How Many Members Would Prefer Homogeneity?

I will not offer an opinion as to whether you stay or go. In my view, it seems to be a clash of personalities, more so than arguing points of view, at the crux of the issue.

I hadn't noticed that A2K is mainly a forum of progressives. It seems to me that the dominant political voice on here is right-of-centre American conservatives, with a scattering of gun nuts and 'small-government' libertarians. Also some complete whackos. I daresay you interpret anyone disagreeing with you as a conspiracy of liberals. To answer your question, I would get bored if there weren't any posts by people like you. If all I read were "How can I fix my Rainsoft?" and "My boyfriend punches me out every night, but I love him", I'd go somewhere else.

The question presupposes that everyone on A2K perceives all conservatives that post here to be just "like you". The truth is that some progressives here don't get along with each other even if they agree politically about practically everything. I have a lot more tolerance for some conservatives than others. It generally has to do not as much with what they believe, but in how they express it.

You and I have established we don't like each other, and the 'why' of that has only tangential bearing here. But to answer your specific question:
No, I don't want homogeneity in my country, in my neighborhood or even on my discussion forums. The only conservatives I wish would leave are the ones who can't seem to disagree without employing derision and condescension.

Like you.

I recently read a definition of libertarian which i considered very cogent: someone who wants a small government, with a strong police force to protect hims from his wage slaves.

**************************

As for the thread topic, you can't beat this place for comic relief.

You know where I stand Finn, we have talked.I love you man.

I want to say Thank YOU publically for putting up my goodbye letter, you are one class act, too good for this place.

I am at a bigger much better pond now, with Cold Joint, Frank, Oralboy and many others . A few great people left here have heard from me recently, since I was allowed to log in why not.

I am more friendly in my new home since I have decided that trying to be all about the ideas did not work, come on over and see me, I even PM now believe it or not! I would love to poach good content writers from Robert, who does not appreciate you so you should question why you are helping him out. I tried to teach him, I think he is unteachable.

Guess what, I talk exactly as I did here there, it was not an act, Robert was wrong as usual. There I am appreciated though, which is nice. And Moderation is more fair, which is nice.

Thanks all, it was a decent run. I had decided in DEC to never post her again because Robert is an unjust idiot, not worthy of me, but what do you know.... I changed my mind.

Later taters, Robert the idiot jerk is sure to perma ban now.

I know too much.

BYE.

I'm glad to see you back Hawkeye. I think you are being too hard on Robert, who it appears was merely trying to shock the site back to more civil behavior in a situation that was indeed perceptibly deteriorating . I don't follow things here closely enough to know reliably if there were any unnecessary excesses or biases in hs actions. It's simply an observable fact that the central tendency here is on the liberal/progressive side of the political spectrum and that the crowd is a bit intolerant with disagreement. However, I suspect they are only dimly aware of that.

I never realizwd that Finn considered himself so much a pariah. I think hes just tired of taking verbal abuse for a recent thread he started in which he got his spelling wrong and never said "oops I fucked up"--He just went out swinging at his detractors in a "class action dust-up"

Howwver, thats another post . However, Naming yourself , together with folks like Frankie, and coldjoint as "reasonable" is a hoot.(I dont think "reasonable" is a word that comes to mind IMHO)
Frank and Coldjoint, are not missed by me , but not for reasons of how they fielded their arguments. They just get boring with their single tricks and interminable "Last line insults" (No class at all from those two).
Many of the Conservative side do "do their homework" quite well. McGentrix, Georgeob, Roger,and oralloy come to mind. IM sure there are others. Finnsy too, is usually on the point, he just has a silly habit of getting into these silly fights over relatively small points of his or others theses.


...AND..., as Setanta once said, "We are all conservative about one or more issues"
Ill add to that by saying, very few of us buy the entire pitcher of Kool aid, that full blood Conservatives or Liberals are accused of. Theres a lot of "you people... " crap.




In my observation, Youve gone because you had been publically admonished and are now trying to make your "Time out" as a bigger deal than it really was and are exiting ,while engaging in rather childish pointing of fingers as a final act. (Not too classy).
Then to exclaim that "you know too much" is a bigger hoot. I never knew that this was industril espionage in action.

There are lots of folks of liberal stripe whove left because they felt that this site had a minyan of conservatives on most days.

Im glad for one thing, I now know that Cold joint has gone and I can take him off ignore.



I do wish you well , and I hope you find what youre looking for in a chat room.

I'd prefer:

If A2K had mainly progressive members, I wouldn't have joined. And to be honest, I haven't seen here more than a handful of progressive members during the nearly 14 years of my membership.

I enjoy the kitchen-, make-up- and similar threads, too, but those you mentioned are really annoying.

I think that squabbles about political alignment among Americans are so often hilarious. I am reminded of some lines from Shaw's St. Joan:

THE CHAPLAIN: But some of the most important points have been reduced to nothing. For instance, The Maid has actually declared that the blessed saints Margaret and Catherine, and the holy Archangel Michael, spoke to her in French. That is a vital point.

THE INQUISITOR: You think, doubtless, that they should have spoken to her in Latin?

CAUCHON: No: he thinks they should have spoken in English.

THE CHAPLAIN: Naturally, my lord..

Americans are so often unable to think in any terms but the narrow, and silly, terms of their own parochial interests. This describes just about everyone in the world, of course, in some respects. But really, the distinction of left and right in American politics is like two people sitting next to one another in a theater. One is on the left and the other is on the right, but they basically see the world from the same viewpoint.

