To stay or not to stay ---That is the question.

This is an incredibly lame thread. Finn has little to add to this site. His latest thread before this one (at least of which i was aware) was to post a screed attacking Mr. Obama as a mediocrity, but not before Finn had posted a raft of ipse dixit claims about just how many presidential mediocrities this country has had to endure.

I challenged that statement. I made not personal reflections on Finn, although i was not in the least inclined to pull up on the sarcasm over what i saw as a completely unfounded statement on his part. His response to was to accuse me of being snotty--which seems to be one of his favorite epithets. Note his use of it his opening post here. He then threw out a random laudyr list of alleged presidential mediocrities for which he provided no justification. I challenged the judgments and Finn had nothing to offer. And along comes all of this wonderful cross-section of the membership to tell Finn how valuable a contributor he is and please don't go.

I'd say from Finn's point of view, this has been one of the most profitable ego-stroking threads he could have initiated.

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@Finn dAbuzz,

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

I've been wondering of late whether or not to stay engaged in A2K.

I'd rather you stay as there aren't a lot of people here arguing your side of the issues but if it's not enjoyable to you then there's really no reason to continue. A2K often gets boring to me, at which point I just tend to hang around less. I certainly don't think anyone should stick around when they aren't interested. But do consider something less than stay/leave as I've found that just coming by less often can make it more interesting.

Quote:

It's pretty clear that it has become an overwhelmingly left-wing forum, but I don't think that's, necessarily, a reason to opt out.

Well it started as an overwhelmingly left-leaning forum and is probably not going to change as much of the social internet is left-leaning (younger demographic).

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@engineer,

engineer wrote:

As to the shift in the left in the board, I think what you are really seeing is that some of your far right buddies have left post election and some moderate voices have been driven more left by the Bush administration.

I think this is the key. After the 2004 election, I swore off the politics forums -- I just couldn't stand the gloating coming from the right. No doubt the same thing is happening in the aftermath of the 2008 election, just that the shoe is on the other foot. I'm sure some right-wingers will return when Obama screws up, as he will inevitably do. Others are gone for good, like hobbitbob and others on the left before him. Oh well: tide rolls in, tide rolls out.

Frankly, I can't find it in me to extend Finn a whole lot of sympathy. In my experience, he gives as good as he gets, and if there has been a lack of cordiality on his threads, it's probably as much his fault as anyone else's. It just feels different because, this time, his side lost. I feel your pain. As for the good old days of A2K, when everyone got along and nobody got their feelings hurt, those days never existed -- at least in my time here. If Finn leaves I would certainly miss his late night drunk/high posts -- they at least were entertaining in a baffling way.

1 Reply

@joefromchicago,

Quote:

the other foot

antipodean slipper wanted

right foot only

please

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@Finn dAbuzz,

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

but A2K, from a political standpoint, is becoming less and less a forum for debate and more and more an echo chamber of left-wing thought.

I'm disappointed in the progression of the site, but not complaining.

With out reading any of the responses on here, do you think the above statement is more of a reflection of society then just this website?

I think about it this way...

Most of the 'important ( I use that term pretty loosely.. all elections are important.. but bear with me) elections have always been followed by chirping.
People who just follow the popular opinion, absorb and repeat only what they hear and you see a lot of so called " converted" voters.

Obama election was huge and had all kinds of hot points to it.
People LOVE and need to feel a part of something bigger than themselves. So instead of standing strong to their previous convictions, or .. looking at the possibility ( Mccain was not everyone's cup of tea no matter what side of the fence you were on! ) , people just accept and become part of the popular stance.

I do not think this is limited to A2K . But I do agree that it is showing up here. I remember when you could get a debate from both sides. Now, it does seem like.... if you are anti obama , you are shot down. Or anti liberal.. how ever you want to hand out that title.

I am willing to bet though, next election, people will begin to sway yet again.

2 Replies

@Finn dAbuzz,

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

I've been wondering of late whether or not to stay engaged in A2K.

It's pretty clear that it has become an overwhelmingly left-wing forum, but I don't think that's, necessarily, a reason to opt out.

It's also clear that there are a handful of jackasses who prowl this forum and who prefer to engage in personal attacks rather than debate ideas. Again, not, necessarily, a reason to opt out.
...

