions and ideas different than mine which sadly is the definition some people use. Actually, now that I look at my list, it's not a handful of people, it's 19 people. Well I still stand by that being the "worst of the worst" who only seek to actively troll. Also, if I thought for a second that there was just any possible benefit to hearing any of what these guys had to say about any given topic or that if there was any chance that if I engaged any of these people in conversation that it would lead to anything productive and not just be more of them trolling, then I'd take them off the list in a heartbeat. There are possibly some who are as bad or worse than some of these, but me not ignoring them doesn't lead to EVERY thread being derailed like it does with them and that's why IMO it's best for the forum as a whole for me to ignore these delinquents. DaDakota dmoneybangbang el gnomo fchowd0311 Honey Bear Hydhypedplaya leroy liveguy LosPollosHermanos mmottola26 Mr. Space City Nick No Worries Rocketman95 rockets11206 rockpileindisma SF3isBack!! Sweet Lou 4 2 tinman
D&D is a liberal echo chamber and they're upset that I'm disrupting their bubble. Typical liberals, they dish bullshit on here all day but can't take it back.
I don't even remember what exactly caused me to put him on there. I suspect that it is something like when I fold a garbage hand in poker. I rarely remember what I folded by the time the flop comes out, I'm able to just put that idiotic garbage out of my mind.
I've found that making the worst of the trolls disappear increases the enjoyment of the BBS. I don't get bogged down replying to some outrageous post by a member that is simply attempting to get people ticked off. Saves time!
What I see about the hard-right here is an ongoing propaganda campaign to portray the "libs" as this horrible group of people. The "libs" on this board do it as well but to a far less extreme. You only have to compare the post count of RL + Bobbythegreat to the combine postings of all the hard lefties on here. I never considered Invisible Fan a liberal either. That guy (or girl) is definitely moderate. I've come to thing that the extremists on this board are just mentally ill. That's the only logical explanation given what they put up. That's why I am trying to refrain from attacking them too much anymore. It could be a mental illness and we should be compassionate to them. Of course, they would attack that attitude as being a "bleeding heart liberal".
