Why are internet comments sections so right wing?

[alp227]

As Richard Stallman said in a recent talk I attended at San Jose State, it used to be believed that the Internet would counter censorship and enhance democracy.

Sadly, the Internet is too often used to ENHANCE the right wing status quo.

Just take a look at the comments section of the Mercury News article "NAACP calls on DA to bolster hate-crime charges against SJSU students" where the two top rated comments are:

The DA has it right on this to file misdemeanor charges if what is alleged to have happened is true...........Why don't we hear about the NAACP speaking out that 50% of the homicide victims in the U.S. are black and 95%of the suspects are black? Why don't we hear the NAACP talk about the disproportionate rate of black on white crime? Why isn't the NAACP using its power and money to better the black community instead of promoting the victim mentality?

First of all, this ignorant user doesn't know that the NAACP does use its power and money to "better the black community" as he condescendingly wants. Just go to NAACP.org and READ THE SITE.

Second, the fact is, murder victims are much more likely to be murdered by either a peer or someone of their own ethnicity than a stranger.

Another comment:

Their outrage is duly noted. Do they have any left for the hate crimes perpetrated by blacks on others in their beloved knockout game? Don't hold your breath.

These comments do what's known as concern trolling and JAQing off (JAQ = just asking questions).

[Egalitarian Thug]

1. The sad truth is that these are the people that constitute a majority of Americans.

Numbers can be misleading, made to appear to say something that isn't so, and the methods used to gather them can be rigged and massaged to the point of fiction, but they don't lie. There is no way that this phenomenon can be so wide-spread and consistent without it being representative.

[AverageJoe90]

8. I doubt that. Otherwise, we'd be looking at President Romney right now.....

There is no way that this phenomenon can be so wide-spread and consistent without it being representative.

Not necessarily. I do hate to seem confrontational, but you forget that all too often, many decent people sit around and just stay silent while the racists spout away; and more than a few of them will spend hours and hours spewing their crap all over the place, making multiple comments. Numbers themselves may not lie, but they can certainly be massaged down or exaggerated to such a point that they become part of the fiction. This is definitely a case of the latter here. Regardless of your faith in humanity, it can be safely said that at least these days, the majority of Americans of any race are not hardcore racists, yes, even white folks.

With that said, though, I don't think anyone will deny that racism does remain a substantial problem in this country, and not just societal racism & other bigotries, but the remnants of *structural* prejudice as well.

[YoungDemCA]

9. +1

nt

[Egalitarian Thug]

19. If the numbers agreed with you, so would I.

We don't have a President Rmoney because roughly half of eligible Americans don't vote at all and that's up from what it was not so long ago. The fact that an idiot as transparently unqualified as Rmoney got his party's nomination and forty-something million votes is pretty clear evidence of just how serious the American intellectual deficit really is. If voting were required by law we would be in even deeper shit than we are.

You're pinning your hopes on the same assumption of a mythical "silent majority" that never existed in the '80s either. The bumper sticker reads, "The Moral Majority is neither" and neither does any "Sane Center".

[AverageJoe90]

40. Again, your argument doesn't exactly hold water, dude.....thankfully.

As I pointed out earlier, the right-winger pundits will often inflate their numbers and play with the statistics to make it *seem* like the majority agree with them. What you see on the Internet is a perfect example of such; you wouldn't believe how much time and effort the more fanatical amongst them devote to spamming comments boards on countless websites. I've seen this all the time on YouTube with guys like the "BUGS Swarm" Bob Whitaker fanboys who spew their "anti-racist is anti-white" B.S. all over the place, for one more prominent example.

You're pinning your hopes on the same assumption of a mythical "silent majority" that never existed in the '80s either.

Unlike the Reagan Revolution sloganeering of the '80s, my viewpoint actually does make sense, and is quite solidly based on reality.

Hey, I'm no rose-colored glasses super-optimist either. But if your assertion were actually true, we'd actually be in a lot deeper shit than we are now(instead of Reagan "Revolution" gone worse, think instead of Mussolini's Italy, or even the Germany of 1939.).....and that's saying something.

