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immamac

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This is only half right. It was a response to the devolution as you said. But it really greased the path for the almost complete conservative exit from the board as the only comments bringing moderated out and leading to bans were from the right. 
that’s my take anyway. Maybe I’m wrong. 

You’re wrong.
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predictably, and without any sense of irony, many of you morons in this thread immediately started staking claim on which group owns the CR, and interpreting "no politics" as "their group dont want to post in the CR because they didnt want to hear our opinion"
 
no politics means we're not interested in your opinion , either conservative OR liberal.  news can be news without the need to editorialize.  the rest of the world dont care if you jerk off to nancy pelosi or betsy devos. 

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There are no good political discussion forums anywhere on the internet.  They have all polarized and solidified around their own particular dogma.  Two things happened to drive this, neither have anyhting to do with Trump.  It began before Trump and will continue long after he is gone:

1. Game psychologists figured out that points systems with upvotes & downvotes keep people checking back more frequently.  All forums have adopted a system of the type.  To get points and not get banned or posts not shown, posting behavior gets culled and shaped to the collective views of the few most active posters. 

2. Professional marketing groups use the internet to quickly disseminate their messages, and these slogans and messages have infected the entire internet.  Virtually everything that gets discussed is on the latest selected hot topic and the same crafted talking points gets repeated (or simply just linked to) over and over.

Go check out any forum on the internent and within two minutes you will know what type of messages will be well received and which type will not.  The general consensus on poltical forums of all types is that everyone else has gone extreme or crazy, and they are simply being rational centrists.  They all think others who challenge the dogma are trolls who flee in fear from their brilliant irrefutable logic.  I have no idea why they think this, because true trolls do not flee from being countered; that is what they are after.  

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1 minute ago, synoptic said:

There are no good political discussion forums anywhere on the internet.  They have all polarized and solidified around their own particular dogma.  Two things happened to drive this, neither have anyhting to do with Trump.  It began before Trump and will continue long after he is gone:

1. Game psychologists figured out that points systems with upvotes & downvotes keep people checking back more frequently.  All forums have adopted a system of the type.  To get points and not get banned or posts not shown, posting behavior gets culled and shaped to the collective views of the few most active posters. 

2. Professional marketing groups use the internet to quickly disseminate their messages, and these slogans and messages have infected the entire internet.  Virtually everything that gets discussed is on the latest selected hot topic and the same crafted talking points gets repeated (or simply just linked to) over and over.

Go check out any forum on the internent and within two minutes you will know what type of messages will be well received and which type will not.  The general consensus on poltical forums of all types is that everyone else has gone extreme or crazy, and they are simply being rational centrists.  They all think others who challenge the dogma are trolls who flee in fear from their brilliant irrefutable logic.  I have no idea why they think this, because true trolls do not flee from being countered; that is what they are after.  

That's not true at all - there's lots of good discussion here that isn't driven off of an agenda or current events. I know that the threads with that as the focus are what you are talking about - but there are many other threads that are just great discussions on general policy and stance. Those are actually the ones that are the least polarizing because people aren't starting from a position of defending or attacking, just simply thinking and positing. 

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4 minutes ago, immamac said:

That's not true at all - there's lots of good discussion here that isn't driven off of an agenda or current events. I know that the threads with that as the focus are what you are talking about - but there are many other threads that are just great discussions on general policy and stance. Those are actually the ones that are the least polarizing because people aren't starting from a position of defending or attacking, just simply thinking and positing. 

I'm sure there is some good discussion on this site's political forum.  But virtually every forum has been thoroughly culled at this point.  I've not found an exception.    

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On 5/27/2021 at 1:13 PM, mdmost said:

Oh, I get you're busy. You just find weird moments to explode on people and other times you seem to not give much of a care. Perhaps in addition to moving threads, you move those people who constantly violate the rules to where they can only post in CR? If someone is a perpetual violator of bringing any politics into these threads, move them to the CR and keep them there. The problem you'll find is each side thinks the other side is the only one bringing politics into DT and needs to go to the CR. 

