I’d say ‘complete meltdown’ sums it up pretty well.
Actually, after some hysteria by people who wanted to argue about the core purpose of the site, this thread has mostly been a productive airing of ideas.
Yes, there have been some really nasty exchanges between small groups and sets of individuals here, but they had the power to stop their vitriol at any time by simply stepping out.
And there has been, in my minority opinion, a little too much glee over supposed conservatives going crazy and attacking other conservatives — I’d much rather have been able to talk some sense back into them rather than sending them off to fend for themselves.
But this is hardly a meltdown. We haven’t been reduced to nothing but name-calling. And in fact, throught the land of freeperdom, things are much more pleasant than they have been for a while, even with some rudy posters still posting. It’s been more civil, and good conservatives aren’t getting trashed nearly as much.
If this causes both sides to be more civil, that will be a great thing for the site. If this causes people to think twice before launching unsubstantiated attacks on conservatives, this will be seen as a good thing.
If this “purge” means that we can have spirited discussions once again about politics without the vitriol, we’ll be the better for it.
Whatever "meltdown" took place here began when a small group of posters orchestrated a campaign to browbeat the rest of us into supporting a completely unaccepable candidate. Like their candidate, they told us the issues we care about most are the divisive concerns of a tiny minority, so we should just "Get over it!" and jump on the bandwagon with them. I've heard all of that before, many times, but I have never, ever heard it on this website, and I joined in '98.