[heaven05]

55. Romshit got 47% of the popular vote

put your numbers of population that is screwed in the head and you'll find quite a few 'angry white males'(and females) who "want their country back". Don't try telling me that hate and racism is not widespread the numbers are prolific. Every since our POTUS has been at the head of the ship of state, the mutineers are growing. A black POTUS has NOT brought any harmony or a color blind society, just the opposite. The racist roaches and skunks that had remained hidden came out of their dark, dark and dank hiding places and have inhabited the right wing comment sections and blogs spewing the RW racist bullshit found dribbling out of Rush's pig mouth and glenn beckerhead.. Their numbers are legion. I disagree with you, totally and without equivocation.

[japple]

68. Living in a red township, red county, red state, I have to agree with your comments. Everyone in

this area EXPECTS that you are rabidly opposed to the President and his agenda, esp. the ACA. My feeling is that they are not just opposed to the President on political differences--they really hate it that a black man is in the highest office in the land. Most of them, even the most educated and accomplished, consider our President to be nothing more than an uppity n-word. I work in a surgery department with 55+/- employees and there are about 3 or 4 of us who are liberal or progressive. This doesn't even include any of the surgeons, mfg. reps., assistants that are "regulars" in our dept. The only thing I ever hear from anyone (aside from the nearly silent minority) is how we are screwn. The surgeons always talk about money, money, money, and how they can't stand to treat patients without insurance. Now that the ACA is (nearly) a reality, they gripe about what sort of restrictions they will be subjected to. It is always whine, whine, whine...I'm not making enough money, where can I buy a gun, car, new toy. At least the dialog has moved on from the Ayn Rand worship.

ETA: I will do the happy dance with the rest of the DU membership when our agenda is the norm. I have been living under this oppression (job-wise) for 9 years. I keep trying to shine a light into the darkness and often feel like it is futile. Longing for the day when we can walk hand-in-hand into the light of a new dawn of hope, equality and justice for all--not just in this country, but for the whole world. At any rate, in 2015, I will be able to retire and spend the majority of my time rescuing cats.

[AverageJoe90]

70. It does certainly depend on where you live, TBH.

I do fully recognize that some places have bigger problems with structural & societal racism & other bigotries than others, and some, less so.

BTW, if I have permission, where do you live, roughly?

[japple]

75. Georgia, but please don't let this get into a discussion about poor, ignorant

southerners. It's everywhere!

[AverageJoe90]

81. No worries about me, I'm from Texas.

My state has a fair share of dumbfuckery that made its home here, but we got Austin, El Paso, San Antonio, and College Station, too, as a liberal balance to the cons. Dallas and Houston are becoming more & more moderate every passing year.

And there's places in California chock full of Repuglican'ts: Orange County being one of them.

[bobclark86]

73. Exactly...

Red town in a red county, but a very blue state... so not only do the rednecks hate everyone in blue states, they also hate half of their own state...

When I tell people I'm from New York, they usually picture this:


What my neighbors are really like (the flag is mandatory... in an area which sent thousands to kill people carrying it, lol):


Just remember, everyone: Just because the population might be slightly left, that still means almost half are to the right. That goes nationwide, as well as in "blue" states.

[japple]

74. Your neighbors look like a lot of the folks in my county. The #1 priorities are

1. Church
2. Family
3. Fun

1 & 2 are frequently one and the same.

The god-fearers don't care about the homeless/needy/societal outcasts unless they are in the 1 & 2 group. They will rally for disabled children, physically/medically challenged adults, families who have displacement issues due to economic/weather/accidental disasters if they are in the 1 & 2 group. But if a LGBT person shows up in the emergency room with injuries due to a hate crime, tough titty. And if an uninsured woman shows up in advanced stages of labor, god help her if she hasn't had any prenatal care. It's a real conundrum.

