What is with the rise of the political message board losers?

[Wetzelbill]

I think that is one aspect of the Chimp Era I will never understand. I can get the polarization. I can understand passion on each side, hell maybe even a bit of delusion on each side.

I can grasp that whole groups of people are disenchanted and disenfranchised with both parties, and politics in general.

I even understand passion for third parties. Or why people are registered as Independents.

I can pretty much get the point of view and actions of just about everybody in the political spectrum. I may not approve of it, or think it's remotely accurate or morally right, but I can see how people get to those points and conclusions.


And I absolutely understand why people join up for websites such as DU or Free Republic. Or why people visit Huff Post or certain other websites and blogs.

For me, I like coming here, seeing people I have developed online friendships with over the years, I like checking out articles and threads that augment all the other reading and so on I do during the day. I don't necessarily come to DU to debate politics, more or less to find some information and kick back a little. Now a good battle in GD or GD: P isn't too bad to get into from time to time, and for the most part, most of us on DU care about the same things. We may get impassioned or support different candidates etc, but, for the most part, we all have the same basic ideals.

So what do I mean by message board losers?

I mean trolls. And not even just your typcial DU troll, those are bad enough, but usually they get weeded out quickly and Tombstoned. Nor do I mean somebody who may go over and visit Free Republic for a short time and report on the goings on over there. I also have no problem with people who go to specific websites just to get into discourse with others. I know some websites are meant as a forum for both Dems and Repubs to get on and battle it out. That works for me if it's something you enjoy doing.

What I am talking about is those people who go say Huff Post, for example, and post outrageous things and end up getting in arguments with like 50 people day in and day out. They don't do enough to get booted off, because unlike say DU, Huff Post isn't just a Dem specific website, pretty much anybody can comment on the articles and so forth.

I have literally seen people day in and day out get on a message board and stoke up the ire of everyone, for what reason I don't know. It seems like these people are online all day, everyday, and basically all they do is go to a website where most people disagree with them and start fights.

This I don't understand. Because what kind of loser goes to a place they are not wanted, all day everyday and antagonizes others. Not just antagonizes and wins, I mean I see these people get put in their place about 20 times a day.

It makes me curious about a person's mental state or their life in general. It just seems you would have to absolutely have no life at all to go and do something like that.

I suspect, some are paid by outside agents to start trouble like that. Maybe. I could see that as an excuse. But for the people who truly do it, just to do it.

I don't see what anyone could possibly get out of that. It's sad and disturbing.

And I don't believe I could ever understand that.

[DCKit]

1. Meth addicts? n/t

[tularetom]

2. I think about that too

When do they eat sleep shave shower or shit?

Even if I had the inclination to do this kind of thing all day I don't have the time. And I'm retired.

But I have horses, cats and dogs to feed, I have grass to trim and brush to thin out. And I have all kinds of honeydew projects that get assigned to me daily.

Wish my mom was still alive. I could go live in her basement and pick fights with people online all day while she brought my food down to me.

It doesn't even sound enjoyable.

[Wetzelbill]

9. it can't be enjoyable

I can see having a little debate here and there as being fun, but when a person's whole existence is to got to Huff Post, for example, and antagonize everybody then get slammed constantly, that just sounds like a miserable life to me.

[annabanana]

3. ummm... paid disruptors?. . . . .

The crowd that believes that if you silence everyone, you don't have to convince anyone

[Wetzelbill]

7. I definitely think some are

I don't think that explains them all, but some have to be paid disruptors.

[CK_John]

17. Paid disrupter's usually use 1 signon for multiple people on different shifts.

Also some use 2 signons so they can take both the pro and con to hijack threads.

[Telly Savalas]

18. I doubt it.

Folks like the OP describes post all over the internet. Usenet newsgroups used to attract them like flies on shit. I'd read Formula One racing newsgroups and running newsgroups and you'd find people like that there. Who'd pay anybody to disrupt an autosports message board?

[jedicord]

4. There are people in every day life just itching to get into a fight.

Even in person. Heck, at a local waterpark here Saturday some lady with a young son got into it with my daughter and her friend while we were standing in line. She was mad because they "cut". (She had a rental tube and didn't have to wait for one to become available.) I explained to her they were with us. She still got angry. She bitched until I told her to drop it, I mean even threatened to call Security. At the top, she started all over again.

