Often, yes. :) I normally argue on websites where that is the norm, rather than the rule. When people "lose" it, it is a wonderful opportunity to make fun of them.
Even though that type of behavior is explicitly prohibited by the posting rules?
People ought to obey the rules of the website's owner. That is just courtesy and respect to the house. However, I have noticed that a lot of people get away with it because the moderators can't be everywhere at once.
Let’s just lobby to toss out the rules, then, and push to make it okay for anybody to post whatever the hell they please.
I wouldn't go that far, but if there is a real effort to do something along these lines, a special "flame" area could be created. I would probably spend a lot of time in there trading insults with Liberal trolls. :)
The alternative is to put in an addendum, that the posting rules apply only to so-called ‘birthers’, and anti-birthers can flaunt the rules w impunity.
I will have to admit that the rules are not prominently displayed. I think i've come close to getting into trouble a few times because I wasn't aware of this policy either. (Or if I had read it, I forgot about it.) I would like to see the rules made more prominent so that people can claim no excuse for breaking them.
For some reason, the "birther" issues invoke a lot more emotion than you would think. I would have thought that everyone could see the problem with Obama's legitimacy, and even if they disagreed I don't see why they would spend a lot of time specifically arguing that he's eligible. That has always provoked in me one of those "Huh?" moments. The idea that conservatives would bother defending him even if they thought there was nothing to it, just never made sense to me, but I've seen too many of them do it.
If you have ever read the "Ace of Spades HQ" website, you would know that EVERY SINGLE Staff member at "Ace of Spades HQ" will argue tooth and nail that Obama is eligible, yet they provide a constant stream of postings and articles from the conservative perspective. I have had dozens of arguments with every one of them, and they get quite nasty, (still do, when the topic comes up once in a while) but I have no doubt whatsoever that they are all conservative minded people because their opinions going back for the 5 years i've been reading them are consistently conservative. They raise money for conservative candidates and help organize the vote. They are just wrongheaded about that one issue. I don't get it, but the evidence is overwhelming that this is the case.
In any case, please don't take my defense of SoJoCo's conservatism as being disrespectful to you. From what i've read of his comments, he didn't seem to be a Liberal troll. (apart from the insults and his position on the eligibility issue) He would fit in at various conservative websites (at least the parts that I read) with out controversy. Now mojitojoe informs me that I didn't read far enough, and I have to admit I didn't read back more than a couple of weeks. Mojitojoe has read all the way back to the beginning, and is convinced the man *IS* a troll. As he has more experience at this sort of thing than do I. As he was right about the last one he pushed into the lightning, I defer to his judgement.
I admire your opinion and look forward to seeing more of it.
Thanks for your reply. I appreciate what you’re saying. I used to visit Ace of Spades multiple times daily, and I’m aware of his and his followers’ attitude toward ‘birthers’. It never bothered me, because I enjoyed his commentary on other subjects. However, he’s changed in the past few mos. First, he started hero-worshiping Perry, and it was embarrassing and disgusting. It all came down to Perry shooting a coyote, which is a stupid thing—to put it kindly—on which any ‘conservative’ to base a cult of personality.
What pushed me over the edge was his vicious treatment of anybody who disagreed w Perry on Gardasil. That was flat out ugly, and not something any conservative should be proud of. Ace took the lie Perry told about giving the dying woman a ride on his motorcycle and used it to club to death the last of those who dared express reservations. When it came out that Perry met the woman AFTER he signed the legislation, I visited AoS a few more times to see if Ace would apologize. He never did, and that was that. He may be a conservative, but he acts like a jerk.
Re: SoJo. I do not call him a troll because he is anti-birther. Please see my post #629. I am well aware that there are many fine conservatives who strongly oppose what they call ‘birtherism’. I’ve had discussions w several of them. We are both aware we’re arguing w a conservative. It’s possible to disagree—even hotly and passionately—w’out descending to demeaning insults and puerile name-calling. In the end, no one’s mind is changed, but we still respect ea other as fellow conservatives.
SoJo argues in the same way a DUer/liberal argues w a conservative. It’s all about put-downs and condescending insults. There is no common ground or respect, just childish hostility and trollish rudeness. That detracts from the site and undercuts the spirit of the posting rules. FR is not a wild west AoS, or at least it’s not supposed to be. The more posters like SoJo wallow in their name-calling nastiness, the less you can tell the difference.