Reasoned/astute comments, Elvis.
Elvis » Fri May 04, 2018 7:33 pm wrote:peartreed wrote:We all need to de-personalize the mean rhetoric and ridicule against imagined rivals. It reads like a high school gossip column by pimple-popping prepubescents.
Yikes. Would you like to reconsider those two sentences? Unless you mean "pimple-popping prepubescents" as a compliment and not mean rhetoric.
Indeed.
Peartreed:
Yet the same bullies who berate both AD and SLAD for their prolific posts about fascism and Trump/Russia, respectively – not respectfully – badger on relentlessly. It is tiresome and predictable and petty in the extreme
I see only direct, legitimate questions being posed to AD. As Elvis pointed out, no one here is obligated to respond, but since when is it considered bullying to ask questions? Look back into the history of this forum. This forum's spirit is in discussion, discourse.
Historically, discussions here occasionally became heated. It's to be expected, given the nature of the human condition and the topics raised. These 'flare-ups' eventually dissipate on their own, or otherwise a Mod has to interfere and take action. Rinse and repeat.
In short, your comments are incongruous with activity throughout the history of this discussion board. That aside: if you have recent examples of "bullying" tactics please cite them. I see nothing of the sort. But I've purposely avoided this forum of late precisely due to this aversion towards discourse.
These pleas for sterile/non-interactive discourse speaks to a particular form of privilege enjoyed here in the U.S. The privilege of OBSERVING FROM AFAR, opining (largely by proxy, passively, in the form of pasted articles) in virtual environments, safely removed from real-world interactions and exposure, while LIVELIHOODS are directly impacted and LIVES are LOST due to the actions perpetrated by various brokers in positions of power.
These topics demand scrutiny. Questions should rightly be raised whenever warranted. It is a privilege, a luxury, to place questions on "ignore" while millions elsewhere are directly, adversely (at times, severely/mortally) impacted by the topics discussed here.
Carry on, however: continue to tend to your gardens.