How to form a circular firing squad.

[rrneck]

1.Create an ideology.

2.Focus that ideology on a single issue to the exclusion of all others.

3.Invest so much emotion into it that you cannot bear to to have it challenged.

4.Disregard the possible consequences of the implementation of that ideology beyond the issue upon which it is focused.

5.Declare the place where you express that ideology its exclusive province.

6.If others accept your ideology, never disagree with them.

7.Stop at nothing to force others to accept your ideology.

8.If others do not accept your ideology, stop at nothing to drive them from your presence.

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This is an exceptionally well moderated forum populated by passionate and intelligent people. If I could presume to offer suggestions about how it is run, a few things come to mind.

1. Don't create "refuge forums". Anybody with a star can go anywhere anyway, so there is no real refuge. It's just divisive.
2. Create "enemies forums". Places where people can rail about bad policies and people in the Republican Party. I came to DU for years just to see the Top Ten Conservative Idiots. If people can recognize a common enemy, they are more likely to put their individual differences aside and pull together.
3. Update the hate mailbag so we can jeer at the bleatings of banned trolls.

DU is not a think tank. It's a community. Communities need a common cause and the same problems and people who gave us that cause before 08 are still there. Hell, Newt Gingrich may run for president in 2012 fer crissakes! We should focus on them, not on each other.