The Future of the Republican Party

[Still216]

I guess it's too much to expect Letterman to run spellcheck on his T-shirts, huh?

[Wolter]

Given the circumstances, you think he'd get along better with Palin and her supporters...

[matedog]

Speaking of race relations:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/21/mas ... =hpmostpop

Seems like something is missing in this story.

[Inder]

Speaking of race relations:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/21/mas ... =hpmostpop

Seems like something is missing in this story.

The comments posted on this story to various news sites are absolutely infuriating. Much like YouTube comments, it's where the democratization of information and knowledge fails spectacularly. In a nutshell: fuck those guys.

[Dr. Medulla]

Speaking of race relations:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/21/mas ... =hpmostpop

Seems like something is missing in this story.

The comments posted on this story to various news sites are absolutely infuriating. Much like YouTube comments, it's where the democratization of information and knowledge fails spectacularly. In a nutshell: fuck those guys.

The rosy predictions of the Internet for communications took a body blow when we all found out that if you give each person a soapbox and assurance of (relative) anonymity, most prefer to go the hateful route. Kind of depressing to consider that, given the opportunity to speak our mind, so many can't do better than "Fuck you, you asshole."

[Wolter]

Speaking of race relations:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/21/mas ... =hpmostpop

Seems like something is missing in this story.

The comments posted on this story to various news sites are absolutely infuriating. Much like YouTube comments, it's where the democratization of information and knowledge fails spectacularly. In a nutshell: fuck those guys.

The rosy predictions of the Internet for communications took a body blow when we all found out that if you give each person a soapbox and assurance of (relative) anonymity, most prefer to go the hateful route. Kind of depressing to consider that, given the opportunity to speak our mind, so many can't do better than "Fuck you, you asshole."

Fuck you, asshole!


Wait...sorry. Force of habit. No, I agree.

[Flex]

"Most people" or is it just that people with vile things to say are more likely to leave a comment? Statistically, most people that read an article don't comment at all. It makes sense to reason that the folks who actually take the time to comment are going to be the ones who feel quite strongly about it one way or the other.

My guess is the problem here isn't that we're exposing "most people" as ignorant assholes, but that even-keeled types aren't drowning out the cries of the ignorant and hateful.

[Dr. Medulla]

"Most people" or is it just that people with vile things to say are more likely to leave a comment? Statistically, most people that read an article don't comment at all. It makes sense to reason that the folks who actually take the time to comment are going to be the ones who feel quite strongly about it one way or the other.

My guess is the problem here isn't that we're exposing "most people" as ignorant assholes, but that even-keeled types aren't drowning out the cries of the ignorant and hateful.

No, you're right, I was sloppy with my indictment of "most people." I could rephrase to wonder why people who want to express an opinion tend to go the cruel and hateful route.

[Wolter]

"Most people" or is it just that people with vile things to say are more likely to leave a comment? Statistically, most people that read an article don't comment at all. It makes sense to reason that the folks who actually take the time to comment are going to be the ones who feel quite strongly about it one way or the other.

My guess is the problem here isn't that we're exposing "most people" as ignorant assholes, but that even-keeled types aren't drowning out the cries of the ignorant and hateful.

No, you're right, I was sloppy with my indictment of "most people." I could rephrase to wonder why people who want to express an opinion tend to go the cruel and hateful route.

The correct response:

"Fuck you, robot!"

[Dr. Medulla]

"Most people" or is it just that people with vile things to say are more likely to leave a comment? Statistically, most people that read an article don't comment at all. It makes sense to reason that the folks who actually take the time to comment are going to be the ones who feel quite strongly about it one way or the other.

My guess is the problem here isn't that we're exposing "most people" as ignorant assholes, but that even-keeled types aren't drowning out the cries of the ignorant and hateful.

No, you're right, I was sloppy with my indictment of "most people." I could rephrase to wonder why people who want to express an opinion tend to go the cruel and hateful route.

The correct response:

"Fuck you, robot!"

Not the correct Canadian response. (Don't read the comments on CBC news stories and shatter that illusion. Apparently all the CBC haters hang out there to blame Indians and women for everything.)

[Still216]

No, you're right, I was sloppy with my indictment of "most people." I could rephrase to wonder why people who want to express an opinion tend to go the cruel and hateful route.