And as I've said multiple times, remove rep from the CR and ban anyone who goes on neg sprees outside of CR. You want people to talk politics only in CR, make rep bombing impossible. People don't discuss anything, they drive by and neg rep things they disagree with. 

This has nothing to do with politics, but the fact that @immortal13 repped a post about blind negging is fucking hysterical.

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17 minutes ago, synoptic said:

There are no good political discussion forums anywhere on the internet.  They have all polarized and solidified around their own particular dogma.  Two things happened to drive this, neither have anyhting to do with Trump.  It began before Trump and will continue long after he is gone:

1. Game psychologists figured out that points systems with upvotes & downvotes keep people checking back more frequently.  All forums have adopted a system of the type.  To get points and not get banned or posts not shown, posting behavior gets culled and shaped to the collective views of the few most active posters. 

2. Professional marketing groups use the internet to quickly disseminate their messages, and these slogans and messages have infected the entire internet.  Virtually everything that gets discussed is on the latest selected hot topic and the same crafted talking points gets repeated (or simply just linked to) over and over.

Go check out any forum on the internent and within two minutes you will know what type of messages will be well received and which type will not.  The general consensus on poltical forums of all types is that everyone else has gone extreme or crazy, and they are simply being rational centrists.  They all think others who challenge the dogma are trolls who flee in fear from their brilliant irrefutable logic.  I have no idea why they think this, because true trolls do not flee from being countered; that is what they are after.  

Joe Pesci everything that guy just said is bullshit gif. 

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7 minutes ago, synoptic said:

I'm sure there is some good discussion on this site's political forum.  But virtually every forum has been thoroughly culled at this point.  I've not found an exception.    

So you have checked out the entire Internet eh? That’s damn impressive. 

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1 hour ago, hayden_horn said:

the conservative exit from the board, on shaggy, was possibly due to what led to the [serious] manifestation. 

what a lot of you don't understand is that a lot of moderation is driven from reported posts. you don't report, often we don't see it. generally, my goal is not to take any action on anyone for any reason. the whole point of these boards from shaggy to here is free discourse. the only rule is no trolling.

and that's the rub. defining trolling from honestly misled people. i think too many times, people make people a troll in their mind when the poster actually believes the bullshit they are spewing. generally, i side on the "this person is honest" side of the equation, which is why i rarely take action on the political board, aside from calling people out like a normal poster, but not as a mod. 

the whole reason for [serious] was because people weren't actually engaging in serious discourse. and there was a not insignificant group of posters who really did want that. some did not, and they trolled those threads. and that accounted for what you perceived as moderation bias. the desire for actual discussion was the genesis there. and i understand that it did not work as well as it could have, but that's not entirely on the moderation. a community is a sum of individuals. 

i took a RATION of shit for any moderation move i made on the old site. i think much of it was unfair. marvin the martian comes to mind. that dude was obviously a troll, but when i banned him, i got called out repeatedly for bias. nevermind that i banned trolls on #bothsides. the one obvious right wing troll, and come the fuck on, he was obvious, got me catching a ration of shit. 

and this idea that people on the "right" were getting banned left and right is utter bullshit. i can probably count on my ten fingers the number of posters who earned a holiday for trolling. almost nobody was proper banned. that i can count on one hand. perception bias is a hell of a thing. i really think some of yall need to have a think about how you perceive things versus how things actually are. 

conservative posters schism'd from cloak room on the move here because of the timing. it was impossible to be honest about donald trump because the man is fundamentally dishonest. that's why some left the cloak room. many left the site altogether, i reckon. swam, tahoe, the insidiously dishonest but clever laphroiag (known by many names, but always detectable).  notably, many conservative posters did not leave. @ChiTownDoc and @Ghost of LL and @Lobo come to mind. yall think the cloak room is liberal for some reason. it's far from it. ask @bad_teammate, and he'll set you straight. he thinks all these republican converts are fucking up the show for proper democratic policy. 

yall came here to dt because you don't want to get called out, and you got no real defense. that's the sum of it, imo. i acknowledge my biases, and i like to think i'm honest with myself, and i always second or third guess before i take any moderation action. but you (not you, wulaw, the editorial you) have CLEARLY wanted to bring political discussions to the daily texan. whether it is to bait people into coming offsides, or doing it yourself, you are engaging in pretty clear shenanigans.

