I truly don't understand

[MichaelHarris]

I read some posts in Ask the Mods for the first time and I never knew anything was going on. Fights over religion? Fights between websites? If the entire Democratic Party as a whole acts like this then the neo-cons have us right where they want us. When I first joined DU I asked permission to attack a conservative website. I now realize how wrong that request was. Alot of energy is being used by fighting each other when we have a much larger battle facing us. I followed a debate here once that turned into what people call a flame war over a movie. For a brief moment I considered moving on until I realized this must be an isolated incident. Politics and religion are passionate issues, we all agree on that. Both of these issues can be debated in a civilized manner if one chooses to use their heart as well as their head. Consider the feelings of all potential readers of a post, look at things you write from all sides. Would the post cause pain? Would some consider it racist? Should we add a touch of humor to a post to ease the tension of the topic? These are questions I ask myself before I hit the POST button. I realize I'm new but what I would like to convey in this post is a sense of Brotherhood and Sisterhood in joining hands to unite our party and win back our freedoms from a tyrant. Can I get a "right on?" You know what I'm talkin bout, some say that skinner is a bad, 'shut yo mouf' but I'm talkin bout Skinner. BTW skinner that is one bad ass avatar. I like that alot.

Michael

[izzie]

1. That is fine but I like to play the devil's advocate and.....

I see nothing wrong with that either. I would say we all are more emotional in our thinking than we use logic as it seem to be our nature but I do like the question asked. Pain? Well it is how you look at it. If you say anything FR does not believe in, it is pain to them, even when said in a nice way.So should you say it? We seem to be more open minded over here. I like it that way. Hear we can say we like the Passion, do not like the Passion. and do not know. On FR you are just anti-American if you do not wish to run down and see it, and if you do, you have to love it. Interesting .

[MichaelHarris]

2. I totally agree

Debating with a conservative usually declines into them calling me a commie rat bassid. The arguments I meant to refer to were the ones here. We should always speak our minds but the manner and choice of words we use can determine the course the debate will take.

[cprise]

3. Then again

...look at how conservatives have been splintering: FR, Lucianne.com, now conservativeundergeround.com. I took a peek at the last one, and its a lot of people who got banned from FR.

I wonder if its a mistake to name a forum site after a political party instead of a movement or idea; the mods then have to tow the party line to some extent during election years. Plus, the admin style requires a scorched-earth approach to moderating discussions; Vital information is lost when people reply to a truly bad post, and then the parent is erased... Slashdot is far better in this respect because bad posts can be deprecated but still read and good responses can be moderated "up".

These are the two main problems with DU and they are producing some nasty side-effects, such as some forums that appear to become dominated by professional lobbyists (conservative ones, at that). All we need now is some people on the Cato Institue payroll to settle into the Economics forum and conservative domination of DU will almost exactly mirror that of Congress: extensive lip-service to social liberty, in the name of promoting <military domination / nuclear industry / corporate globalization>.

[MichaelHarris]

4. Well

as far as the CATO institute and the Heritage foundation I say the gloves are off. We just kick their ass anytime we see them. To be honest I have very little tolerance when it comes to neo-con republicans. My best friend went that way, so far he thought about being some kind of militia-mountain man. I haven't spoken to him or returned his calls in five years. My compassion does have limits.

[cprise]

5. Cato/ Adam Smith types

There are a number of avowed free-traders on DU who get away with much RW advocacy... as long as the rhetoric is mixed in with social-equality sugar (gay rights, women's rights, anti-racism, etc.) then even the most cravenly greedy, rich elitist garbage is tolerated... even welcomed.

Heritage Foundation types are easier to deal with, unless of course you're in the I/P forum.

[khashka]

6. It's the big tent idea

Sure we fight each other. And viciously. No holds barred. But that's how we learn to know each other, to understand each other, to care about each other.

There's little lock-step ideology here. The person you're fighting with may turn out to be your greatest supporter.

This is good. It's why we rock and they don't. We can handle disagreement even if it gets a little nasty sometimes. We welcome people with different ideas, even when it gets ugly. Politically we can accept things that maybe personally we can't. But the personal can change during an argument. And that's what it's about.

Khash.
(Oh, by the way I hate everyone here right now. But thanks for being here :))

[bearfartinthewoods]

7. you do understand that you are talking about a total of maybe 10,00 people

who follow DU and ancillary boards? Free Republic went through the same thing and spawned lucianne,com and liberty post and conservative underground. the freeps are still at each other's throats.

it's the nature of the internet, not a weakness in dems.