I think it's the other way. People who are cruel and hateful (or, alternatively, rabidly political people who drag vulgar political views into fucking EVERYTHING) want to express their opinion to anyone who will listen, because most of their family and friends (if they have any) don't want to hear their shit anymore, and they have some sort of need to be heard and understood. And anyone with any moderation doesn't want to bother responding because of the "give 'em enough rope and they'll hang themselves" theory I guess. This is how it seems to work on the comment sections of local newspaper sites, anyway.

[Wolter]

"Most people" or is it just that people with vile things to say are more likely to leave a comment? Statistically, most people that read an article don't comment at all. It makes sense to reason that the folks who actually take the time to comment are going to be the ones who feel quite strongly about it one way or the other.

My guess is the problem here isn't that we're exposing "most people" as ignorant assholes, but that even-keeled types aren't drowning out the cries of the ignorant and hateful.

No, you're right, I was sloppy with my indictment of "most people." I could rephrase to wonder why people who want to express an opinion tend to go the cruel and hateful route.

The correct response:

"Fuck you, robot!"

Not the correct Canadian response. (Don't read the comments on CBC news stories and shatter that illusion. Apparently all the CBC haters hang out there to blame Indians and women for everything.)

"Fuck you, Canuck!"

[Dr. Medulla]

No, you're right, I was sloppy with my indictment of "most people." I could rephrase to wonder why people who want to express an opinion tend to go the cruel and hateful route.

I think it's the other way. People who are cruel and hateful (or, alternatively, rabidly political people who drag vulgar political views into fucking EVERYTHING) want to express their opinion to anyone who will listen, because most of their family and friends (if they have any) don't want to hear their shit anymore, and they have some sort of need to be heard and understood. And anyone with any moderation doesn't want to bother responding because of the "give 'em enough rope and they'll hang themselves" theory I guess. This is how it seems to work on the comment sections of local newspaper sites, anyway.

Yeah, perhaps so—I can think of at least one family member that might fit that description. Either way, the comments section of news sites are dominated by a lot of angry and hateful people, and really sours some of the hopes for the Internet.

[Flex]

No, you're right, I was sloppy with my indictment of "most people." I could rephrase to wonder why people who want to express an opinion tend to go the cruel and hateful route.

I think it's the other way. People who are cruel and hateful (or, alternatively, rabidly political people who drag vulgar political views into fucking EVERYTHING) want to express their opinion to anyone who will listen, because most of their family and friends (if they have any) don't want to hear their shit anymore, and they have some sort of need to be heard and understood. And anyone with any moderation doesn't want to bother responding because of the "give 'em enough rope and they'll hang themselves" theory I guess. This is how it seems to work on the comment sections of local newspaper sites, anyway.

Yeah, perhaps so—I can think of at least one family member that might fit that description. Either way, the comments section of news sites are dominated by a lot of angry and hateful people, and really sours some of the hopes for the Internet.

Well, if stuff like that helps shine a light for folks that some people still think the horrible kind of stuff we see on the 'net, it still helps build an awareness of where we're at in society. The importance, of course, is to make sure what we see is contextualized so a) we don't marginalize what we see and b) we don't blow it out of proportion. Difficult to do at time, but I have faith that the majority of folks have the common sense to get it in the right ballpark.

And, like, the majority of the internet is still pretty rad. I think that exposing the hateful underbelly of what folks are thinking has valuable utility and, in fact, the mechanism by which this happens is exactly what we would hope for from a free and open public forum. I don't see why this kind of stuff should sour one on the internet, quite the opposite: it provides both a public service by exposing behaviors and thoughts sometimes masked in other parts of society AND does so by being what we'd hope the internet would be - an open and relatively uncensored public forum.

[Spiff]

In line with the recent discussion in this thread, this is what Doug, the manager of my baseball team, e-mailed to the entire team yesterday:

ObamaCare

ObamaCare.jpg (54.04 KiB) Viewed 3188 times

I knew he was a redneck, but this was

I mulled this over for a bit, then hit reply all and said that this level of racism was beyond my comprehension.

Another player asked whether Doug would also e-mail this photo to two black players who play in our league, but on other teams.

As yet, no reply from Doug on that one. He did reply to my first message stating that his political statement was equivalent to the political statement I make with my "Bush sucks" bumber sticker.

We'll see how much playing time I get in tonight's game...