Time to Leave?

Excessive paranoia on display.

It looks like it turned into a yet another discussion about someone's purported IQ.

What happened Lead?
What do you mean with leaving?
This is nonsense!

weve just completed a rancorous election cycle and suffered a major attack on a governmental "palace" . Since the opinions about both of these issues seem widely polarized people apparently judge each other by those two topics and opinions seem to drip into other threads,

Also, the large number of religious opinion threads ,from my experience, results in furthr ill will among correspondents.

Other topics of interest seem to come and go with the seasons. Im afraid that the interweb has helped create a means of faceless communication that breeds extreme beliefs and consequently, extreme valuations of others.


I still find interesting topics , Im only saddened in that they often just poof out after a few posts.

I would often take refuge in other forums and even there you will see how the animus builds because you or I have no obligations to be courteous. I know damned well that if we would talk to each other in public like we do on the interweb there;d be a lot more emergency room visits.

I was on a carpentry site a few weeks ago where several people were taking really mean shots at each other over the value or superiority of Festool over Milwaukee power tools, or hand cut dovetails v dovetail pattern cutters.

Most of us are limited in our interests and our mastery of things like needle work or deep sea fishing are of interest to a scant few, so what you consider really interesting threads dont have a predicatbly long life.(But they often get revived for a hort time years later)

I am a junkie to the political threads because the amount of evidence presented from printed sources about some celebrity or politician (or both) is often amazing. And when someone whose good at using these data presents an argument, I find the result fascinating an right to a point (even though I dont feel I have a dog in the fight)

I recall, in the "old days" of places like ABUZZ, the concept of ungracious discussion (in my recollection) was just as common as it is now. I recall a series of threads on ART (mostly studio painting), where a few artists on the board would call each other vile names because they didnt agree on the artistic genius of Pollock over Rothko. It was total bullshit of course but the discussions were as passionately followed by two or more enemies who carried on their fights for uncountable pages , where they became more comedic than deeply convincing.

I often take breaks and read or get back to the studio for a few hours a day.
Fortunately weve got a fairly large handful of really good correspondents which I use for learning and "road checks" of my own world views.

Ive found lately that Ive got more interests than I thought I did, so I dont get as excited about how this place is going to "hell in a handbasket" as much as I used to.

Take a break, do some skiing out there (or try to go to a coffee shop and listen to other BMW owners go on interminably about their cars) , youll be back).

I thought this was about Guantanamo Bay or Diego Garcia.

Yes, time to leave.

Hmmm? Religion and politics are contentious subjects to discuss amongst strangers and near-strangers? How woulda think it?

Seriously I think there’s often times operatives that often are “sent out” on a mission to garner support and increase disinformation. Not in all cases but enough of the time to be visible and attempt to do “damage”to the opposition. It always fails and is just feels as a nuisance level.

On a different note, I, too, found additional interest due to boredom with forum participation. My S/O Marvelous Maxine and I are making more arts and crafts. Last year we took a few months and made a 30-in high papier-mâché sculpture of baby girl Indian elephant. This one
has no tusks so it was a tad easier.

Then for our next project we mad a colorful Mandrill mask. It was walk in the park as compared to Hairy Elephante sculpture. It hangs on our wall of fame.

Our current project is a white tiger mask. This includes bright blue eyes and eyelashes.

Photos can be seen if anyone s interested.

If people loved the Truth Politics would have worked 3000 thousand years ago.
We have story telling and disinformation because most people rather have group/tribe narratives than facts.
Personally I have no trouble in admitting that I have Liberal and Conservative values. I take from both sides what makes sense.

I agree with the operatives idea. There was an article in WaPo a few months before the election about that very thing. Many get kicked off by TOS violations and others "Just ;eave after elections"
But its not the "RUSSIANS" , its usually more home grown.

My point (in the center) was that the internet ha bred a certain kind of "Netiguette" in which anonimity has bred incivility.

While as an individual I welcomed the silencing of much disinformation and nonsense twitting I also admit that closing accounts of world leaders sends the wrong message on who has de facto power and nullifies standard politics which is already a clown show. The idea that this is normal is playing with fire!

To say the least, these are not normal times. Public access like FB and Twitter as an example is instantaneous regardless of qualifications or accuracy. The fact that Trump’s account has been cancelled is overall a good sign as he has shown that his behavior of yelling fire in a crowded theater is deadly and damages our democracy.

trouble with that is you assume that everyone plays with a full deck.

Its just amazing what "real time communication" can lead to.

(wow, the thumb-down monkey is working hard on this thread)

I suspect the admins know who they are and that they're getting around the one thumb up/one thumb down per IP address/user account limit. I suspect it's the same person or group who managed to explode at least one particular conservative post into the triple digits of thumbs up.

Anecdotally, that might have been a one-off experiment and maybe I should speculate but I'm wondering if there are any negative consequences for these actions. Other than the existential consequence in making a2k a sweeter harbor for QAnon spouting monsters.

I think it’s one or two sad individuals with multiple sock puppets.

The UK can leave if they like.

The US will stay.

Aw, stick around. Something interesting is bound to come up. Anyway, I like your avatar.

The problem is not just real time communication but rather real time communication with thousands of peers and trying to get your voice loud enough so you are noticed among the crowd. This leads to hyperbole disinformation straw man and all kinds of tricks to form a tribe around your voice...

People feel lonely without a tribe and the tribe cannot exist without a common enemy.

...oddly enough we now have 2 polarized global big tribes on any topic of debate...globalization was never so better. The ones who believe nationalism is back are getting it wrong big time.

I just recall reading some of Sam Clemens stuff about when he was a newspaper eitor and had these editorial battles with "letters to the editor"types of arguments. It sometimes took years to get to a heated argument that the internet is able to develop and host within an afternoon, and Clemens , of course, was always working the crowd for humor.