Don't let the Wealth REDistributors wear you down. Wear down the Wealth REDistributors.

http://able2know.org/reply/post-3786884

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So Ican, you slack-jawed clown, how's it going with the wealth redistribution to the defense industry and other sweetheart contractors of the right-wing lunatic fringe in America today?

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Quote:

slack-jawed clown

I really hate it when setanta ridicules the bewildered, it's not like that have any means of defense.

1 Reply

@Finn dAbuzz,

I'll say this: you are without a doubt the most hateful person I have ever had a conversation with on this site.

I certainly won't miss that.

You state that:

Quote:

I've tried to refrain from the back and forth with A2K snot-noses, but admit I've not been anything approaching perfect in this resolve. Sometimes these wankers just push me over the edge.

What a joke. You either start threads intentionally designed to be insulting and provocative, or swoop into ongoing threads with posts designed to be like that; and then you engage those who respond. The above statement doesn't really capture your responsibility for much of the back-and-forth that you initiate.

Cycl0ptichorn

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@dyslexia,

Oh jeeze, Boss . . . i was just tryin' to have a little fun . . .

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@shewolfnm,

shewolfnm wrote:

People LOVE and need to feel a part of something bigger than themselves. So instead of standing strong to their previous convictions, or .. looking at the possibility ( Mccain was not everyone's cup of tea no matter what side of the fence you were on! ) , people just accept and become part of the popular stance.

I know you're right. Sometimes, I just don't like seeing the world the way it is.

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Sigh !! Unfortunately the venom returns.

It is true that in some relevant issues here the tide does indeed flood and ebb; the roles of political incumbents have indeed reversed; and incivility has to a large degree been a more or less permanent component of this site and even the Abuzz site that preceeded it.

Despite all this, the impression remains that participation in this site is declining (it might be useful to hear something from Robert Gentel on this point); its domination by an ever-smaller cadre of fairly predictable posters appears greater than previously, and the incivility appears (to me at least) to be a growing relative component of the whole. There is a very real possibility that these things are causally connected. If so, it appears likely that we all have a stake in the outcome.

Alternatively, we could watch it go under as the last irate protagonists of comeuppance, retribution and just deserts hurl their invective at each other. Perhaps, as it goes under, a few of them will even briefly entertain the illusion that they have, at last, made their points.

I won't be here for the last act.

2 Replies

@georgeob1,

George wrote:

I won't be here for the last act

Don't you like to witness Pyrrhic victories, George?

1 Reply

@shewolfnm,

I think shewolf has the exact right slant on this. If A2k seems like a left-wing hangout, it's probably no more than a reflection of the general current political mood in this country. (The rest of the world has been left-leaning for the past, oh, 50 years or so.)

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@Francis,

Francis wrote:

George wrote:
I won't be here for the last act

Don't you like to witness Pyrrhic victories, George?

I won't consider it a victory at all.

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When the political tide swings more to the right, this forum will be flooded with "conservatives" again.

0 Replies

@georgeob1,

georgeob1 wrote:

Despite all this, the impression remains that participation in this site is declining (it might be useful to hear something from Robert Gentel on this point);

It's not declining. I've been hearing about how participation is declining ever since a few months after the site started and I really think it just means that whoever is saying it is bored of the site.

1 Reply

@Robert Gentel,

If you participate outside of the political threads, the rest of the site is thriving. There are many more active game, parental, medical, relationship, music and food threads. Many of those are started by first time visitors. If not ganged up on by those that drop in just to ridicule others, they stick around and participate in other threads too.

Those are the ones I participate in. Most of the political threads are predictable and, if interesting, quickly become boring with the usual "mine is bigger than yours" "well you did it, why can't I" partisan bickering. It comes from both sides of the political spectrum and usually from the same cast of characters on each side.

As to Finn, he gets what he puts into it. I think he's smart enough to figure out how to make his experience on A2K better. There has been many a political topic that I've learned something constructive from him. There have also been many a political topic that he helped quickly turn into one of those predictable and boring "mine is bigger" partisan spats.

There's more to life than just politics, Finn. Come join in on some of the other topic categories and get to know people for something other than their political opinions.

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Hey O'George . . . when you and Finn leave, take Ican with ya, OK?

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@rosborne979,

You know, all the old forums are right on the home page so if that's your preferred way of browsing (i.e. by category) it's actually easier than it used to be. There's no way of browsing threads that used to exist that no longer exists (other than a good keyword search).

1 Reply

To stay or not to stay ---That is the question.

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