An apology. A concern. And an invitation.

[Syzygy321]

Last night I had a post hidden. (My first, so pop some champagne!)

In brief: I put up a post titled "Isis and Zionism: Links revealed!". I linked to a Saudi daily I read regularly, the Saudi Gazette. The article I linked to was insane - yet sadly typical of what one sees in SG, and (by my experience) in line with typical Arab theories about where their problems originate.

Basically, the writer said ISIS was created by zionists, western intelligence agencies, and Freemasons. Yes, Freemasons! That was why I posted it: it was so nutty that I thought it would make everyone gape, then laugh hysterically...and finally, think about what it means. The article presents a Saudi rebuttal to the (obvious) question of whether KSA-style Islamism and KSA riches are driving groups like ISIS.


Anyway: my apology is because DU readers apparently thought I was trying to promulgate the wacky Zionist-Freemason-ISIS theory (!?!) Which is the kind of misunderstanding that can only happen in cyberspace where my ironic smirk is not visible. So, guys, I am sorry my intentions were not clear. I am a longterm mocker of anti-Zionist conspiracy theories - and once the Freemasons were brought up, I could not resist the urge to share.

Now to my concern. In the few minutes before the thread was locked, some DU posters actually seemed to take it seriously. And to you-all I say: you are truly messed up. (well, that's the censored version of what I am saying.).

Public Service Announcement: The Arab press, also Fars (Iran) and Huuriyet (Turkey) is chock full of nonsense peddled to audiences who are eager to lap it up and who, yes, believe it. (I am related to some of them, is how I know.) I am shocked and disgusted that some (liberals?) here have apparently embraced their spew. Ugh. And WTF?

Finally, the invitation: Please think about reading Saudi Gazette and other mainstream sources from all over the place, just to see how other people are being raised to see the world. I especially like SG because the editor is a female and is stealthily putting out stories that shine a light of women's problems in KSA.

I am new here, so forgive me for saying this... but what I see is an appalling amount of binary thinking on this site (eg: Blacks good so all cops bad. Democrats good so all Repubs evil. Drug war bad so all drug criminals pitied. Israel the devil, Arabs the victims.)

I think that kind of black/white cartoonish thinking is an enemy to be resisted. So: i invite you to please read foreign papers - and let them open your eyes to all the BS getting slung by every side.

Best wishes.

[cali]

1. thank. great post.

Can you possibly give me the link?

[Syzygy321]

3. From what I understand, it may be somewhere on a

Page of hidden posts connected to my name?

Better yet: google the Saudi Gazette and enjoy. It's the 8/13/2015 edition, under the "Local Viewpoints" feature.

[bahrbearian]

9. link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027072126

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Good points.

[Xyzse]

4. Understandable.

I'll be reading your topics...
I would any how, but don't mind me. I tend to lurk.

[Betty Karlson]

5. I might just like every word you write.

Little hint: when quoting outrageous material, feel free to add a few lines of your own to indicate a distance between your views and the views expressed in the material:

"The Saudi source hereunder felt it necessary to reacquaint its readers with some antisemitic memes. Remember: Saudi source indoctrinates its readers just like FOX indoctrinates its viewes, and as a result Saudi-Arabia is skewed politically just like the USA are skewed politically."

[WinkyDink]

49. Oh, really? OP has some insulting language throughout, in my reading.

[Betty Karlson]

83. Not in mine. When words like 'zionists' are used, it is always in the context of a paraphrased

source from the Middle-East. The rest of the vocabulary is well above par. Am I missing something?

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. I also monitor the Saudi press

though I am far more inclined to read the Qatari press. I just prefer their writing style... so be it.

I would never, ever, post a story here from them. Why? People cannot see the value of seeing what people think abroad. This game of blaming the zionists for everything has been going on for way too many years. There are many things I will not post at DU... hell, it is bad enough that I will not post my own Primary coverage of US Elections. You will learn that there are clear limits as to what you can post on a hyper partisan site.

Personally I read (and watch) a lot of foreign media... and watching the US through other people's eyes is also very useful. We are far from ahem exceptional or saints.

[Paka]

7. Good suggestion that I highly support.

It gives one a chance to see things from a different perspective.

[7wo7rees]

8. Peace and great post. And by the way, Welcome to DU!!

[Lint Head]

10. Welcome to DU. I think I can say that just about all of us long timers here at DU have been

misunderstood at one time or the other.

