But at some point some one has to get to know you to become one of those who really know you.
That rarely happens in an online forum like this. It can happen — there are certainly people here who have read enough of what I have written to have some understanding of what I believe.
But a lot of people here have no interest in understanding, or paying attention to what is being said. Instead, they will read a thread, and if they don’t understand what is being said, or if what is said doesn’t fit their particular preconcieved notion of what a “conservative” is, they don’t seem to know how to argue other than to use buzzwords to dismiss the person who has posted.
Most people simply don’t care to pay attention to what people post. Even I don’t care that much to follow a person’s posting history. That works for me because I also don’t look to make personal attacks based on what people post — I’m reading what is written and commenting on the ideas, not trying to score points by calling people names.
There are only a few people on the site that I actually recognise by their names enough to feel that I am responding “personally”, rather than simply adding my comments to other random comments.
There are threads where people act more personably to one another, and certainly other freepers treat this more as a community where they deal with one another on a personal level.
In the end, while serious people could easily determine the truth by looking through people’s posts, most people won’t bother. I did have one poster, I can’t remember who, actually attack me for not having posted enough individual threads, and for having a majority of my comments on the “24 live” thread.
I don’t even know how you would respond logically to that sort of argument. I don’t think it is meant to BE a logical argument. It certainly isn’t a discussion of ideas or philosophy.
Anyway, my point wasn’t that people can’t get to know you — it’s that you shouldn’t look for validation from anonymous posters on the internet, nor should you waste time arguing with people over what YOU really believe, because of the two people, one actually KNOWS what you believe, and the other is pretending to be a mind-reader.