Maybe I'm NAIVE, so please... ENLIGHTEN ME.

[Grown2Hate]

We snipe back and forth. "Your candidate is RACIST!". "YOUR candidate is SEXIST!". "Your candidate is a piece of shit because of (blah blah RW talking point blah blah)".

Any of this is helping us... how?

Ask yourself THIS... is your post going to actually CHANGE someone's mind? Is your post actually INFORMATIVE, or just DIVISIVE for the SAKE of being divisive? Is your post something that will be thrown in the possible nominee's face in the GE?

I can understand us wanting to vet these candidates so that we are prepared for what we'll need to battle in the GE. But this fucking bullshit is getting out of control. When you waste a post to say, "SEE?! Your fucking candidate is equal to Hitler/Satan/etc.!", in what way shape or form are you HELPING ANYTHING?!

A post saying something to the effect of, "Here is what candidate A or B (or a surrogate thereof) has going AGAINST them, so let's work to see how we can combat that viewpoint" or even perhaps, "I really don't think so-and-so can win in the GE because of this or that, but let's work toward addressing that problem for the eventuality that they may be OUR nominee", can be HELPFUL. CONSTRUCTIVE. "Hey, my candidate is great and your's is a piece of SHIT" = DIVISIVE. NOT HELPFUL. DESTRUCTIVE.

I guess my question is... what's the FUCKING POINT?

ENLIGHTEN ME.

(PS. I may be crashing out soon, but don't think this is a post-and-run. I'll stay up as long as I can, or respond in the morning. I'm actually interested in some CONSTRUCTIVE DISCUSSION.)

[Skittles]

1. a lot of DUers have lost all reasoning capability

their candidate is ALL GOOD and the opposition PURE EVIL!!!! I never thought I would see freeperism at DU but here it is.

[Texas Hill Country]

12. Logic and any sense of objectivity.

[MADem]

2. There is no point, except perhaps to sharpen your own arguments by being challenged.

It's a debate society where you can say FUCK but you can't toss personal insults.

A mind game. Exercise your mind, and don't take it seriously.

Occasionally, you do learn something. I've thanked more than a few folks here for enlightening me on one subject or another.

[Grown2Hate]

3. I guess that's not a horrible point, actually.

It's just that SO much of the vitriol being slung doesn't seem to serve any real DEBATE. Also, how the fuck did I post this thread TWICE? Technical glitch? Very confusing. I mean, YES, I'm DRUNK, but come on...

[MADem]

6. Ah, the dreaded DOUBLECLICK!! Often the fault of a lousy mouse OR a

twitchy old hand!

[jobycom]

5. That raises a question I've been pondering all day.

When you say you can't toss personal insults, I remember that being the old rule. But when a person posts something like "All you Hillbots/Obamatons are (fill in blank)," why is that not considered a personal insult? It's certainly meant to be a personal attack on character, not a discussion of the issues. Seems like mods could make the place a little prettier and nicer by just interpreting those comments thusly and nuking such statements the moment they appear.

Has that been discussed recently? I've been away, and lots have changed.

[Grown2Hate]

8. Well, if they were to enforce that rule here,

our poor mods would never get any freaking SLEEP. And they'd likely develop carpal-tunnel (sp?) syndrome rather quickly.

[MADem]

9. Well, it's a group insult. You can alert on it and if it's sufficiently egregious, it might be

removed. I daresay something like "All you CANDIDATEbots are pedophiles!" would get the axe toute suite.

The mods can't read every post, they rely on the posters to do the policing to some extent, I am sure.

They're using loose reins during the primary season. Every so often they plow through and toss out a barrelful of disruptors.

[jobycom]

4. There's no point, but it keeps some scary folk off the streets.

Actually, a lot of what you are seeing are campaigners, probably volunteer, who are just trying to blast a message over and over again so people passing by will be sure to pick up on it. Then there are what you might call unofficial campaigners, who aren't really tied to the campaigns, but are still attempting the same thing--blasting the message, so that theirs gets noticed and the other side's doesn't get all the airplay.

Then are those who are just genuinely angry or passionate.

And of course there are the pure Republican disruptors, here to try to make all Democrats look bad and maybe even force a destructive battle on us. There isn't any other way their candidate can win, so what the hey. It's free.

From what I've seen, there's just about as much good discussion around here as there's always been, but there is more chaff to sort through to find it.

In other words, those who are being divisive and destructive want to be divisive and destructive, although a lot of well-meaning posters get sucked into the fray trying to battle it out at times.

That's my analysis. It's probably wrong, as always.

[Grown2Hate]

7. No, your analysis seems noteworthy.

Perhaps we should have TWO discussion boards dedicated to the primaries, one of which will be entitled, "General Discussion - Primaries". The other will be called, "General Discussion: Hey, Me and My Candidate Just FUCKED YOUR MOM! Whatcha think about THAT?!". That might further serve to separate the divisive from the constructive. Just a thought.

[jobycom]

11. literally...

[IndependentDem]

15. im all for it

"General Discussion: Hey, Me and My Candidate Just FUCKED YOUR MOM! Whatcha think about THAT?!".

fuckin hilarious!

[McCamy Taylor]

10. It helps McCain win this fall by fracturing the Dems. That is why Rove planned it.

This is all modeled on Nixon's 1972 dirty tricks created by Pat Buchanan who is not simply the kindly bigoted old fart on MSNBC.

Read this

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/...

And read this and you will know what the RNC is doing.

[Texas Hill Country]

13. Rove didnt plan this... we are accomplishing all by ourselves.

[Grown2Hate]

14. Kick.

Shameless.