Vanity (Long Vanity) DU Opus

du thread ^ | May 4, 2012 | self

[lacrew]

After 283 Posts at DU, I have been Tombstoned.

I used the same username I have here, and have generally tried to be argumentative, rude,…and educational. Alas, I have been found out. The last straw was abortion…and let’s face it, most of modern liberal philosophy revolves around abortion. So, I flew too close to the sun, and my wings have melted.

I really thought I could gently nudge people on DU in the right direction. But what I found is a group of immature and emotionally damaged children, constantly craving for attention and an idol who will ‘make it all better’. Yet, they are very dangerous. What did I learn:

1. No logic skills. Any attempt at thoughtful discussion, or bringing facts into an argument will immediately be dismissed. DU posters will disengag, with epithets and other dismissive ‘I’m done with you’ statements. They absolutely cannot back up their beliefs in any logical way, and will always resort to name calling.

2. Immaturity. I suspect many of them are college students, too dumb to know how the world works. And some are what I call the ‘gray ponytail crowd’. These are the truly sad ones – people in their mid 60’s with the emotional IQ of an 8 year old. They have lived for over half a century, yet still blame a nebulous group of bogeymen for all their troubles. And, quite frankly, they seem to have lived very unfulfilled lives.

3. Affirmation. There is a groupthink mentality at work. Often threads start with an all caps ‘THIS IS WHY’…and then you fill in the blank with the cause de jour. Comically, however, these poor souls in search of positive reinforcement get none – as nobody replies to their thread. Which leads to the next observation:

4. Dead end threads. People will log on and post random thoughts, almost like a Twitter tweet. Often times the title gives no hint at what the post is even about. The vast majority of these have no responses. This results in a fast moving procession of threads. Also, less than half the threads have a link of any sort…they are merely somebody so pleased with their own opinion, that they just have to post it (I know pot meet kettle, but it’s rare for me).

5. Victimization. If you peruse the threads on this board, we find examples of bad policy, and our disdain for how it erodes our system, our constitution, the future for our children, etc. On DU, the threads are about threats to me, me, me! The GOP is going to take away stuff from ME! This overlaps my immaturity observation.

6. Jealously. They are very concerned with what goes on at Free Republic. They all know who Jim Robinson is…most here do not know who their leader is, nor care. They often link to Free Republic, to point out the terrible things being said. They even copy and paste text from this site fairly regularly. I have been tempted to do the reverse, but I just consider it ‘bad form’. There is one person here who posts the Dummy Funnies already…I’m certainly not going to duplicate his work, and I don’t think anyone wants this to become a ‘look how bad they are’ posting society (again my own hypocrisy is not lost on me). They often bash this site, not for its content, but for being ‘outdated’. Honestly this has puzzled me, because their site may be new (and certainly expensive); but, I don’t like the way the threads are organized, and it seems impossible to search for posts by individual user. In short, their derision of this site’s technology is misplaced. They also seemed stunned that rating services which measure hits and unique visitors give similar scores to the two sites. They just cannot fathom that Free Republic has just as many members as they do….and it bothers them greatly.

7. Idol worship. This also falls in with affirmation. Out of the blue, a poster might post a photo of MO, and declare how wonderful she looks, or just post how glad they are that BO is ‘my president’. And these threads do get lots of responses – a groupthink lovebomb approach that cult leaders have used for decades.

8. Sadness. These people cannot be happy. It is fundamentally impossible for them to exist, without worrying about green Armageddon, how some employer is screwing them, how the bankers have more money than them, etc. Most also live a life completely without God. And, they are so consumed with themselves, they don’t experience the joys of helping other people, sacrificing their aspirations for their children, etc. Just hollow souls – very, very sad.

I plan to post this on DU….it won’t stay up long, but maybe it will help one person there escape from the deranged society. Maybe.

[libertarian27]

You’d be surprised ...lots of people read those and never comment...you can be the toxic avenger! lol..
.and you could turn it around...set the mood for the site...