What happened to DU in the last 4 years?

[clydefrand]

When I first discovered DU via a bumper sticker in the spring of '04, I looked it up and began reading and liking what I saw. I enjoyed the humor of the lounge; the information on the discussion forum and the reading the latest news articles. I seems to me that since then many of the posters new or otherwise, I'm not certain, have become so cynical and biting, unpolite, intolerant of other posters' views, sarcastic about our own which before had been limited primarily to the republicans.

What has happened? Has the Bush years made us this way? I used to love to read and read and respond. Now I look and become disillusioned at all of the negativity that I no longer linger on here as I did for a long time.

I'm beginning to feel like the black guy in CA who got beaten up by the cops, sorry, having a senior moment and can't remember his name, "CAN'T WE JUST GET ALONG?" Ah, Rodney King? Yes. Why can't we disagree without the foul language and sniping manner at one another?

Just asking. Don't want to start a flame war here.

[Deep13]

1. Frankly, I came over here from the Smirking Chimp...

...after 2000 to get away from the ideologues. I had signed up then and went back to SC because there were like 6 people here. I forgot that I signed up here and then resigned with a different name. Anyway, I wanted to talk to people interested in winning elections and not tilting at windmills. At first I thought I found it until DU got taken over by idealogues.

[MedleyMisty]

25. I came from there too.

I left when the hatred for women, young people, and people in the South got to be a daily thing running through all the threads. I'm a young female who lives in the South, so....

[ursi]

it's been taken over by party and candidate hacks ...used to be DU was a great tool for research

now it's dominated by tools.

[annabanana]

6. It's still loaded with good information. You just have to search below

the noise..

[Mountainman]

2. My guess is that a lot of people come here looking for a fight.

Myself included. I've found myself talking to myself and saying not to engage in the pissing contests.

We tend to disagree more spiteful than we use to.

I see a fracture here. The far left and the left center are fighting it out a lot. There is no room for compromise.

[annabanana]

3. eh.. Come back again after the primaries. . .n/t

[YOY]

4. Well. It's kind of a harbor for left wingers...

Not extreme left wingers. Just left wingers. There are a few extreme cases but most of us know them. As regular left-wingers we've been rather f***ed since Saint Ronnie won the history lottery and cashed in at the right time the Soviet Union went belly up and he Ronnie and his shitty policies took all the credit.

We've been fuming about this country's tilt to the right for a while. The last Democratic president we've had was rather right-leaning...but unsurpisingly the most competant in years.

Now we have to settle for two right-of-center canidates or more of the same old shit. We are told we are misogynists and homophobic if we dislike one and embrace the other or something equally bad in the vice versa.

You think we're not going to be jaded?

[still_one]

5. We will come together after the nominee is selected, WHOEVER IT IS

Don't believe 90% of the posts over at GD:Primaries

Most of them are just to hype up their respective candidate, and piss the opposition off

Of course the damage could be quite bad, but I suspect when our nominee is up against the republican in 2008, common sense will be the rule of the day

My suggestion is don't take most of those posts too seriously over in the primary forum

[Oeditpus Rex]

8. ...

http://action.credomobile.com/comics/2008/01/with_us_or_against_us.html

[clydefrand]

12. Thanks. I guess that says it all.

[still_one]

19. LOL /nt

[clydefrand]

10. Thanks for the suggestion. I really hadn't looked what

forum I was reading. I just see an interesting subject line and start reading. But I definitely will look more closely because I can't handle the bickering. It's too negative for me.

[still_one]

21. The only thing I will assure you is that if Hillary is the nominee

SHE WILL BE MY CANDIDATE in 2008 and get my vote

You are right it is too negative, people have actually posted they would stay away from DU it was getting so ugly

This is the reason that Skinner moved it to its own area

and I do worry about the damage it might cause to DU

[Javaman]

7. We were all replace by clones. nt

[Raejeanowl]

14. Not Me

My evil midget twin is in charge now.