[Surya Gayatri]

88. I'd swear you were talking about my brother,

a physician in Orange County, So. Cal. You describe him to a "T" here:

"The surgeons always talk about money, money, money, and how they can't stand to treat patients without insurance. Now that the ACA is (nearly) a reality, they gripe about what sort of restrictions they will be subjected to. It is always whine, whine, whine...I'm not making enough money, where can I buy a gun, car, new toy."

He has just recently become the proud owner of an AK15, just because all of his doctor buddies have them.

The only point you didn't mention is his anti-immigrant, anti-Latino obsession. He has dared to use such epithets as "beaner", "wetback", etc. to qualify the poor, uninsured Mexicans forced to come to his ER.

The American for-profit health care system has created an obscenely wealthy and rotten-to-the-core medical class.

[AverageJoe90]

69. You may wish to re-read what I said.

Don't try telling me that hate and racism is not widespread the numbers are prolific.

I didn't say that at all. I merely said that they weren't *the majority*. After all, devoted support for President Obama is arguably widespread, and yet, we are not quite the majority. There *is* a difference, TBH.

Every since our POTUS has been at the head of the ship of state, the mutineers are growing.....A black POTUS has NOT brought any harmony or a color blind society, just the opposite.

And I never argued or implied otherwise, by the way.

The racist roaches and skunks that had remained hidden came out of their dark, dark and dank hiding places and have inhabited the right wing comment sections and blogs spewing the RW racist bullshit found dribbling out of Rush's pig mouth and glenn beckerhead..

Yeah, I've seen that myself, particularly on YouTube and certain other places.

Really, the only major issue I had with E.T.'s comment was his implied assertion that the majority of Americans were essentially hardcore bigots; TBH, I seriously doubt this is quite the case, or we would be on the verge of full-scale Nazi-style fascism right now, if not having already crossed that threshold sometime ago.

[heaven05]

87. I did reread,

I did slightly overreact. You see that the hate is systemic, and if I offended, I apologize. I just get so very disappointed that this country and a lot of it's citizen(s), really, have not found it's or their way(balance) to racial harmony and financial and health parity (security) for all, yet. On edit: I think we passed that thresh hold you spoke off already. The total militarization of our security forces(police) did it for me

[AverageJoe90]

89. It's really not a problem.

This stuff happens.

In any case, I do think we can both agree that we still have a ways to go before full societal equality, but that also, it can become reality, someday.

[heaven05]

92. possibly

but not probable in my book. Yet, hope is still alive and kicking.

[Egalitarian Thug]

91. And we saw this after reagan was elected as well. That's the ugly truth that

most of us want to ignore or pretend that it didn't happen.

Reagan's big draw was telling people that it was fine to let your inner bigot out, that social regression is a good thing, and many Democrats voted for him and these policies, twice.

The half dozen consistent defenders of inequality that have spent their time here distracting from the OPs message are typical of this type. Not every bigot walks around hurling racial epithets and misspelling protest signs, a lot of them use the anonymity of the internet and the voting booth to exercise their anger and fear.

[AverageJoe90]

94. Nobody's ignoring that.

Reagan's big draw was telling people that it was fine to let your inner bigot out, that social regression is a good thing, and many Democrats voted for him and these policies, twice.

That may have been true for the remaining Dixiecrats, yes. But at large, no, many of the Democrats who voted for him truly did believe that he was a "Great Uniter" and all.....not that he really was(and he did in fact cater to the racist right), but this is what they sincerely believed at the time; they were misled.

Not every bigot walks around hurling racial epithets and misspelling protest signs, a lot of them use the anonymity of the internet and the voting booth to exercise their anger and fear.

Very true, and in fact, nobody has denied *that*, either. But as I pointed out earlier, one thing that some people forget is that reactionaries often do exaggerate and inflate their numbers; just look at the Teabaggers for instance.

[Mr.Bill]

41. As far as Romney getting the nomination,

one must consider who he was running against.

[passiveporcupine]

49. No

The reality is that poeple filled with anger, hate, bigotry, and fear are more inclined to protest than those who are more relaxed and happy. The reason mid term elections don't get the liberal votes and republicans can sometimes take back power, is because it's only the angry fearful people who show up.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

54. It's not even a majority of upper income white males....

It's most prevalent in autonomous postings where you can create multiple accounts and give yourself thumbs up.

