I'm going to be blocked

[HassleCat]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Autumn (a host of the Bernie Sanders group).

Sooner or later. I just know it. I got blocked from the Clinton group yesterday, and it's probably just a matter of time until I get blocked from the Sanders group, too. Here's how it happened, and why it will happen here, too.

Even though I'm a Sanders supporter, I sometimes drop in and post something in the Clinton group. I try to be nice, complementing Clinton when she does something good, like speaking up for unions the other day. I knew it couldn't last, and it didn't. One of the Clinton supporters took that chart showing Clinton getting big money from financial institutions and explained how it was all a lie. I won't go into the details, but it was total crap, a spin doctor effort worthy of Karl Rove. I couldn't restrain myself. I made a sarcastic comment, and they banned me. Which is fair, since I'm a Sanders supporter, not a Clinton supporter. They don't need me in their comfy little echo chamber.

The problem with the candidate groups, particularly during the primary season, is they have ceased to be groups, and become fortresses. The combatants who are afraid to venture onto the field of General Discussion can stay inside the fort and hurl flaming tar balls at the other fort. The post appears as it would in General Discussion, but nobody can criticize it. I think this is cowardly and dishonest. If you have something to say about the other candidate, say it in GD and let everyone comment on it. If I post here, in the Sanders group, saying Clinton does quid pro quo with the big banks, I will get mostly agreement. If I post the same thing in GD, the responses will be quite different. But I would make such a post in GD, because everyone deserves an opportunity to let me know how they feel about my post, and there is a chance someone will make an intelligent defense. A small chance, a small and rapidly diminishing chance, but still...

Anyway, it's going to happen to me here, just as it did over there. Someone is going to post something that turns the truth on its head, and it will find its way into Latest Threads, and I simply will not be able to restrain myself. I will make some snide comment and be banished from the island. Don't worry. It will not diminish my enthusiasm for Sanders. I can hardly believe someone is running for president who is a democratic socialist and a progressive, as I have been for 35 years. Believe me, it's lonely out here, as most of you can appreciate.

[L0oniX]

1. IMO this is not Bernie Sanders group material.

It's more like meta or gd.

[HassleCat]

5. To clarify

I'm asking people to make critical comments about Hillary Clinton in GD, and not hide in the group. After all, criticism of Clinton is "not Bernie Sanders group material," either. Please don't adopt the fortress mentality. If you want to say something about one of the other candidates, say it where everyone can comment on it. Thanks.

[TM99]

10. Well I have no intention of blocking you...

yet!

Look, lots of posters here post critical stuff in GD-P about Hillary Clinton. Hell many of us having gotten a ton of shit for it from the very vocal minority.

So I am not sure how you can say truthfully that 'we hide' here. No, we come here to discuss Sanders without flaming, smears, trolling, or other bullshit. We discuss local issues, financing, town hall meetings, etc.

I think we hosts here are extremely tolerant. We don't just block for mistakes or accidents. We don't block for meta posts, which this one is. We do usually lock meta threads after a short while especially if it just turns into a bitch fest about that group there versus this group here.

So I am guess I am bit confused with this very meta seeming OP.

[smokey nj]

12. It isn't.

[n2doc]

2. The "HRC Room" is extremely intolerant

They like to say the Bernie Group is the same, but it is definitely not. Hell I was warned when I posted on a thread there and it had nothing to do with HRC at all. Just because I post a lot here and like Sanders. So I preemptively trashed both the HRC and GD forums so that I wouldn't accidentally post there, and because they were mostly trollish/annoying.

I hope the Sanders group doesn't go the route of the HRC or BHO groups. If so I will probably leave this one too. So far so good in my opinion, though.

[retrowire]

3. i was banned from the clinton group for the very same reason

but that's why I took my debate to the primaries board.

we're proving that "debunking" wrong already. go see for yourself. www.democraticunderground.com/1251446566

kind of odd that 3.4% could donate more than 91% hmm? and they're confused, thinking that the 3.4% is the amount of money and not the amount of donators... they can't spin it anymore. or they're taking a break trying to figure out how.

point is, we all need to scrutinize our candidates. bernie too! thing is, I can't find anything I don't like about Bernie. and I'm not going to put my hands over my ears when people talk either, which seems to be the mantra with Clinton supporters.

[merrily]

4. Hmm. A while back, I checked your journal and saw a post saying you'd been blocked from the

Bernie Sanders Group.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10248274


If you don't believe groups should exist, take it up with Skinner in ATA and/or trash the group.

[HassleCat]

7. Yes, I was

That was maybe my first post to this group. It was when the media "discovered" Sanders was a socialist, and I thought it was the end for him, based on my own experiences as a democratic socialist. So I got all excited, and I got blocked.

[HassleCat]

9. And I like your suggestion

Not the part about trashing the group. Not my style. But I will make a suggestion that comments about candidate B that originate within the camp of candidate A be sent to a jury for transfer to general discussion. After all, the group that supports candidate A is going off topic if they post something to the effect that candidate B is a liar and a thief. Such comments deserve to appear in GD, where everyone has a chance to respond.

[merrily]

11. Um, NOTHING in your post was my suggestion, except trashing the group, which you rejected out of

hand. The only other part of my suggestion was taking it up with Skinner in ATA, which I will assume is also not your style.

[tularetom]

6. Last time I checked they had blocked something like 115 people

And last night one of their mods spent a couple hours boo hooing about how mean people were being to him.

Paranoia reigns supreme over there.

[merrily]

14. I got blocked for wandering in without knowing it, but I support their right to block.

At this juncture, the group is clearly for people who want Hillary to be the nominee. Posts by others do not belong there. And the flip side is true of this group.

All else can go in any almost any other forum on this board, and, for Hillary supporters, on the Hillary Mojo board or, for all of us, on other boards. There's no reason for them to troll here or for us to troll there.

IMO, there is real value in having a place to support and encourage each other and to have discussions without feeling as though you have to divert to refute every turd in the punchbowl. I assume that's why Skinner decided to create safe haven groups to begin with.

JMO.

[Smarmie Doofus]

8. I got banned from there last week also.

Someone posited that people should support Clinton because she had "battle scars".

Having been to the local VA hospital about three weeks ago I couldn't let that one pass.

It's not a huge issue, but a better system might be to route the candidate forum threads AWAY from the Latest Threads board.

If they ( Clinton people) or we ( Sanders people) don't want ANY input from outside our respective camps, why INVITE it by running the OPs past everyone on DU?

[Autumn]

13. I'm going to lock this post HassleCat. This is against the SOP for our group

if you are blocked from a group you can always petition the hosts to remove your block. Sometimes that works

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12805067

The mission of the Bernie Sanders Group is to discuss information and news about the life, career, accomplishments, and current campaign for the Democratic Party's Nomination in 2016 of Bernie Sanders. The Bernie Sanders Group will provide a haven for those members of Democratic Underground who support the Senator Sanders and his policies; to discuss his policy positions, speeches, interviews, and other public appearances; to discuss Senator Sanders 2016 Democratic nomination campaign; and to discuss the causes which Senator Sanders has championed.

The Bernie Sanders Group is not a forum. This group serves as safe haven for members who share similar interests and viewpoints. Individuals who post messages contrary to this group's stated purpose can be excluded from posting, these decisions will be made by the current group hosts. Any and all posts about supporters of other groups will be immediately locked.