Is it generally accepted that all "newbies" arrive brain dead? --- Absolutely not. Most come here with some disdain for Scumbag and in time learn to really hate him. I like that.
Is there a "trial period" followed by some sort of rite of passage? --- No trial period. They just have to avoid being blithering idiots and spouting the DNC party line. If they use key words like "stolen election," "killing old people and babies," "poisoning the water," or "oil man," they have nothing I want to hear.
What name is given to a newbie once they graduate? --- Why, FReeper, of course.
And just a general observation: I take it you don't really like x42 very well. :) --- Surprisingly, I thought I loathed him as much as was humanly possible. After seeing him rush to NY and fondle female victims, the loathing became even more intense. His destruction of our security, which some of us have been screaming about for 8 years, is why we had 9-11-01.
That will be ten "yeses", although #5 is actually a guess since I was not aware of the background -- but a rather easy and obvious guess.
I have more fear of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-Hell), but x42 was the one with the pen and the camera so he was the one that actually inflicted the most damage.
Do they really say that? About Cheney or Bush or both? I think that's inspired! It's so much better than their usual fare. C'mon Doug, lighten up. Give the Devil his due. (Or is it that it's so late at night that I'm giddy, and my expectations of those guys are so low?)
There really ought to be an intermediate stage between "newbie" and "Freeper"--something like "Freepling".
"Freeper" would seem to connote someone who freeps or has freeped. It seems to me someone ought to have participated in one or more freeps before one can be considered a true Freeper.