Why do so many here think they can tell the rest of DU what should and should not be?
Have they forgotten the meaning of Social? Have they ever really known? They are acting more as self-appointed authoritative, instead of just another member with an opinon.
Has the awesome power of the Alert and of the Juror gone to their heads?

I am supposed to be offended just on someone say so? Sorry, I'm not conservative enough to go along. I refuse to be bullied here and that is what this is. PC bullying.

Context. Most often the context of the sentence/subject is the first thing to be lost. Too often that has to be done before the easily offended can be properly offended. The argument then becomes over the word itself, just because it is on somebodies list, regardless of the original context, or general use, or even dictionary definition(s).

Just because some words, that someone, in some Safe Haven, decides are suppose to be offensive to some, somewhere and are used in a sentence elsewhere on DU, does not necessarily mean it is actually an insult, put down, slight, bigotry, discrimination, or less than glowing admiration for, or even meant as a reference the GLBT in any way, shape or form. Stop acting like it is.

That is why DU has Safe Havens, where the members can make their own rules and ban words used there.
The people trying to purify the English language for general usage around here are not making any friends by their bullying. That shuts people down and you lose supporters by doing so.

And you are offended about that?

You seemed to have done quite a bit of research/work to come to your conclusion, which makes you suspect to some people.

DU is going down hill in part because too many people are being too critical of other people here. For some it is a purity thing. They want to cleans DU of what they have decided isn't the Democratic Party line. Well, purity is a Republican thing, which causes problems here, for those leaning a bit more to the Left. This is a Liberal political site. Actual Democrats are a pretty diverse group. You know the Will Rogers, 'Herding cats' problem?
DU would be better off we spent more time attending to the real enemies of this country and not each other.
Dealing with the real enemies, the lying, scheming, sociopathic, 'money is god', Conservatives, are the reason for being of Democratic Underground.

Good response. If DU cleaned up the language to please everyone, we'd be gesturing to get our points across. Then we'd have the Gesture Police to contend with. Where will it ever end?

Posting anything negative about any Democrats, be it critical of drone attacks against a civilian population of a country we are not at war with, or not properly supporting bright blue dogs just because they have (D) after their name, is cause for alerting for some here.
The demarcation line is between Democrats and Republicans, instead of Liberals and Conservatives, where it really needs to be, because it is so much easier deciding "Us" vs "Them" that way.
So we parrot Republican talking points as as gospel on such subject as "Social Security is in trouble and we have to fix it now by wrecking it for future generations."
Truth and reality too often take a hit around here by using the excuse of DU being in "Election mode". There should be no difference between Election mode and any other time. Wrong headed thinking and mistakes by our "Leaders" are wrong headed thinking and mistakes any time. Not just outside of the Election mode.

Yeah, yeah, I know, Admin said so, but the problem is that the universe wide rules of physics do not apply for some Alert happy members here.

"Clinton started the recession and that far left wing, foreign born liberal, Obama, continued to make things worse." bu$h the lesser is not in there any place in the eight years between Clinton and Obama.
Eight years of Republican rule and two major wars never happened under the Republicans. For the eight years after Clinton and for the eight years before Obama and it's all Obama's and the Democrats fault. The Republicans were seemly powerless those eight bu$h years.

correct (read their) clique, etc., pisses some people off here. They seem to exist to make DU suck for others. That is what seems to make them happy. They have replaced Liberal tolerance with a conservative "My way or the Hi-way" mind set. Those people are working against the spirit and long time goals of DU. Often using selective and/or imaginative interpretations of the TOS itself as a weapon.
Things will get better after the elections and better still after Obama is sworn in.

DU needs to move back to the Left, to redefine its focus back to Liberal/Progressive issues it once had. You know, its original purpose for being?
There are too many 3rd way and 'conservative' leaning Democrats vying for control using intimidation and the Alert/jury system for enforcement. Alerting on posts just because someone does not agree with a post or a poster, regardless of the spirit of the TOS or the SOP. Or they interpret the TOS and SOP in imaginative ways to use as weapons. Or because a post contains a forbidden word on someone's private word list, doesn't praise Obama enough, is just plain not DU enough for somebody. Or just to mess with another member... Even after that member gets a post hidden and can't reply or defend themselves.

From the TOS: "Remember: DU is supposed to be fun — don't make it suck." Lately there is more suck than fun for a lot of good Du'ers.
Reason, some members are having fun making DU suck for others. Some of these are enablers, some are the followers, doing the actual bullying.
The inmates were given control of the asylum and the predictable happened.
I have stopped recommending DU because new members seem to be having a hard time surviving the "Troll Hunters" till they get 100 or more posts.

Democrat Underground has many bullies. They use The TOS and SOP as weapons against those they don't like. Against those they disagree with. Twisting and distorting words and meanings to justify alerts, out right lying sometimes when alerting and also when on the juries.
I think part of the problem is that bullying is not mentioned specifically in the rules. Words against bullying need to be added to both the TOS AND the SOP for Democratic Underground. The bullies use their own definition of "bigotry", "sexism", or whatever else they decide to use against their target, context and real world meaning be damned.



Bullying is disruptive, malicious and repugnant to the membership in general. Bulling does not promote a positive atmosphere. It derails otherwise good discussions and leads to disrupting the thread and even DU in general. Bullying sucks the fun out of Democratic Underground. The problem is getting worse, instead of better, as the bullies keep refining their tactics to harass and intimidate into silence their targets.