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Dude- keep reading. That was a lot of words that basically just said exactly what Ana and I both said- which was that the reporting was out of balance not that the moderation was horrible. 
the idea itself?  Bad. Clearly y’all saw that as it disappeared so I don’t think I’m breaking ground there. The long term effect though was the creation of the cabal a they all handed together- reported every post- ran people off or got them banned- and then were left

yo preside over the most loathed board on this site by the vast majority of posters. 
yeah- we get it- you were just reading reported posts. 

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7 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

Dude- keep reading. That was a lot of words that basically just said exactly what Ana and I both said- which was that the reporting was out of balance not that the moderation was horrible. 
the idea itself?  Bad. Clearly y’all saw that as it disappeared so I don’t think I’m breaking ground there. The long term effect though was the creation of the cabal a they all handed together- reported every post- ran people off or got them banned- and then were left

yo preside over the most loathed board on this site by the vast majority of posters. 
yeah- we get it- you were just reading reported posts. 

What? He already said he didn’t hardly ban anybody. You think the cloak room is the way it is because of reported posts? That’s pretty laughable. 

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I tried to find a news tweet that was from about this time last spring, might have been summer that I posted in the DT covid thread. Straight up news, not opinion iirc, but one which pointed out the failure of the previous administration. News, in the news thread, from a credible source got about 2 dozen reactions. I ended up at -2. 

I didn't find this place the second time because of politics. It was that stupid sports radio station that drew me here. I stayed because it's vile and amazing. Buncha goddamn assholes that will spam the vote to get an old lady a hearing aid. 

Being an alum made it more appealing. But, I could tell immediately that if you're going to survive you had better lurk in some areas. There were severe penalties for transgressors. Football and CR were the most risky. Spout off some hot sports opinions and you could very easily be escorted to Bolivia. A heavily repped neg bomb would squish a noob. FC Horn wasn't going anywhere. Swam and Rocko weren't going to be fatwad. 

Then it all changed. Rep went to zero. Rocko and Swam didn't last a week. 

And then Trump. It cannot be overstated how much his presence changed the discourse. People that were center right on here and TOS, well-established posters, became disgusted with what the R party became after Trump. They never left CR. They expected Tahoe et al to y'know actually defend their drive by posts. He wouldn't and was shown the door.

I don't know if there's any fixing it. 

I am not sure it needs fixing. I got called a "brave little soldier" for something political on here. Couldn't possibly care less. I have been called a dirty fucking hippie irl. 

Woo. Who cares? 

I report stuff. I have had my stuff reported.

Game on.

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1 hour ago, workswithseed said:

I think Escriva not coming over was always sad for me. He was a good poster. @Axiom of Choicedoesn't post enough either.

Lmao you know that Icono requested his account(s) and posts to be deleted right? Just wait for some low post count sock with hot takes that you reflexively agree with, and that's prolly him back for another round

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19 hours ago, Nivek said:


Workswithseed was welcomed but his posting material and snark earned the ire. Sack earned the ire of people because he would post incorrect or misleading content.

This is just absolutely stunning and why I don’t waste my time there.  From a group of people who did nothing but spend three years and tens of thousands of posts circle jerking to Russia election conspiracy theories   

It is a waste of time arguing with the insane.  I’m doing better shit right now.   