There's some people in my building who call the property management to complain about everything under the sun.

Then you've got the angry restaurant patrons.

I blame it on the current state of our country, the fear mongering, the division, the economy, the war ... People are angry and don't know they can direct that anger at our government, so they take it out on anyone with whom they come into contact.

[Wetzelbill]

5. I thought about that

and I'm not sure. That might explain a little of it, but these people aren't just itching to get into a fight, they go out of their way to go to a message board and lead what has to be a miserable existence. Not just like a solitary fight, but they spend their lives all day, ever day, making an ass out of themselves. It's bizarre.

My neighbor calls the manager to complain about everything too, btw. Everything includes things that don't even exist too, haha. :)

[Lord Helmet]

6. turds in the punch bowl

[Lerkfish]

8. I find myself in a lot of arguments here

Is it because I'm a loser? I don't think so. I think its because I'm principled and willing to stand on my beliefs and positions, willing to argue them and explain them. Do I sometimes go overboard? sure.

My point is that who is to decide who is just a passionate poster and who is a "loser"?

If we disagree on a topic, you're likely going to consider me a loser, even if my style and depth of passion is no different than your own.

[annabanana]

10. principled & willing to stand on you beliefs and positions

or "blinkered and rigid"? It all depends on the point of view.

(for the record, I usually agree with you)

[Wetzelbill]

11. that has nothing to do with what I wrote about though

I mean do you say go to a conservative type news site, and spend almost all of your waking hours getting in about 50 arguments a day, every single day of your life? No, you don't.

I see people on some sites who do nothing but spend their whole days in fights on an unfriendly website. Why do that? It's not passion, it's just sad. It's like their whole life is predicated on logging into an unfriendly website and being an ass.

[Lerkfish]

21. ahhh. sorry for misunderstanding.

then what I said, although an interesting point, had little to do with your point.

sorry abbout that.

[valerief]

12. I've always thought they were paid to do that crap. By money looted from the U.S. Treasury. nt

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

13. Sad to say, but

"flaming" is as old as the concept of forums like these. As much as forums like DU bring together a wide range of folks, they are also, ironically, distancing us from each other. People say things here that they would never share with strangers in person. They're at home, safely ensconced in front of a keyboard, essentially taking part in highly narcissistic, even solipsistic behavior (when was the last time YOU clicked on "My DU" to see if any of your posts got responses?).
Think about this: imagine yourself as a dedicated conservative. These days you're not exactly wearing your affiliation as proudly as you may have in the past. You have to go out in public and overhear everybody else talking about what ass clowns your heroes are. you go home, and even the Media is busting on your boys. What else can you do, but sign up for some leftie forum and anonymously enrage a few of your "enemies". It's really the only way neocons have of relieving their frustration . . . except for wearing diapers, soliciting Senate pages, divorcing terminally ill spouses, or drunkenly shooting their friends in the face.

Fortunately, we've all been posting on sites like this for some time now, and junk posts should slip past us like water off a duck's butt.

[Wetzelbill]

14. well, typically here the mods nail them

right off. I think I can see somebody simply signing up for a forum and enraging a few people here and there. But there are people who spend their whole lives doing it. Maybe that's a short term thing or whatever, but there has to be better things for a person to do than that with their lives. Like I see one person in particular on Huff Post who is on that thing 24/7. They pop up all over, and basically, I think it's a woman, her life is just getting online and spewing not just RW stuff, but absolutely inaccurate info, all the time. She fights with everybody, says the dumbest shit possible, gets slammed and then wakes up the next day to do it all over again. That's just a sad, sad existence.

[monmouth]

15. If you have bellsouth.net take a look at their message board. Finally

had to leave there, people in mom's basement day in and day out just spewing vitriolic acid. All RW's I might add...

[penguin7]

16. I have posted a few flames

I am also advocating for a candidate. I hope noone holds the candidate responsible for their wayward supporter.

[eggman67]

19. Some people are just dicks n/t

[AtomicKitten]

20. It might be a good thing.

I think sometimes we forget what the opposition is really like.

They're these people:


We're getting ready for the Battle Royale. We cannot lose this election. All the signs point strongly to a solid trouncing of the GOP.
We will not let them steal it again.