This is what we know of as "Freeping". The folks at Free Republic used to openly say. "Freep this poll" for right wing causes and Bush in particular. They had posted instructions about how to vote multiple times and some had several computers running just to get past sites that could tell you were on the same computer. They used to laugh about sites where you didn't even need to clear your cookies.

Bottom line, this is a small group trying to give the illusion of popular support.

[Skidmore]

66. Oh, bull.

Comments sections are convenience samples of those who frequent those sites and choose to comment and by no means representative of the population as a whole.

[Skittles]

2. because cowards LOVE hiding behind a keyboard

[Thor_MN]

43. And it allows all of their "personalities" to manifest as "individuals"

[alp227]

56. True but not for the site i linked to.

A few years earlier the site used to let anyone register with any user name they wanted. The result: comments sections super unhinged.

Then in 2011/12 or so the comments changed to Facebook. People still were willing to post nutjob comments with their real names, some others with fake name profiles.

Now mercurynews.com uses disqus. You can thank Fox News, The Blaze, etc. for making it cool to put your name and face next to wingnutty comments.

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. Because a lot of liberals gave up trying a long time ago to educate the truly

stupid...therefore, they are the only ones hanging out in the comments sections.

[dballance]

4. Because the RW pays "marketing" firms to post.

It is not a secret that Fox and others have teams of people who scan the internet and post talking points.

[Tom Ripley]

27. +1000

[Berlum]

42. Bingo. For RepubliWankers, SockSucketry is a Hugh Industry, Inc. (R)

[kestrel91316]

47. There are companies that hire people to post all manner of stuff online.

So of course the RW is happy to hire those companies to post their crap.

The people they hire are freelancers for the most part, paid a pittance per post.

[City Lights]

50. We have a winner! nt

[deancr]

59. Just so

Having observed comment sections, yahoo for instance, you have hit the nail squarely. I think this is far more prevalent than we suspect. Sock puppets being our internet comment version of "money talks."

[Auggie]

5. Many comments are paid for by the right ...

just as Wikipedia is often rewritten to skew conservative agendas.

[YoungDemCA]

11. I guess they didn't get the memo..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservapedia

[freshwest]

31. They do it so that a neutral person will only find their version in search results.

Last edited Mon Nov 25, 2013, 12:11 PM - Edit history (1)

The Libertarians / Paulites have announced they are spamming search results deliberately so people will get their views first. It's made searches ridiculous.

Many search engines only display a limited amount so when one is looking for data to verify if their recollections are valid, cannot find any liberal or progressive ones.

At one time, asking for information on search engines like scroogle gave a hundred answers per query, many of them to universities and original source material. I started using it in 2000 or around that time but it was forced offline.

Now it's nothing but rightwing propaganda. It's their way of wiping liberals off the mental landscape. The people making the queries aren't that ignorant, but after a while, that's all they get.

Fact-based results are also lacking due to religious spamming. Even looking up a Bible verse is now problematic, with more conservative opinion than the requested query for a verse.

They also have computer programs that take words and make mangled posts which are far beyond any form of PWD (posting while drunk) but they drive down any other comments. It's a vicious circle.

In the your example of Wikipedia editing, I've taken to saving results before they are edited by conservatives and the data gone.

This started with the Bush scrubbers and has not slowed down at all. They want like Rush said in his early days, to think like him and he would keep on until everyone did.

Authoritarian, deceitful, hateful and conservative, they always appeal to the lowest common denominator in human ineractions.

[Tom Ripley]

72. +1000

[BlueCaliDem]

77. +2000 eom

[KittyWampus]

85. Thanks for taking the time to write your thoughtful post. Great response.

[FSogol]

90. +1 n/t

[Tom Ripley]

26. +1000

[Starry Messenger]

6. They feel under siege by "the liberal media" (hah) and feel that spewing their dross creates balance

I actually saw one say this in a comments section, pissed that one site was moving to more transparency in their posting regs.

