Why is every message board on the internet

[waldenx]

infested with republicans?

Science message boards crawling with them.
Art boards flooded with them.
Psychology boards polluted with them.
They even defile obscure music sites.

Trying to find solitude has become impossible.

[SoCalDem]

1. Because they are pushy, nosy busybodies

who feel compelled to ruin as many people's days as possible..:)

[LunaSea]

2. check the servers for pods

I've seen a couple of art boards that flatly refuse to allow discussions that have nothing to do with whatever their particular art-bent is.
There seems to be a great attraction toward politics as an entertaining game like football. Ideas don't matter, it's who shouts loudest.

[Gore1FL]

3. A friend of mine got kicked off an Atkins diet support board

For addressing an anti-dem message. I am not sure if the original poster was removed.

[opihimoimoi]

4. Part of the Pysops by Pubs. Like fleas and ticks, they everywhere

making troubles for the Left.

Theyt like to talk morals but

unable to walk it

Pity

[Lexingtonian]

5. It's a side effect of the Right's agitprop

Basically, the Republican Party now needs every single vote every time- the math is a bit tedious to explain, but in numbers the national Republican electorate (conservatives+conservative-leaning voters) dipped below 50% in late 1998 or early 1999. The decrease in that percentage is about 2.5%-3% per four years consistently. Around 47% support they can't count on third parties (Reform, Green) sucking off enough votes for them to win pluralities anymore. The basic Republican strategy is to subvert or suppress as many poor and minority votes as possible, but they have realized that at least as important is that they need ever greater efficiency of turnout of their own.

So, to drive the efficient turnout the leaders of the Right have very much suppressed internal dissent and need a running agitation/propaganda campaign to distract the unhappy (but disorganized) portion of their electorate. The way to make such a campaign effective is to break effective dialogue with the Other Side, create a level of cognitive dissonance with it, then keep on making meaningful communication impossible by a running bombardment with emotional but unresolvable challenges. Unresolvable emotion-manipulating problems lead to a kind of hysteria in the intended audience, which then in turn demands simplistic answers and wants to be relieved of the difficult responsibility of solving the things they get confronted with. It makes for a group of people who will vote, at close to 100% participation, in conformity with that one (often counterfactual) source of information and interpretation they feel dependent upon.

Anyway, the side effect of this scheme is that you have a lot of people who are told that the Left works by "intimidation" (we call it truthful/fact-based argument) and who have all kinds of feelings that their lives are miserable and constrained but don't dare question their own leaders or their own political choices. They also live in a curious alternative reality where things never really change, where people never really move on or grow to wisdom or escape a certain kind of mental/spiritual patheticness. Mediocrity.

And the more the agitprop grinds at them, the more desperate their leaders become in the face of poll numbers and disparate facts, the more their mental fortresses get shelled to bits by media exposure, the more raids into their rear their opponent makes...they lash out anywhere and everywhere.

They'll get even more incivil for the next year at least. Decisive defeat of their masters is what it will take for the whole thing to go utterly bitter and then suddenly implode. Here's hoping that November 2 2004 will do most of the trick.

[rock]

14. A very insightful analysis

Well done. The Republican party is a failed party within a democracy. That is why they have to use every extra-political means possible (read illegal means). Only if they can convert the US to fascism, will they be successful.

[oldshoe]

6. Duh...

because there are a lot of them, they have computers and spare time?

Just like us.

What an incredibly stupid thread this is. Take time off, you who started this, and do something physical like clean your room, make your Mom proud.

Jeez!

[waldenx]

9. interesting

all the other people understood the rant except for you. Do you need a metaphor to get it? Ok... pretend you went to the library(you know what that is?) and there are people there playing loud obnoxious music. Get it yet? Or should I explain signal detection theory?

[Kat 333]

10. This is the 2nd thread

I've read in a matter of minutes that you have taken the time to respond to (giving your opinion) while stating what a waste of time or how stupid the subject matter is. hmmmm ...
That seems rather odd.
Have you considered limiting your responses to threads that are worthy of your intellectual superiority ?

[soleft]

11. what an incredibly stupid post this is

Take time off, you who posted this, and go read a book about civility and human kindness.

[BiggJawn]

13. Perfect example of Walden was taking about....

Yeah, if the Foo shits, wear it.

[izzie]

7. We are more alike than you think?

They also seem to have this mind set. If I make good money I am smarter and they think in black and white and grays are hard not to get mad at.It is like this. I learned in collage how much I did not know but ask a Freepa and he will tell you how much he does know. Right now they seem to think they know what is best for you, me and the rest of the world. I do not know one Dem that thinks like that.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. Then here's an anomaly....

Law and Order boards seem to have a liberal bent, with a few loud-mouthed conservatives venting from time to time and making it obvious why the others don't like them. The whole liberal/conservative thing came up because of the advent of Sen. Thompson coming on board as the DA in the series, and making pro-war ads for Bush. I was happily surprised to see how many liberal people read the boards. Maybe this happened because it is about only one TV show, and many of the boards are small special interest boards. But I do find it interesting.

[emad]

12. Cos they're desperate and know just how bad it's going to be

better to out them now than to have to winkle them out later

[AmandaRuth]

15. I've seen it myself

I know for a fact that Rethugligan propaganda firms, the so called think tanks, PAY people to spread their bs propaganda on as many discussion boards and newsgroups as they can, sometimes covertly, sometimes obviously.

[SiouxJ]

16. I had to quit a support group website

because they couldn't resist keeping their repuke propaganda to a minimum. They just ASSUME everyone is as shallow and narrow minded as them and post their idiot remarks. I finally got tired of having to point out why they were wrong and left. It got to a point where it was hurting my health, not helping it."Morans" are everywhere!

[xJlM]

17. The internet used to be almost all Libertarians

Back in the early to mid 90's, only geeks and some technically proficient people knew how to hook up to a network. The net was filled with gun loons and others of limited social skills. With the advent of AOHell and Microsoft's "point and click" technology, more folks began to discover the internet and how easy getting on line was.

[Az]

18. Human nature

It is easier to express anger than it is to express support. When things are right we tend to stay quiet about it and allow things to continue. When we are angry we tend to get uppity and stick our nose in.

Unfortunately another part of human nature is when we hear things repeated enough we begin to believe them. Thus the angry crowd tends to propogate faster than the supportive crowd.

[Blue_Chill]

19. They probably think the same thing lol

I know that I give them hell on many message boards.

[arwalden]

20. Same Here... But It Got Old And Tiresome To Be Continually BANNED...

from (supposedly) non-partisan boards for simply challenging the republiborg.

I gave up.

They were all hard-core anyway. Nothing I say would ever change their mind.

One thing is for certain. They are a bunch of whiny cry-baby tattle-tales who can't STAND it when anyone disagrees with them or proves them (demonstratively) incorrect and misinformed.
-- Allen