Has Anyone Noticed The Number Of Longtime/Newtime DUer's Leaving DU ???

[jobycom]

368. My observations as another longtimer, also. And that applies to more than HRC.

The reason I don't post or visit here much anymore is because the quality of discussion has sunk to about the level of Republican/general public/Fox News/AddictingInfo.

I started hanging out here in 2001 or so because, despite the fact that there were multiple degrees of left that I didn't agree with, there was a high level of discussion and intellectual integrity. If I wanted to argue why Ralph Nader was a turncoat, there would be a healthy resistance who would douse me with facts, figures, and logic as to why that wasn't true. I might not have my belief changed, but I would always leave with a better understanding of other opinions, and a slightly different angle for my own beliefs. I was inspired to grow intellectually and ideologically.

Now this place just looks like the typical comments section of any local news site. The few people who argue facts and logic are buried under an avalanche of non-sequiturs, bogus news sources, non-contextual quotes and details, pseudo-science, and just plain old personal insults. I remember when personal attacks would get even legends of DU banished, or at least suspended. Now they seem the norm.

A while back I ventured over here and saw one poster in a thread repeatedly trolling on how evil Islam was, how the religion was sexist and violent and all of the other stuff you'd expect from Franklin Graham and his ilk. I tagged one or two of the posts as racist. I got a message back that said a jury had voted that the comments weren't racist because they weren't about skin color, but about religion. It was an uninformed technical hair-splitting of the type I'm used to from Republicans, but used to not see here so much. (For those that don't understand the terms "race" or "racism," they refer to any grouping by birth or ethnic characterizations--the idea that race is about skin color is one narrow, recent definition. It also refers to language, national origin, ethnic backgrounds, etc, so that Islamophobia and antisemitism are both forms of racism.)

That approach is aimed now at HRC, as it was eight years ago, too. I'm not a particular HRC supporter. Now as then I hope someone I like better gets in the race. I'll vote for her if that's the best of the options. But I hate the level of discourse here now. I can get this on Facebook or the Austin American Statesman's comments section. People are too easily fooled, and too eager to jump into a Republican style debate based on emotions and gimmicks to win an argument rather than an honest discussion to understand the world around us. Yes, it's always been like that to some degree around here. The degree, though, has really changed. This whole jury system doesn't seem to do much about keeping people decent.

So, that's why I'm rarely here, even though I used to live here.