Are you now making a distinction between saying “deplorables” and “you deplorables”?
Originally Posted by lustylad
Yes. As always, any member is free to characterize it any way they like, but one statement is directed at no one in particular, while the other is directed at a specific group of members here. Go read the first post in the Forum Guidelines thread again.
I’m not offended by either phrasing, but it’s not convincing to suggest one is an insult and the other isn’t.
Originally Posted by lustylad
You might want to take that up with people out in the world who identify as Republicans. They long ago accepted the “deplorable” moniker as their own, they took pride in it, and rallied around it as a source of camaraderie. It was a brilliant piece of appropriation to do so during the campaign, but It’s too late to call it an insult now. You can’t have it both ways.
You told us you won’t be fooled by word games, but now you're forcing us to play them. Why should I dance around and say “only a fool would argue...” instead of the more forthright “you are a fool to argue...”?
Originally Posted by lustylad
You are not required to do anything. My advice in that particular situation would be to avoid pulling a muscle while dancing and just not say it at all.
I was actually trying to help you understand the roots of my personal frustration.
How should I have put it? There is no diplomatic way to explain my predicament.
Originally Posted by lustylad
Again, if there’s no diplomatic way to put it, then don’t put it. Staff is sorry if this is painful, but your personal frustration either with other member’s posts here, or in changing your own posts to adhere to the guidelines is quite irrelevant.
Getting rid of the "cute" nicknames and free-flowing homo insults was the easy part. But you can't have a Political Forum and expect the participants to behave like boy scouts. You also can't force people with a posting history spanning a decade or more to suddenly respect each other.
Originally Posted by lustylad
Sure we can, on both counts. There is nothing that happens on the Interwebs that is the result of pure, unadulterated human instinct. Everything y’all do here requires conscious thought. In your words, you purposefully avoid acting like Boy Scouts. Staff realizes that breaking habits can be a difficult process, and that’s why we give you 25 points worth of leeway, to help absorb those slippages while you adjust your thinking and actions. We apologize if that isn’t enough for some members here, and we hope that those members will be better trained when they return from their 90 day vacations. Think of it like a 90 day stint in rehab, you’ll be better for it.
At some point you have to say ok, we plucked all the low-hanging fruit. If we try to force everyone to talk like robots, avoid all verbal combat and shun the type of heated, intense and sometimes personal exchanges that are normal in political discussions everywhere, then we might as well shut down the forum because we're just going to drive everyone away, either voluntarily or involuntarily.
Originally Posted by lustylad
Verbal combat, heated discussion, and personal exchanges can always happen in any forum on this board. Just do it within the guidelines. Staff will remind you when the rules get broken and your discussion needs to be modified. If you’re stating that verbal combat always has to be insulting, heated discussions always have to devolve into name calling, and that personal exchanges always ends up in slurs about someone else’s sexual orientation, then Staff will politely disagree with you.
it would have been a better idea to create another political forum for tamer discourse. this forum could be named "wild wild west politics" and the other new forum "civil politics".
Originally Posted by dilbert firestorm
Would it be easier for Staff to just allow members n this board to continue insulting each other, insulting minorities, insulting genders, and using racial and homophobic slurs? Absolutely. Would it be the right thing to do? Absolutely not.
As Nina Simone says, “it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me, and I’m feeling good.” The choice to feel good about it is always yours, but how you feel won’t affect whether or not the sun has risen. So, put on some sunscreen to avoid getting burned...or don’t, as always, the choice is yours. Have a good day.