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16 minutes ago, Johnny Sack said:

This is just absolutely stunning and why I don’t waste my time there.  From a group of people who did nothing but spend three years and tens of thousands of posts circle jerking to Russia election conspiracy theories   

It is a waste of time arguing with the insane.  I’m doing better shit right now.   

Says the guy who didn’t vote for Trump in 2016, saw the results and said, yeah, that’s what I want in a president.

 

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3 hours ago, Captainant said:

Lmao you know that Icono requested his account(s) and posts to be deleted right? Just wait for some low post count sock with hot takes that you reflexively agree with, and that's prolly him back for another round

What the hell does Icono have to do with Escriva or AoC?  

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2 hours ago, JimmyJames said:

Says the guy who didn’t vote for Trump in 2016, saw the results and said, yeah, that’s what I want in a president.

 

Yeah, you gotta hate a strong economy, low unemployment rates, secure borders and energy independence. What were we thinking?

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7 hours ago, synoptic said:

2. Professional marketing groups use the internet to quickly disseminate their messages, and these slogans and messages have infected the entire internet.  Virtually everything that gets discussed is on the latest selected hot topic and the same crafted talking points gets repeated (or simply just linked to) over and over.

Go check out any forum on the internent and within two minutes you will know what type of messages will be well received and which type will not.  The general consensus on poltical forums of all types is that everyone else has gone extreme or crazy, and they are simply being rational centrists.  

It is true that the astroturfers have been around for a good 15 years, maybe more.  I remember seeing a group astroturfing for Rick Perry's Presidential run back in 2012.  And by seeing, I mean I knew some of the people involved (and they didn't call it astroturfing, it was marketing mumbo jumbo "community outreach" or whatever).  Saw shitloads of product marketing bullshit back in the mid-2000s on a site I ran.  After I kept banning their accounts/spam bots, they straight up tried paying me (aka "sponsored posts" as they are known these days).

On the other hand, those people/accounts are usually found and dealt with quickly.  Marketers, even with the bots available these days, are simply not going to spend the time to build up accounts with legit posting histories that can be taken seriously.  They are somewhat hit-and-run, and especially these days with the bots (and the anti-bot/spam software a lot of sites use), but they are aiming for pulling down low-hanging fruit for a cheap price, and it costs them practically nothing to spam any and every site they find, on the off chance the site is not filtering spam.  Places like Surly and reddit can crowdsource them pretty quickly though, and that's why they were pushing so much money into Facebook and twitter marketing, because it was paying off for them in spades there, without the need to worry about being filtered out.

There is plenty of good political discourse out there, even on social media sites like reddit, and I'd argue there is some good discussion here.  And I say this as a former Republican and former Libertarian.  

But I really think you are dismissing Trump far too much.   The guy knows reality TV, and he knows his audience/supporters, and they give no fucks about political discourse, it's about winning for them.  Somebody has to "lose" in order for them to "win" and when that mindset kicks in, yes, political discourse goes out the window.

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8 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

the conservative exit from the board, on shaggy, was possibly due to what led to the [serious] manifestation. 

.......

conservative posters schism'd from cloak room on the move here because of the timing. it was impossible to be honest about donald trump because the man is fundamentally dishonest. that's why some left the cloak room. many left the site altogether, i reckon. swam, tahoe, the insidiously dishonest but clever laphroiag (known by many names, but always detectable).  notably, many conservative posters did not leave. @ChiTownDoc and @Ghost of LL and @Lobo come to mind. yall think the cloak room is liberal for some reason. it's far from it. ask @bad_teammate, and he'll set you straight. he thinks all these republican converts are fucking up the show for proper democratic policy. 

Don't forget those conservatives/Republicans who didn't actually exit, but went moderate, independent, third-party, or even switched to liberal/Democrats.  Or they just stopped posting, because as you or somebody else said, they didn't want to defend a lot of stuff.

Would be interesting as hell if we could get some demographics all up in here and see that kind of stuff.  While the conservatives in my parents generation (okay boomers!) went hard right with Trump, those in my generation stepped back, disengaged on some level, or some even switched parties.

