What is it about newspaper dicussion forums that attract assholes?

[TheMightyFavog]

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/comments/article/20111012/GPG0101/110120601/Faith-Tabernacle-Outreach-Ministries-open-men-s-rooming-house-South-Jefferson-Street-Green-Bay

From a story about a church group building a homeless shelter:

"Another reason for people who have no connection to the community to move here and then to start takjng from the system. Homeless shelters and Freedom houses encourage people to move here. They move here and dont contribute to this community they only take from it. Stop supporting these places. Help your own families and friends."

[Kerrytravelers]

1. Because they can be anonymous *holes with no repercussions.

Can you imagine a neighbor or co-worker saying something like this and not getting any feedback. It's much easier to be a world-class jerk in a vacuum.

[GoCubsGo]

9. That's a typical day on my local fish wrap's LTE page.

They publish garbage like this on a daily basis, and people DO sign their names to it. Have I told y'all lately how much I HATE this place? Please get me the hell out of here!

[Kerrytravelers]

16. I don't even bother to read the insanity.

And the stupid arguing! I can just feel the thud of my IQ dropping while reading such drivel. :crazy:

[raccoon]

2. This is in Green Bay, maybe they could build igloos for the homeless?

:silly: and :sarcasm: of course.

I don't know, maybe those forums are like the Yahoo message boards used to be. I used
to waste lots of time on those. Compared to them, DU is like a forum made up 100%
of Nobel prize winning geniuses.

[tabbycat31]

11. I worked in Green Bay

Believe me, that city is great, but like many, it has its fair share of assholes. I've never seen such a politically divided city.

[Scuba]

3. Koch Industries pays $0.50 per post ($0.10 for a rec/unrec!)....

... and the whiny libruls say there are no jobs!

[HughBeaumont]

4. What is it about unmoderated discussion forums other than DU that attract assholes?

Outside of the relative civility we experience here, it's an abyss of assholiness (Yahoo and YouTube being the worst offenders). Some of these people make fascist Republicans look like Naomi Klein.

[GoCubsGo]

8. Moderation doesn't stop them.

Just check the comments at HuffyPoo. The comments sections on many of their stories are moderated. It doesn't stop the assholes from posting their assholery there. They may not get to post some of their blatant racism and other nastiness, but HufPo's moderators still let an awful lot of foul shit through.

[hifiguy]

18. That's why I left HuffPo after a year

and re-upped here at DU. There are so many paid trolls and Rand acolytes over there that the background noise is often impenetrable. And no one ever seems to tombstone them. Our mods are quite efficient at getting rid of the more noxious disruptors.

[shanti]

15. the sacramento bee is moderated

but the number of asshole koch trolls is still quite large.

[Kerrytravelers]

17. Believe me, they show up at moderated discussion forms, too.

We just have civility rules that allows us to eliminate many of their droppings. They still get past us and stink up the joint before we can get to them first.

[NRaleighLiberal]

5. absolutely agree with your observation - Raleigh newspaper and local TV news blogs are beyond belief

It's like it allows the monsters to crawl out from under their rocks.

As to why? Anonymity of the intertubes...(awful generalization here) - proliferation of ignorance by apathetic, lazy, TV hypnotized masses....etc

[Rex]

6. Satan.

I hear he posts a lot on discussion forums.

[malthaussen]

7. Naw

Satan is a gentleman.

-- Mal

[Greybnk48]

10. We get the same kind of trash in the Appleton, WI

paper as well (it often seems to be the same people, or maybe they just all meld into one). We have a majority of awesome, progressive people in Wisconsin, but i will say, the assholes we do have are world class.

[TroglodyteScholar]

12. Similar situation in Racine, WI, too. Loads of idiotic right-wingers on the paper's website.

My guess is that these creeps fit one of two descriptions:

1) Rich, so they have all the time in the world to show their contempt for their fellow man regularly in such forums, or...

2) Living in mom's basement, with nothing better to do than voice their vile views in such an inconsequential manner.

[Evasporque]

13. WIsconsin grows super conservative morons....nt

[monmouth]

14. Check out the Palm Beach Post sometime. They come for season

and don't go home. Morans up the skadoo..

[applegrove]

19. By far the best way to handle homelessness is to have mixed market housing.