Normal people on FR just avoid topics that hold no interest for them or that they consider dead ends. Just like many don’t hang out on the Religion Forum, or look at “American Idol” threads, gun threads, and so on. People have lives, limited time, and so on, and generally read and post only on threads that interest them.
It is therefore quite - odd - that people who claim to have no interest in 0h0m0’s eligibility or claim to think it’s a dead end still insist on posting nonsense on these threads.
Very odd.
“Normal people on FR just avoid topics that hold no interest for them or that they consider dead ends”
True. Normal people also don’t expect internet forums to be echo chambers, no matter how divisive the subject matter. See, for instance, any number of FR’s recurring hopeless divisions and controversial topics. Why do Romneybots and Palinbots insist on going at it? Why don’t atheists and Christians stay away from eachother? What’s the point in having Austrians and the Chicago School, Lost Causers and Union men, or “social” conservatives and libertarians on the same threads? Because argument carries its own justification. Argument for the sake of argument!
“It is therefore quite - odd - that people who claim to have no interest in 0h0m0’s eligibility or claim to think it’s a dead end still insist on posting nonsense on these threads.
Very odd.”
That first claim sounds oddly self-serving for your side, but nevermind. Let’s assume those claims are made from time to time. There are countervailing claims. For instance, argument for argument’s sake. Also, that just because you can’t be convinced doesn’t mean that you should be allowed to monopolize the issue at FR. After all, we sometimes go to DU and HuffPo, don’t we? Speaking of which, there’s the outside world to think of. We don’t want birtherism and conservatism to be synonymous.
Finally, there’s the simple fact that we see the articles, click on them, nad respond to that with which we disagree rather mechanically sometimes. I, for one, don’t seekl birther threads out. They’re just always there.