[closeupready]

9. People are frustrated and angry. It comes out in their posts.

Congress has been unwilling to check the administration's actions. The economy has declined precipitously. If you've ever lived through a recession (I have - several), you know that people in general get angrier, and coincidentally, crime goes up. I attribute a lot of the nastiness to that fact.

[clydefrand]

11. At 67, I think I've lived through a few

recessions too.

[closeupready]

16. Then you've lived through two more than I have.

And, no, I'm not telling, you're going to have to guess. :D

[movonne]

13. I think you are right....

[calimary]

17. We have a winner! I think many of us here have just been driven to

near insanity just watching what's happened to our country, our system of justice, our money, our good name overseas, our Constitution, our military, our word, EVERYTHING. Combine that with the maddening reality of watching our Dems, those who are supposed to be the firewall against this, just cave and cave and cave and cave and cave and cave and cave and cave and cave and cave and...

Add to THAT the GIGANTIC 24/7 chorus screeching against us from every quarter. It used to be the media was our ally - the fourth estate; the independent, dispassionate illuminator; that would shine a light on the lies and distortions and deliver the truth every night while you sat at your dinner table watching Huntley-Brinkley or Cronkite. No more. It's been completely coopted, as has talk radio. ALMOST NOWHERE do we hear, externally, much of anything speaking up in our defense or pushing our point of view. We're virtually alone now, up against an abysmally powerful wrong-wing machine. There is INDEED a "vast right-wing conspiracy." It exists just as surely as each one of us does. We are pretty much surrounded on all sides. We once had recourse. Lots of it. Those days are over.

And it has made some of us feel like going mad.

I think that's why so many of us are on here sounding like this. We have nowhere else to lash out, and we've been hemmed in so hard that our punches can't land anywhere significant. It's AWFUL. In my 54 years, I've never seen it this bad.

Gotta hand it to the bad guys. They hunkered down and went back to the drawing board and built from ground-up after their boy Barry Goldwater got his ass handed to him in 1964. And they've built something very formidable in that time. We are seeing the fruits of their labors in this very decade. The seeds started sprounting in 1980 when reagan won. That was the beginning of the period of fruition.

We have SO MUCH lost ground to make up. And we can't keep turning on each other. It's just counterproductive. We need each other badly! Because, basically, WE have to do what THEY did.

[TahitiNut]

20. Well, some of us started out as nuts to begin with, so we didn't need to be driven near anywhere ...

... let alone insanity. :silly:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/TahitiNut/457

:dunce: :hi:

[calimary]

23. Well, thereya go!

Makes sense to me! :silly:

And speaking of which, I was just gonna contribute something I found over in GD-P to this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4441087

Gave me a good laugh!

:hi: :P

[kimmerspixelated]

15. This is interesting, because

like some of the other posters I believe there are some hackers that have jumped on board. The nastiness has curtailed some of the better posters from frequenting, but most of them know when to avoid the "uglies". ..In general, I think there is a big movement of cynicism that is hard to stop, because it seems to be coming out more often, this notion of the illusion of the election system, and that the candidates are really just bought and sold, and that the artifice of the media and how the corporations in reality are deciding everything for us...it's rather hard to believe in "we the people", but the danger is in .. not believing anymore, and really laying down like the majority of the sheeple and being mowed over....Now, having said that... IF the election is stolen AGAIN!... it can go two ways...I like to think that GRASSROOTS of all kinds will finally be mad as hell and they won't take it anymore! But as far as the nastiness on DU....rudeness is on the rise, and you see it everywhere..not just on the DU. I have been ashamed of some of their comments, and embaressed by these folks, but sympathetic about what their home lives must be like. And remember, only real cowards push in full attack mode online! They would never be able to get away with that crap in person!... Let's all take a deep breath. Peace.

[devilgrrl]

18. DU has been inundated with paid shills from the right

Divide and Conquer - it's the name of the game.

[onehandle]

22. DUing is what Republican interns do on their break.

Tease and demoralize the ground troops.

I know for a Fact this is true.

[devilgrrl]

24. And when they're not disrupting DU, they're trolling Facebook

you'd think that they'd find some honest work.