I'm worried about DUers who spend too much time at FreeRepublic.

[RandomKoolzip]

I've noticed a virtual avalanche of threads today that link us to FR threads. Nothing unusual about posting links to FR wingnut topics; the unusual thing is the number of them.

Frankly, I'd prefer that there be some sort of "designated DUer" who goes over to FR and brings back pertinent/insane information, rather than dozens of links which pump up FR's hit count. I'm uneasy about giving Freepers the impression that they matter through heavy hits.

Plus, just going to a FR thread is unpleasant and confusing as all hell. The place is like a hedge maze designed by Otis the drunk. I can't for the life of me figure out who is responding to whom, and the way the messages are displayed is so dry and lifeless it's just depressing to go over there; never mind the disgusting opinions on display, it's got to be one of the worst-designed sites on the web in terms of clarity and viewability.

So what is the attraction for so many DUers? I can understand knowing how the enemy thinks and stratgizes; hell, in this day and age, no one needs to do anything but watch network news to gauge that. I can also understand needling the freepers by stealth posts and lurking, but good god, sometimes I get the impression that the obsession with freepers is unhealthy. After all, the freepers are not the Death Star, they're mere stormtroopers...the Bush Maladministration is the big bad Empire we should be fighting. FR is piss-ass penny-ante stuff.

So, clue me in: am I just being a jerk, or does anybody feel queasy about all the Free Republic-linked threads?

[Patriot_Spear]

1. I'm with you...

Can you shake hands with the devil and just say you're kidding?

Reference: They Might Be Giants

[La_Serpiente]

2. The guy with the homer avatar can be the guy

but I don't think we should be linking things from Freeper-ville.

Read this post by Will Pitt on why Freepers link us to their websites:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=695086

[PVnRT]

3. I do too

I always wonder about the people who spend a lot of time over there - do they just enjoy getting angry, or what? As for "knowing what the enemy is thinking," it's pretty obvious what they think - you don't need to go tramping off to FR and devote threads to it.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

4. Yeah, it's a guilty compulsion for me.

I'm trying to go Cold Turkey.

[dmkinsey]

5. Really

I think the same thing about folks listening to Rush, O'Reilly etc. That stuff's bad for you. Shouldn't get too close, you'll get sick.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

6. i agree

i also think that it gives the impression that We are so right because They are so wrong. An anthropologist might say that we are identifying who the "We" are simply by learning who the "They" are, and as a result finding out who we are not. While this is true, we cannot inspire by becoming conservative - by being sidetracked by conservative arguments - rather we progress by formulating ideas.

[supernova]

7. Agree

I don't visit FR very often, maybe once a month. I don't get the obsession with generating the "Look at those freaks!" threads, either.

So, they're different from us? So what? We do better to keep our minds focused on what we're doing. Besides, it just makes them want to come over here and start trouble.

[Sting]

8. I don't waste my time at FR...

they don't deserve my presence and they don't deserve my wise thoughts. :evilgrin:
Sting

[Lars39]

9. I agree. Strong stomachs need to draw straws.

And it won't be me. :)

[Wickerman]

10. I've followed links there 3 or 4 times

and I gotta agree with you. Otis on a bender coulda done a better job laying that site out. 250K a year to run the site and it it looks like shareware. The content is mindnumbingly lockstep right. Original thinking would get you banned - from all appearances.

[LoZoccolo]

11. I think of some of it as "comic relief."

While it's true that there are scary threads, some of them are way way funny. It's a bit of a relief from all the serious stuff going on to read someone's conspiracy about "political turtles" and what not. Plus I suspect some of the bizzare stuff comes from DU infiltrators!

[Robbien]

12. One of the ranking considerations at Google

is how many times you are linked to other sites. So every time someone puts a freeper link over here, freeperland articles will be ranked higher on google and more people will be aware of them. So linking freeperland is defeating our purpose.

[RandomKoolzip]

14. Thank you for pointing that out...

That's exactly what I was trying to say in my origianl post. I remember checking out FR's Alexa stats and how they compared to DU a few months ago and I was shocked to observe that FR's were higher than DU's. Then I took all the DU lurkers into consideration....