[YoungDemCA]

12. Well, it's like they say about Fox News...

"Fair and Balanced" because the rest of the media are a bunch of anti-American Commie socialist liberals.

[Tom Ripley]

25. It is overwhelmingly the right wing posters who throw hissy fits anytime more transparency is...

proposed for our local paper's online forum.

[Starry Messenger]

30. I wonder if that's because most if them are just a few different people.

They don't want the sick drawer yanked open.

[Tom Ripley]

71. I think you are correct...

when I point out distinct similarities in syntax, and not just talking points, between "different" posters, they go ballistic.
They are also the ones who are the most ready to hurl accusations of sockpuppetry. They are so transparent. And stupid.

[NutmegYankee]

7. The anonmity makes them confortable to state horrible things.

And since the posting often inflicts discomfort on others, those who get off on that sort of thing (usually rightwingers) gravitate towards it. They just do it to be trolls.

[gollygee]

15. They even do it when it's hooked up to their Facebook accounts

with their names, photos, and on their walls for everyone to see.

I don't get it. I posted a similar thread a couple of days ago, and I don't know what the deal is either.

[NutmegYankee]

16. I find the facebook stuff to be a bit toned down.

As opposed to Yahoo threads, which are disgusting.

[YoungDemCA]

10. People who aren't right-wing trolls have better things to do?

[NoOneMan]

13. There are less left-wing troll opportunities, and probably left-wing trolls (if they exist at all)

Those guys are just trying to get a rise out of people with their hate for shits and giggles.

What the hell are the left-wing trolls going to go on about? Wall-street? Does the media even write articles about those crooks anymore?

[arcane1]

14. "JAQing off"

[Historic NY]

38. I'm using that next time some moran posts on HP.

[gtar100]

17. The very nature of being right wing is to feel compelled to speak out.

Never mind that they are typically coming from their own prejudices and hate. Being more people-oriented, the Left I see has a lot more people with a live-and-let-live attitude and less inclined to speak up knowing that an argument is generally a very unpleasant path. We know there are more fulfilling and interesting ways to spend our time than to fight with idiots. But it's becoming a necessity (like taking out the trash) because if we don't do it (don't counter their nonsense), then clearly the environment gets all a mess.

[NRaleighLiberal]

18. Here's another possibility - right wing is lock step thought and inflamed by Faux, Oxyrush, etc.

Right wing thought is also all or none, black and white, simple talking points. And angry.

Left wing ideas, by definition, are more ideas, more varied, more nuanced - and we on the left are not nearly as frothed up due to the lack of focused attack dogs, such as right wing hate radio and Faux.

[Tom Ripley]

20. Work from home! Make $$$ using your computer!

Along with the sincere dumbasses and bigots,there are a number of individuals who are paid to bombard local newspaper message boards with right wing talking points in order to enhance the illusion of consensus. One doesn't have to live in San Jose, Paducah, or Peoria to post on the San Jose,Paducah, or Peoria newspaper boards. Just for fun, keep an eye on how many show a familiarity with local personages, landmarks, or events.

[Blanks]

21. The comments are from right-wingers because...

They are sitting at home running their 'AmWay business' or 'autopilot business' while their wives are off at their jobs earning the bacon. They got nothing better to do. At least that's the conclusion I come to based on my interactions with the morons on Facebook.

I also agree that a lot of the liberals out there don't confront them due to the fact that experience tells us that it won't make any difference.

Oddly, if you challenge them - you are subjected, almost immediately, to a piling on of (seemingy coordinated) personal attacks. I expect that serves as somewhat of a deterrent to a lot of us liberal/progressive types.

It doesn't matter though. The right-wingers are losing and I'm getting emails from Howard Dean. It's all over but the crying.

[KT2000]

22. Hate kills

People who feast on hate have to rid themselves of it because it is uncomfortable. They have adrenalin coursing through them and since they are sitting at their computers instead of exercising it off - they have to either spread their hate through personal conversations or dump all over internet comment sections.

