I am the only one that used DU as a way to prepare to debate or dispute right wingers?

[NJmaverick]

For years I would come to DU to learn all the latest news and facts. I would listen to various sound positions and ways of thinking, that left me well armed and well prepared for any right winger encounter. Right wingers are all over, and they are never shy about spouting their views. Be it knocking the Democrats, demonizing liberals, pumping up Republicans that were ruining the Country or supporting illegal and immoral wars, they are every where both in real life and on the internet.
So I always found that to be the number one thing that drew me to this place. Spend time here every day reading the latest news and the best of threads (maybe GDP and GD) and I was all set. It left me prepared when I heard some right wing blow hard blame Bill Clinton for anything and everything. I was able to handily dispute a freepers attempts at painting liberals as evil beings that ruined our nation. I was all set when the next Republican was singing the praises of the Republican party and George Bush (although the Bush part became less of an issue lately). DU functioned as a Democratic think tank and information clearly house. It was a solid way to defend the party and by extension liberalism.
Am I alone in these thoughts?

[tekisui]

1. I don't waste my time debating RWers.

I do use DU as a place to gather info to educate those who will listen and counter the RW memes thta they hear.

[Warpy]

3. Exactly. Right wingers are simply unreachable

at this point, their behavior completely cultlike. The best we can do is educate each other and prepare ourselves to talk to the politically disengaged people who are still reachable.

[NJmaverick]

4. I figure the debate is more from the benefit of others listening or reading

rather than because I believe they can be made to see reason.

[liberal N proud]

2. DU has helped me shut down many a right winger

Between DU and google which sometimes comes right back to DU, I have ended many a debate with a right winger with information they can't refute.

One thing that sets this site apart. That is the requirement by member that when you make a statement, you had better have some evidence in the form of a link.

[The Hope Mobile]

5. Agreed!

[Dollface]

6. DU + Olbermann + Maddow = frustrated freepers trying to make a point and losing every time

[VOX]

7. In a Sargasso Sea of crap media, DU is a consistently excellent tool for staying on the ball...

In addition, there are many threads each day that look at old challenges in novel ways. DU is an informational necessity in these cruel times.

[AirBaud]

8. I notice the use of past tense.

Do you feel this is no longer the case?

[NJmaverick]

10. I don't know

I really don't know

[DURHAM D]

18. If you don't know, if you can't be sure -

then you do know.

Up is now down.

Left is now right.

[KG]

9. i no longer have the energy to point out the obvious to the willfully obtuse.

even here on DU. they are to be mocked, not debated.

[madinmaryland]

11. Interestingly, while DU has been quite enlightening, I have not really

had many opportunities to use the facts.

The most repubs that I see are at work, and I will not discuss politics at work. Most of my friends outside of work are left leaning so there is not much to argue about there.

[asjr]

12. My sister lives in the Republican Zone in

Florida and is always calling me with a question. She will tell me what she wants to know and says What does your DU say about so and so? I have learned more about life in general (even at my age) through DU that I ever prepared for. It would have been a good idea for Obama to look to DU for members of his cabinet. He would have been better off.

[MrMickeysMom]

13. Hey- here's a good RW/LW debate topic. Care to advise?

A municipal member of council could not care less about granting a $1,000 to nominally support some of our aging (yes, private) neighborhood pools, and cares even less about supporting the municipal pool. Why? It's not a good business model. We shouldn't be in the business of caring for this recreation. Also, the senior center work out room should go away for the same reason.

This same person is ready to defend spending more money on a 4th of July parade, serves in the Army reserves, and has emotionally used "his" brother and sisters in Iraq/Afghanistan when it suites the moment. He hates any suggestion to join with other townships and municipalities in studying greenhouse effects here, but makes the occasional Stars and Strips patriotism for public safety and public works projects. While I might be agreeable to helping fund the parades, I haven't yet gotten his attention in an effort to understand that the municipal swimming pool is most likely not going to be a profit center for our town and that it's worth looking at the regional effect of greenhouse gases.

On the swimming pool issue, when you invest in providing a place where kids can have this summer recreation and fitness, IT IS an investment in their future well being because they're our kids.

So, how to debate further? And, by the way, I serve on that council.

[lisa58]

14. I thought that was why it was created!

After the 2000 election I made sure I was informed - everyday!

DU has always been an enormous help.

[hunter]

15. There's a lot to be learned here, but debating right wingers is an exercise in frustration.

They simply don't open the door to argument. They'll continue to believe in their Republican Santa Claus even when they lose their jobs, are evicted from their homes, and end up sitting in the hospital E.R. without insurance and no place to go.

In their fantasy world the United States would be a capitalist paradise if family value right wing republicans were in charge. Therefore everything that is wrong with the United States is the fault of liberals and leftists, tree huggers, gays, uppity women and minorities, immigrants, union laborers, anti-war activists, etc., etc..

For now it seems the Republicans who quietly voted for Obama because they saw what a mess Bush made of things are not arguing much. I was talking to a retired Air Force guy the other day, a guy who still believes Ronald Reagan was some kind of saint, and he was talking about the economy and said he voted for Obama. There was no reason for me to ask him if he thought his votes for Bush were a mistake or provoke him with anything else political. He knew.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

16. Before I joined DU in 11/2004, I used post on an AOL message board

and lurked on DU for some of my research in combating WrongWingers on those message boards. I don't even know any WrongWingers in my personal life. All of my family and friends are Liberal Democrats.

[RaleighNCDUer]

17. i used to,

then I realized that it helped my blood pressure a lot to just not argue with them.