If someone is repeatedly talking ridiculous smack about the primaries, why bother with them?

[LoZoccolo]

This is just some general advice while we go into the primary. If someone posts something so ridiculous, and you rebut it for the sake of a few people that might be led astray by it (say if it contains gross factual errors, or deliberate omissions), and that person comes back with some more ridiculous snark, why bother with them? If their argument is transparently manipulative, no one is going to be convinced by it anyways, and no one who pretends that the ridiculous smack makes any sense is going to change their mind if you try to talk some real sense to them. There are some people who want information about what each candidate is doing, and then there are people who aren't here to have their minds changed, and who aren't going to change any minds by the way they conduct themselves. Democratic Underground is not where things will be decided. Look at the candidates people get ga-ga about here, and then go look at how each candidate is doing in the real world; there's a huge disconnect, so you should know that your efforts for your candidate in real life will do more than your efforts on an Internet message board full of people who have made up their mind so firmly that they have resorted to combative and abrasive tactics rather than reasonable discussions that will hold their positions to scrutiny.

Pass over these people. It will likely get you more of what you want to spend time doing something else.

[NYCGirl]

1. Ah, but sometimes it's fun to smack 'em around a little bit.

You're very good at that yourself.

[Kahuna]

5. LOL. True that. What you said about the OP being good at smacking

around trouble makers. I gotta agree. Almost nobody on DU does it better. So a :toast: to LoZoccolo. I salute you.

[ElizabethDC]

2. Sometimes, I get bored.

The folks to whom you refer are fun to play with sometimes. It's a weakness of mine, I admit Yes, it's a colossal waste of time - but sometimes I've got time to waste!

[avrdream]

4. Unfortunately, these people aren't listening to reason, Elizabeth.

AND, I think it just encourages them to be even more irrational.

I have noticed that they disappear from threads a whole lot faster when no one is paying them any attention.

By the way, I admire your persistence in responding wisely. I just think you are talking to the proverbial brick walls.

[emilyg]

3. Itchy fingers

[zanne]

6. True.

Besides, it's only June. I think alot of people will burn out by January.