What I like about my fellow A2K-ers...

We're going out to the club, our reservations are for 7:00 and we'll be home by 10:00. Escargot are on the menu, and there aren't many occasions you can get escargot in Marble Falls on purpose.

We haven't been to a party in 15 or more years. This the first time we haven't been home in a very long tim.

The village creates the savages.

If y0u build a community with a stockade, you define insiders and outsiders. The more exclusive and insular the community inside the stockade, the more conflict there is with outsiders, and the more anger on both sides.

This is true in American history. American history was about exclusion, building restricted areas where people were comfortable because of their uniformity. And it is true here. If you are going to build an insular group based on conformity and exclusion... you don't get to have these nice little Hallmarks.

If you want to have a kind, inclusive community, then build it. The savages outside the stockade don't have the ability or the responsibility.

But don't act like an asshole to people fit in and then pretend that everything is nice. If we have learned anything in history, it is the smug people trying to live in ordered safe spaces behind walls who are the problem. The savages on the outside of the stockade aren't the people being unreasonable.

If Able2know was truly a decent, kind, accepting, diverse community... than this thread would be appropriate.

It is not that.

If all members were truly decent, kind, accepting, diverse - they wouldn't jump in a thread to declare it not appropriate. Especially, since they had left the thread now (= 14 hours ago).

Some people just can't be nice. Hopefully the move to Mexico and its hot, spicy, fibre rich diet will finally get those sluggish bowels moving.

I know who I am. I know my role here. I am comfortable with it. I don't like the insular nasty group Able2know has become, and I am actively trying to change it up.

When there is an exclusionary club that needs to be opened up to a broader community, people on the outside need to be disruptive. I am OK with that.

But no, you don't get to have a Hallmark moment and pretend that this isn't a nasty place to anyone who doesn't conform to a rather narrow set of beliefs.

There are several members on A2K with whom I've argued and yet have actually come to like as people. We may disagree about politics, we may disagree about religion, and we probably disagree about many other things but I've come to see them as decent, thinking people and I respect them. I have no difficulty allowing them to state beliefs and opinions with which I disagree, nor do I feel any need to challenge them.

On the other hand, I've angered a few people who I used to get along with – but I've felt no need to feud with them. This place is big enough for everyone to have his say and small enough to have zero significance in the ultimate scheme of things, which only happens in a truly decent, kind, accepting, diverse community.

jcboy always puts a positive spin on things and a smile on my face, and Izzythepush is full of facts, as is Walter, most of which I was unaware. Great founts of info.

A2K certainly is somewhat different these days, but I don't think it's anywhere near as nasty. For the most part, people here are respectful and when someone has to spend a night in the hoosegow, to paraphrase engineer, things calm down for a bit.

But I remember prior members getting downright mean and ugly, name-calling, insults flying, disparagements, etc. That really doesn't happen much or with very many anymore.

In an insular community, nastiness is viewed through an ideological lens. Izzy, and Neptune and Glitterbag are objectively nasty. There is countless examples of name-calling, rude responses and personal attacks. Note Izzy taking a cheap shot about Mexico on this thread that has nothing to do about Mexico.

If nastiness from people inside the bubble doesn't count as nastiness, then people claiming that Able2know has gotten "less nasty" just means that the group has gotten more insular.

I can speak from someone outside the insular group... it hasn't gotten less nasty. If anyone cares to go and count the nasty comments and personal attacks, I think they would find that they are wearing rose colored glasses.

Civility is inclusive, if you are civil then you are civil to everyone. If you are only kind to people you agree with, that isn't civility. It is tribalism.

Izzy is accepting and decent to Neptune and Hightor... these are people in his circle. That isn't impressive when a large percentage of his responses are nasty personal attacks on people outside his ideological bubble.

Mayberry RFD (rural fire district) was a 60's TV show about a small town North Carolina town and its sheriff. It was very small town and very quirky. Each week, Sheriff Andy would have to solve some small town problem with the local residents.

Thank you I'd managed go work out it was some some sort of small town in America but that was it.

So that would be a self-assigned role, I presume. You are here to proclaim your moderate libertarianism; you have labelled all who disagree with you as extreme liberals. Is that inclusive? Aren't you guilty of judging and name-calling yourself?



How exactly are you trying to change it up? By labelling and ostracizing and ridiculing those you've judged to be extreme liberals? Who made you judge and jury, anyway?