[Warren DeMontague]

23. Clownholes.

I'm really liking that word, more and more.

[freshwest]

24. Thanks alp, for those links and the story. I'm going to study those. Didn't know the real meanings.

[Tikki]

28. It is a place where they can hit and run…if the conversation gets too deep they can call...

those they disagree with names, claim they are 'ANYONE' and leave and come back at will.

I compare them with soapbox preachers..screaming at the people passing by.


Tikki

[valerief]

29. They have all the money and can pay people to post. nt

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

32. Nobody wants to look at normal,

give them a train wreck.

[madrchsod]

33. why ?.....

because lefties have more things to do....

[Rozlee]

34. Angry people need to vent more.

Anonymous comments boards let them do that. They can let out all that bile and toxic hate that they bottle up under their normal everyday facades. I'm sure a lot of the really racist douches we see on some comments sections don't dare talk like that around co-workers and in polite society. They'd get fired or sanctioned by others. For many, it's the only avenue they have to be themselves. To show their true colors without fear of a backlash in real life.

[treestar]

52. Exactly

Right wingers are always more likely to spew. Like in family gatherings of mixed company, liberals will not bring up politics so as not to cause issues and conflicts, but right wingers cannot help themselves. They must let it out.

[seveneyes]

35. Teh Google did it

Everyone. including their brothers, can easily find their interests on the Internet. We built it, they came and here we are.

[graywarrior]

36. Because critical thinking people have better things to do than whack off online.

[rhett o rick]

37. I am glad there is a name for it. JAQing off. The are a few here in DU that JAQ off all the time.

Trying to insinuate a point by asking questions.

Or from (http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/JAQing_off) " the act of spouting accusations while cowardly hiding behind the claim of "just asking questions."

[Curmudgeoness]

39. I suppose that we should get off of our asses

and start countering these posts on sites that draw the wingnuts. I am just as guilty of this, but I prefer to stay here at DU, but it doesn't really help to get the message out to moderates.

Then again, I have posted on some of these sites when all I see if right wing babbling, and I have had a hard time standing up to the vitriol. For some reason, these people use the tactic of threats and really hitting below the belt with name calling. I have been told that one day, I may die an early death. Or that when the revolution comes, I will not survive. It is more than creepy. I just hoped that the reasonable people were paying attention to which one of us was rational. But it gets exhausting.

[JHB]

44. Conservatives have spent 50 years fostering a sense of aggrievement...

...over "liberal media bias", and about 30 encouraging their rank and file to police the media for it, to write letters and make phone calls protesting any such bias (widely defined). Once dial-in bulletin boards and then the internet came along, they did the same in those venues.

Basically, they gave ranting cranks a sense of entitlement.

Not to discount the paid ones, but don't chalk it all off to that. They've had plenty of volunteer foamaholics for a long time.

[Sheepshank]

45. RW'ers tend to think screaming the loudest makes them the winner ....

and more likely to affect conversion to their side.

My experience has been many progressives are much more secure in their leanings and beliefs and do not need to bludgeon others with those beliefs. Much more comfortable in their own skin and permitting others that sme "choice".

[GoCubsGo]

46. Paid sock puppets.

They're paid by the post. There are also a bunch that get paid to call into liberal-leaning talk radio shows. The more talking points they get in, the more they get paid. Stephanie Miller had one call in on Friday, who labeled herself a "black conservative". This woman has her own Facebook paid which she brags about being a paid troll. You can tell easily who these people are. They'll just spout off one point after another, and if the host calls them out, they'll just move right on to the next point, as if the previous one was never made. Many of them sound just like they are reading off of a list.

[yourout]

57. Exactly......

[Hugabear]

48. Thirty years of hate-spewing right wing radio

They've been programmed by their right wing masters.

[QuestForSense]

51. I think a lot of it is the right-wing message machine.

Their members are loyal soldiers and do this in great numbers, but one nut on his own working diligently for half a day can spew a lot of shit. Many are actually paid to do so. (Spew, that is.)

