Reply #129: Don't let them get you down...

[ExPatLeftist]

While I support Edwards for president and do not necessarily agree with your points about him, I do agree with your points and questions about those attacking you as I value discussion from all perspectives.

I have not been posting here for very long, and when I first started I got some similar responses. Although I have been reading articles and blogs here for almost 8 years now (and exceedingly politically active for over 20), I had not posted because I am generally not interested in acting as an echo chamber for others. I like to discuss issues which are more contentious, and do not see the value in simple "Yay, I agree!" type of posts. That is just my preference, and I am not dissing anyone that posts like that. Because I had not posted much, people (with a complete lack of logic) assumed that I was not politically active, had just stumbled upon DU, must be a troll, etc. I guess for some people, there is no world outside of DU and if you are active in real life then you MUST first be active here. Bullshit. I can guarantee that there are extremely active and knowledgeable political activists that have never posted here whose activism would put most here to shame. and Yet if they did post here, they very well may get the same type of response that this poster got -"Only 30 posts", and blind and offense statements that ASSume that the poster is not active in other ways. That is a complete lack of logic. "Low number of posts on DU = inactive politically or = troll" is a ridiculous logical fallacy, and can only attest to the arrogance and ignorance of the people making those statements, nothing more.

I really hope that those of you that actually think that your post count makes you somehow more informed, more "active" or in any way "better" would re-think your position on that - and use actual logic this time. Measuring your anatomy (or your post count) in the sandbox is really a silly and immature way to go, IMO.

This attacking of newbies is a fairly common occurrence here, from what I have seen. And it really has a detrimental impact on all of us here. Personally, I value hearing all opinions - even those with which I disagree. And I have enough confidence in myself to not need to attempt to boost my ego by getting a big head about something so incredibly trivial as a post count on a web page.