Why do 'clubs' need to be opened up? And who is part of this 'exclusionary club'? How does one become a member?



There you go again - 'anyone who doesn't conform to a rather nasty set of beliefs'. What and who the hell are you talking about? What are these nasty beliefs? Where do you see that?

I don't agree with some of what you post but I don't get virulent about it. I have slammed you for your behaviour and your labelling - mocking, judging, belittling, ridiculing, condescending... all of which I have experienced thanks to you and only you. No one else has called me an extreme liberal (which you haven't even defined despite my request) or a kitten.

You should look to yourself to see what you have written. You're guilty of what you charge others, max.

Actually Mayberry RFD is a great metaphor for of Able2know. It is a whitewashed utopian vision of rural America where everyone gets along because everyone is the same.

I don't believe there was ever any diversity on the show; even the housekeeper was White.

Mayberry worked because everyone was the same. You don't have to have acceptance or deal with perspectives that challenge you if there are no difference.

I would love to see the episodes where Mayberry dealt with Black Lives Matters, or a gay couple moves in. Insular communities don't respond well to people who are different.

I don't believe I have ever called you an "extreme liberal". If I did, than I crossed a line and I will give you an apology. That being said, I have no problem saying that a position, on either the left of the right, is extreme.

Attacking a position is not the same as attacking a person. If you tell me one of my positions is bigoted, or that an argument is idiotic... it leave open the ability for you to support my arguments in on other areas. It is the matter of not making it personal. I am in no way claiming sainthood, but it is my intention to not attack people.

It is absolutely my intention to attack the group think here. There is a nastiness on Able2know that is aimed not just at shutting down opinions that are deemed unacceptable, but in destroying the people who hold them.

An significant insular group here uses personal attacks and nasty behavior to impose a correct way to think and a acceptable set of positions.

You can either have a kind inclusive community, or insular closed one. You can't have both.

No, izzy took aim at you, not Mexico. Because you've made this thread about you and your imagined difficulties here.

Man, you've been on this site a long, long time. Weren't you on Abuzz, as well, as maxsdadeo or something to that effect? From what I remember of that person, his posts were very similar to yours – and that was twenty years ago!


The very fact that you consider yourself to have a "role" here shows that you are – get ready – a member of the tribe. Tribes always have roles for different people and you've chosen to play the part of the grouchy gadfly.


No one has the power to "destroy" anyone on a message board! After all, you're still here, aren't you?

Part of your self-styled role leads you to criticize the opinions and behavior of other members, often harshly. People react in a similar tone. I noticed that no one is criticizing you or your post on the Hot Sauce thread. Why do you think that is?


And A2K is neither.

Izzy takes nasty shots at lots of people. You are defending him because he is in your ideological camp.

And it is not just thread; a while back Izzy was following me around from thread to thread in a series of insults. In a recent thread he called me a "White Supremacist" out of the blue in a couple of threads thread including one about vaccine mandates. It is not only nasty. It is weird.

I don't put your behavior in the same category as Izzy's. However, the group here is hostile to any difference in perspective and vocally supports Izzy when they are not piling on. I think this insular group is responsible for the nastiness of its members.

That is the problem with this thread. You have people who actively support nastiness toward any difference of opinion slapping each other on the back for what good people they are.

Your big mistake is in confusing others' dislike of your views with their dislike of your behaviour.

No one can argue or call you out for saying blue is the best colour. But if you're snide and rude and mocking, you will get called out.

I'm quite sure most here don't agree on lots of things - even the Dear Abby/Dr Ruth advice they give can be quite different. However, we don't talk to each other the way you do. If that makes us an insular group, so be it.

I'm sorry this has happened, a nice thread with you complimenting everyone turning into yet another poor me bleatfest.

Incidently, only a white supremacist would support the not guilty verdict of murderer Kyle Rittenhouse.

Nonsense Mame! Where is your criticism of the nasty behavior of Izzy, and Neptune and Glitterbag?

You don't "talk to each other" the way you talk to people outside the group. That's the definition of "insular". You applaud behavior from people you agree with that you would be appalled by if it were directed at you.

It has everything to do with conforming to the group. If it were about behavior, then you would police people inside your own group. That would be nice... however the nastiest posts seem to be the most popular (as long as it comes from inside the bubble).

I have tried to engage Max a number of times, giving the opportunity to be civil, but had to give up wasting both of our time. I don't know what he's got stuck in his craw these days and truly don't care.