[Lobo27]

53. People are fearless behind a screen...

Earlier on Yahoo, there was a story about this Knock Out game teens are playing. The first comment was blacks and latinos should be round up. And they wonder why we need stop and frisk on them... Shit got ugly quick...

[hollowdweller]

58. Republicans are older and have more time.

They are on social security or disability and all they have to do all day is get on line and post stuff about whining minorities and big government.

But I'll tell you that anytime I see something like you mention I get in there and hit back. NEVER let conservatives be the only voice on a forum NEVER.

[Ken Burch]

60. Because folks can post anonymously and while drunk.

Also, the right-wing groups have large squads of paid posters out their spreading their message.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

61. Because most of them are stupid dumb-fucks, racists, and knuckle-draggin', slobbering

sloths who can't hold a job and are sitting on their fat, leechfuck asses while sucking on the government teat.

Their lot in life is to spend it whining and bitching about what everyone else is doing and to broadcast to, and project their miserable moods and attitudes onto, a world that ignores them.

[Turbineguy]

62. Because liberals are too cheap to pay.

Besides, we don't like assholes to promote our views.

[99Forever]

63. Astroturfers. n/t

[dembotoz]

67. saw a right wing video that actively asked their believers to take the battle to us via comment

sections

and they do

and now i do to them
great fun

just blast away

[liberalmuse]

76. Because they dare not say the things they do in person.

They prefer the cloak of anonymity. I live in one of the most liberal states in the US, but if you read our online news comments sections, you'd think we were a bunch of ignorant, misogynist, racist, Obama-hating gun nuts, because right wing ass hats can't say the stupid shit they do online in the real world without some reasonable person shutting them down with a sane counterargument. This is the only way they can be "right".

[kickysnana]

78. And why did psychologists in a 13 year study say that Wisconsins are the most outgoing?

They are now outgoing right back to Germany 1940.

[Myrina]

84. We Cheeseheads are very friendly,

.... until we meet your family/friends and see that they're not "just like us". That's when we close ranks. Sadly.

Seriously, I think WI used to be very outgoing but the undercurrent of the "myth of the Welfare Mom" coupled with the bad economy, rapid demographic changes and futures not being as secure as they used to be, are bringing out the ugly in people.

And contrast the study with the fact (still) that Milwaukee has consistently ranked as THE most racially segregated city in the "North".

[Lydia Leftcoast]

79. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune comments used to be completely dominated by right-wingers

but then a few of us lefties made a concerted effort to post. Now you see more and more center to left people posting, and the number of right-wing regulars has decreased. Furthermore, when someone posts a left-of-center opinion, it's like to get more favorable votes than negative ones.

However, occasionally, the comments will start out being left-leaning, and then all of a sudden, there will be a barrage of illiterate right-wing posts, many of them using identical or nearly identical language. I suspect that what happens is that some AM radio squawker sees the article, notes the number of left-wing posts, and goes off on a nonsensical rant, while urging his listeners to show the liberals at the Red Star (anyone who thinks the staunchly Establishment Minneapolis paper has ANYTHING in common with the newspaper of the former Soviet military is REALLY ignorant) what "real Americans" think.

[frogmarch]

80. Because

That's my take on it, anyway.

[MisterP]

82. comments give an advantage to uniform talking points and synchronized thinking

over lengthy and complicated consideration of facts and the human element

(and there's no reason at all to give up)

[Prophet 451]

83. Often wondered that

I essentially gave up using the BBC message boards because any time anything remotely political was posted (and often when it wasn't), the ultraright winders swarmed, shouting down anyone who disagreed with them.

[Cleita]

86. I'm just amazed that with their poor language skills

(grammar and spelling) that any of them ever learned how to use an computer and the internet.

[woo me with science]

93. Why is DU overrun with corporate disruption?

DU is not alone. It has been done to discussion places across the internet.

States that build surveillance machines also build propaganda machines.

The goal of the propaganda assaults across the internet is not to convince anyone of anything.*
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023359801

It will continue to get worse
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3189367