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32 minutes ago, immortal13 said:

Yeah, you gotta hate a strong economy, low unemployment rates, secure borders and energy independence. What were we thinking?

That was good under Obama until trump came along and fucked it all up. Luckily we threw his ass out and voted in Biden to get back to that though. 

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4 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

That was good under Obama until trump came along and fucked it all up. Luckily we threw his ass out and voted in Biden to get back to that though. 

I was just checking out the stats and thinking if that were really the metric, the dude must have loved Obama relative to Bush.

Especially the border stats. Remember Navarro’s editorials excoriating Obama for deportations? I remember. Navarro, strangely, went silent on that front. Funny, that.

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1 hour ago, JimmyJames said:

That was good under Obama until trump came along and fucked it all up. Luckily we threw his ass out and voted in Biden to get back to that though. 

Pos rep'd to offset immortal's neg, AND because it's fucking hilarious.

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It'd be interesting to see how many people have switched parties, or at least went independent, over the last 5-6 years.

Political parties are kind of like when you're in your 20s and get married, and you make verbal agreements with a couple of potential backup wives/spouses.  Then when you hit your 30s and/or have kids, what you are want out of a backup wife is far different from what you wanted in your 20s and so you find other potential backups, and then it changes even more when you are in your 40s.

Sure, a lot of people have no plans on ever getting divorced or widowed, but the potential is always there and you should be prepared.  Same thing with political parties.  Never tie yourself to a party that you can't extract yourself from, particularly if that party stops being about a platform and starts being about a person.

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47 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

It'd be interesting to see how many people have switched parties, or at least went independent, over the last 5-6 years.

Political parties are kind of like when you're in your 20s and get married, and you make verbal agreements with a couple of potential backup wives/spouses.  Then when you hit your 30s and/or have kids, what you are want out of a backup wife is far different from what you wanted in your 20s and so you find other potential backups, and then it changes even more when you are in your 40s.

Sure, a lot of people have no plans on ever getting divorced or widowed, but the potential is always there and you should be prepared.  Same thing with political parties.  Never tie yourself to a party that you can't extract yourself from, particularly if that party stops being about a platform and starts being about a person.

Strange analogy. I’d say it’s more akin to you’re married and then your wife gets into Q anon and sets the house on fire so you have to divorce her because she’s lost her goddamn mind.

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2 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

Strange analogy. I’d say it’s more akin to you’re married and then your wife gets into Q anon and sets the house on fire so you have to divorce her because she’s lost her goddamn mind.

Umm, that's exactly where potential backup wives comes into play - things go to shit for you, you divorce Mrs. Fatal Attraction, and hopefully one of your potential backup wives has also divorced and is available.

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1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

It'd be interesting to see how many people have switched parties, or at least went independent, over the last 5-6 years.

Political parties are kind of like when you're in your 20s and get married, and you make verbal agreements with a couple of potential backup wives/spouses.  Then when you hit your 30s and/or have kids, what you are want out of a backup wife is far different from what you wanted in your 20s and so you find other potential backups, and then it changes even more when you are in your 40s.

Sure, a lot of people have no plans on ever getting divorced or widowed, but the potential is always there and you should be prepared.  Same thing with political parties.  Never tie yourself to a party that you can't extract yourself from, particularly if that party stops being about a platform and starts being about a person.

I’m not a relationship expert, but I’m pretty sure having agreements in place with multiple back up wives isn’t how marriage is supposed to work.  It seems the majority of the effort should go into selecting and maintaining the primary wife.  Maybe I am naive. 

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2 minutes ago, synoptic said:

I’m not a relationship expert, but I’m pretty sure having agreements in place with multiple back up wives isn’t how marriage is supposed to work.  It seems the majority of the effort should go into selecting and maintaining the primary wife.  Maybe I am naive. 

You obviously haven't read the divorce threads back on Shaggy and here on Surly.

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