[Loonman]

13. You're all right

It's better to ignore a problem.

It makes it go away faster.

[RandomKoolzip]

15. That's a gross exhaggeration of my point.

Conservatives and their wacked-ass views are always going to exist. Whether their continued existence constitutes a "problem" or not is beyond our realm of discussion.

My problem is with the DUers among us who spend most of their day there, trolling, gathering "check out these freeks!" posts and then linking them to htreads on DU, which in turn generates hit count points for FR, indirectly bestowing legitimacy upon the freepers. I have a problem with the morbid, time-consuming fascination a lot of us seem to have with the lowly brownshirts of the right, when we have yet to formulate a strategy on how to panfry the real big fish, the buttplug in the oval office and his cronies.

I'm not suggesting that if we ignore Freepers that they'll go away. I just think that there are more productive activities than cataloguing the minutae of freeper insanity. And for god's sake, stop giving them hit counts!

[Zomby Woof]

16. they go on my ignore list

Every time someone feels compelled to tell us breathlessly, "what is going on in Freeperville!!", bam - ignore. I read and post here to GET AWAY from those clowns. I ALREADY KNOW what the "enemy" is "thinking" (I use that term loosely). Why do I need reminding here?

I find usually, though not always, that the people who continuously remind us of "what they are saying on Lucianne or FR or Hannity" rarely post ANYTHING ELSE.

It also really cleans up the pages in each forum - I don't see Rush's, Hannity's, or FR's names very often. :-)

[Midwest_Doc]

17. Visiting the FreeRepublic Energizes My Liberal Soul

We must know what we are up against. While the general lack of intelligent discussion,and the plethora of jingoistic, bible-thumping emotion is amusing; it also serves as a call to action for Progressive activists.

The dishonsty of the FreeRepublic is most easily demonstrated by a common call for "Poll Freeping" - where a poster will summon like-minded lemmings to participate in an on-line poll, with hopes of artificially skewing the results to the right.

Nothing makes me more proud to be a Liberal than knowing my political philosophy separates me from those who are Freeps.

[Robbien]

19. Visiting them can be a good thing to reinforce our ideas of

what we do not want and are fighting against. But giving the dark side link credits is not a good thing.

[piece sine]

23. I agree with you.

I, too, find it interesting to occasionally venture into FreeRep. but I've never felt compelled to post. For what? To appease myself? I know what I believe and why. I want to know how they think. And if I come across a rare salient point or observation, can I counter it?

Those visits can charge my "fire-in-belly" anger more sincerely that the rise I get reading posts here.

Some DUers want to tell me what they think I should think about wingers. I just care about what I really think about wingers and to do that, you gotta deal (or at observe) real wingers.

Full-disclosure: almost everyone at the office in downtown DC where I work is a total Dem....with every major Dem. Presidential candidate camp enjoying a supporter base. It's no Walmart, that's for sure.
So I temper my comment by admitting I hardly ever get to observe the sentiments of wingers living and working DC's Dupont Circle. Lovely, yes...but a political goldfish bowl and I know it.

When I want to know what the folks who shop and run Walmart are really thinking, I glean more intelligence on my own then by reading about what they think from reporters or other posters. Most times I leave Freeperville feeling smug about my cool beliefs, but can they ever scare me sometimes!

It's like a horrible car crash; you can't look away.

[caledesi]

18. I like to visit Freeperville, when there is bad news about * etc.

It's fun to watch them squirm and say outrageous things like "just wait till we find those WMDs."

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

[henslee]

20. I'm worried about Duers who spend too much time on DU.

[RandomKoolzip]

21. LOL! I wasn't gonna get into that, but....

I'm sure that can be a problem too...lack of a social life and all, etc.

[caledesi]

22. Hey, I am guilty! Wanna change all that? LOL!

[VOX]

24. Agreed. It's like staring at a car wreck -- hard to look away...

I used to go over there and measure the enemy, but I found it so predictable (The Clintoons!) and repetitious (The Clintoons!) that I stopped.

It's just not a healthy thing to do. If we've got a DUer who wants to do "tunnel work," let's put them on it.