Graffiti posts. Don't let them bother you.

[TayTay]

The political season brings out a lot of people who are new to posting. Some post content-free threads online that have no thought behind them, are purposefully divisive and are meant only to annoy the backers of other politicians. As we all know, these types of posts are all over DU and other blogs, have been made by supporters of all the candidates and are like invasive weeds, taking up a lot of space and crowding out better and more informative threads.

Try and ignore these posts. They are meaningless. They are, in effect, like graffiti that you see on the side of a building. Very, very little of it has any content worth noting.

The Democratic Party is trying to choose a nominee. The job of that person will be to unite the Party to bring about victory in November. The graffiti drive-by artists are incapable of grasping that point. They seem to think that the supporters of whoever doesn't win can simply be humiliated or bludgeoned or coerced into working for the eventual nominee. This is nonsense. People have to be given a reason to get over their hurt and come back and work for the Party. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton know this. Some of their supporters do not and some supporters for people no longer in the race do not. That is sad. These people are harming their cause and harming the Democratic Party.

I am adding people to my ignore list daily. These are not people who simply disagree with me. Disagreement is a fine thing, it can help strengthen resolve and deepen support while showing you your weak areas and where you need to do more work. The people I am adding to my ignore list are not worth the 1/2 second it takes to see their posts float by on DU and elsewhere. They add nothing to the debate, poison the atmosphere and harm the Democratic Party. They will make it harder to unite this fractious Party after the primary season. They are not worth my time or yours either.

The ignore feature is one of the best parts of DU. Use it, ah, liberally.

Btw, I will support, as I have said many times, the Democratic nominee and work as hard as I can to get he/she elected President. I am a Democrat and will back the winner of this hard-fought, exciting and electric primary. I hope other Democrats remember that this is the goal of the Primary, to get a Democrat into the White House in Nov. That is the Prize that we all want.

[sandnsea]

1. My current prize is clean government

It is not enough for me to get a Democrat in the White House. I think as long as we encourage that kind of thinking, we enable people to settle out of fear, to not strive for the best the party and the country can offer. Other than that, I agree with your post completely.

[TayTay]

2. I think that after the election is over, I switch to advocacy

as my role. If a person I did not favor in the primary ends up winning an office as a Democrat, then I would try and influence them into actions that I think are better. It is never truly over. No one ever truly wins and no one ever truly loses. That is our system.

Democracy is a painful form of government. It is a winner-take-all deal which is very painful sometimes. I believe in this process, though it does result in winners that I can find hard to take.

[Luftmensch067]

5. Thanks for this OP and for this comment, too

It gets to feeling very "end-of-the-world if my candidate doesn't win" sometimes and it's wise and helpful to remember that we've already survived some pretty awful times and there's always room to fight for things to get better. JK certainly doesn't ever forget that.

[politicasista]

3. Also, the hide thread feature

It's too bad is that HRC "supporters" can't see that Kerry and Kennedy will rally around the nominee, either way it goes. Instead they attack good Democrats.

[JI7]

4. i also suggest alerting on some of them

and yes, i will try to ignore it.

it does help when i'm busy and not on DU. especially when i did some campainging for Obama. the reaction you get in the real world is a lot better than what you see online. and online it's usually the same few and it's important not to let them get to you.

[Island Blue]

6. You always seem to know the right way to put things, Tay.

Thanks for this. I'm usually pretty civil with people but yesterday I did tell a newbie to "fuck off" before putting him on ignore. My bad. ;) I had just reached my saturation point of posts on a certain topic. Anyway as you said, I'm using the IGNORE feature on a daily basis these days. I really like your graffiti analogy.

[Mass]

7. Ignore and alerts are two great features. This morning, I checked my ignore list for

the most recent additions and there were 4 that were simply tombstoned.

[ginnyinWI]

8. how do you see who is tombstoned?

I'm new to using Ignore. Before I always could let those posts roll off my back, but lately there are so many that I've had to take action. Do you need to click on the names to see their status?

[politicasista]

10. Click on the username

It should have their profile and a tombstone. :hi:

[BlueIris]

9. "(I)nvasive weeds." Good description.