When you from a side at a teaspoon, it's convex - seen by the other as concave.
But it's the very same teaspoon - a discussion about that would be a storm in a teacup.

i would prefer Parthenogenesis

thats an archaic term . Kinda like "Humours"


Yeh, I just looked it up, its now "agamogenesis" with several distinct manifestations if youre a diecious plant , an insect, or a reptile or amphibian.


Dont thank me.

I don't tend to like homogenous forums. I spend a lot of time on the daily kos site because its Daily kos elections digests are the kind of detailed, downballot and data focused threads an election geek like me likes, but the rest of the site is exasperating exactly because, for however bitter the democratic primary pie fights there are, it's such a self-contained bubble of liberals. Vice versa, I am just as happy reading the equally geeky, but explicitly conservative RRH Elections site.

That said, just like on the left I like, say, Jacobin, but I roll my eyes at Common Dreams or Truthout - and it's not how radical the views are that makes the difference but the quality - on the right it's also not equal what kind of conservative input we're talking about. E.g. I have little time for bigotry, conspiracy theories or obvious ignorance. When the populist, anti-immigrant, anti-muslim right first emerged in Holland as a major force, I spent about a year on one of their web forums, reading along and interacting, with a little distance, because I was curious. Now, 14 years later, i can predict their rhetoric in my dreams and there is nothing intriguing, instructive or interesting anymore about their ravings. As for you, specifically, I appreciate your input in some threads (like the one about the toddler and the alligator), but your thread about jo cox's assassination fell firmly in the latter category. Apologetic posts about acts of domestic terrorism aren't objectionable because they're "conservative" but because they're apologetic posts about acts of domestic terrorism.

Hey!


As for other sites vs a2k, it is easy enough to check multiple sites for replies to your posts whenever you get a free moment to post online. Why choose only one or the other?

I did think it was funny when the Leftists tried to hijack the Orlando shooting thread with all their inane babble about gun control, and the moderators put an immediate stop to all of their off-topic babbling.

And I really like their special rules for Middle East debate. Accusing Israel of Apartheid will get someone banned from the entire Middle East posting section. So will things like accusing all Palestinians of being terrorists, but I find that when I don't have to counter extremist nonsense to begin with, I don't have to use such harsh rhetoric, so it's kind of nice.

But where would you go, what would you do? This site has offered you and given you numerous possibilities and hours upon hours of unmitigated fun (along with occasional irritations, which are meant to keep you on your toes).

The political and indeed the religious/anti-religious climatudes here can be exasperating at times...if you allow it to be. The same is true of the taunts which are hurled around. Ignore them. Post your ideas and thoughts and pay no mind to the persons who have nothing more to do than call you names or advise you to hit the road.

My views in the political world are often met with ridicule (and that's on a good day), yet I perservere (usually). And keep in mind that whereas you may have several who wish to attack and deride without actually adding substance to a thread, there will be those who share your views, even though they may not always make a post. I myself have grown weary of making posts in threads where the tenor is clearly going to be one sided and making mockery (at the least) of one or two select individuals within the thread (and it often seems to be targeting in that way).


So stick around, as Missy (you likely don't know her) would say, 'put on your big boy pants'. Unless you cross into forbidden territory in your posts, {see this thread about rules: https://www.able2know.org/topic/321632-1 } things should be good. Just mentally place your headache causers on ignore,that way you can read their stuff and then rise above by ignoring them. (my exception on that one being when they make an unfounded statement or a straight out lie regarding me as an individual)

Homogenise and pasteurise.

Homogeneity? Hell no, some of my best friends are wackos.
Some would say all of them.
They're all here for a reason.

I know of no other site that offers the almost cruel diversity that A2K had offered in the past. I can see that Robert has plans to bring his site into line with all the otheres wherein moderation is often much less open to such diversity .
I mean, Ive seen sites where our unique "argue about some dumass little word until you drop" would not be tolerated after maybe two "semi-snotty" post exchanges by the combatants. Herein, such a dust up can go on for pages and pages with no resolution.

Im a member of several sites that arebased on narrower focused interests and on one site, some guy was banned for a week for calling another WOODWORKER an "idiot" for using handcut dovetails .

Imagine that happening here.

I disagree mightily with oralloys definition and scope of "freedom" and of the reach of the second amendment. We see the issue from two entirely different poles of being. I still run to his posts to read his take on gun related issues, and Ive learned to understand how most people like he and David see that the second amendment is beyond the law . I have learned a whole lot and have adjusted my opinions (not about the desire for change-but about the methodology that will have to be employed to achieve such change)

We cant get all nasty and personal in these threads. It bothers me a lot to recall some sets of posts wherein I used personalty, political leaning insults, or physical appearnce as a debate method. I am trying my own growth in "net" communication.
Im trying to look at many of these arguments as a means to gain deeper insights into an issue or into entire worldviews.

MAny of our arguments are bsed upon a "learning curve" into what the internet has wrought. We can all sound like instnt experts in many areas where , in the past, wd hve to attend a Chataqua style lcture about ny issue. Now we run to Wikipwdia and grab a low hanging fruit and use it as an offense.

I think we are all way more sophiticated in having learnt the "ropes" of what this service provides and , all I can say is, Ill bet our discourses would be much more civil (ON ALL SIDES) were we to engage each other face to face.

Weve exchanged knowledge for civility in many cases.

Goin fishin