[melman]

11. A quick googling of "Syzygy321"

tells all one would need to know about where this poster is coming from.

[Cal Carpenter]

12. LOL, I can't imagine the person with that twitter page

posting on DU in good faith.

Perhaps it is a coincidence?

[Syzygy321]

14. Hey, um, don't know what u mean but I don't have

Twitter.

On DU "syzygy" was taken so i tried adding number combos until one was accepted. If someone else in cyberspace did the same, I swear he/she is unrelated and thus not responsible for my personal brand of lunacy.

Please don't blame him.

[bettyellen]

20. you know we can actually look up lists of taken member names, right?

[bettyellen]

13. If you post crazy racist shit here without comment- assumptions will be made and OPs hidden.

This is not a dumping ground for RW conspiracy bullshit, but the Twitter feed seems to be one:


https://twitter.com/syzygy321

[Syzygy321]

16. Jesus - is this gonna be a problem? I named

Myself after a word I like. I added numbers because plain syzygy was taken; so was syzygy1 and syzygy123. Apparently it's a word anlotnof other people like, too.

Okay ya caught me: I actually AM a Zionist Freemason!!

[bettyellen]

17. Yep- if you post idiotic RW bullshit as is... That is a problem.

If you want to explore crazy RW bullshit, you could find better sources or add your own commentary. Reposting it without comment- then you are propagating the bullshit.
That;s pretty much how it works on message boards- Maybe you need to reread the TOS?

Also - it appears you could have had Syzygy, Syzygy1 or Syzygy2 or Syzygy3 had you tried.

Syzygy317 and syzygy_1 were taken already, but not Syzygy1 or plain Syzygy. Hmmm.

[Syzygy321]

18. Okay lady :)

All I know is what the signin page told me. If you know better, who am i to argue.

What I linked to was not remotely "right-wing" - unless one is referring to the right wing of jupiter's third moon, relayed through Riyadh.

Your insistence on casting me as a cartoonish "RW minion of evil" makes you one of the less interesting people on this site. But I wish you well and hope you eventually apologize when you know me better.

[LanternWaste]

34. No one is casting you as a right wing minion... at this point, I don't think anyone needs to.

No one is casting you as a right wing minion... at this point, I don't think anyone needs to.

[Spazito]

19. I'm with you on the Hmmmm....

Coincidences do happen but I don't think this is one.

[Syzygy321]

22. Argh!!! Ya know, I am a fairly smart person.

So if I had already made a name for myself as "Syzygy321, oddball non-liberal twitter person with objectionable views" and then wanted to come to DU to undermine freedom as we know it,

I probably would have been bright enough to pick a different username.

This is like those movies where they search the suspect's house and find the dead woman's diamond necklace under his bed next to the murder weapon, and the guy goes "FFS, if I killed her I wouldn't have left the evidence UNDER MY BED!"

And the cops say, "You would! Because you're stupid!"

And the guy goes, "but I'm a NASA astrophysicist for cryin out loud!"

And the cops go, "Ah so you left it there on purpose, thinking the stupidity of that move could later be used as "evidence" that you were being framed, and--"

And, yeah, that's where the guy goes, "Whatever, dudes."

.

[Spazito]

24. I see you took out the info in your profile after the post pointing out the info on twitter and...

the info on your profile was the same. My Hmmmm remains and is even strengthened.

[bettyellen]

27. HA

[Spazito]

28. Yeah, I literally laughed out loud when I checked...

not obvious, nosirree!

[bettyellen]

30. the "coincidence" regarding the names made me spit.

I think they underestimated people here. LOL.

[gollygee]

33. Based on her job and her interests and her favorite word

she's obviously really, really, really smart. She might have assumed that everyone here was below average. However, it doesn't take that high a level of intelligence to put 2 and 2 together. Or in this case 3 and 2 and 1 together.

[Spazito]

35. Yes, I found the multiple 'coincidences'....interesting...

Someone on twitter with the same username tweeting about the exact same subject, what are the odds they aren't related...not good at all.

[gollygee]

29. I noticed from her past posts, not her profile here at DU

But she's said here at DU what her job is, a number of times. She's talked about the same things that are on the Twitter account. It looks very obviously to be the same person. Or two people who both posts about identical things (including the Middle East and Islam,) have the same gender and the same job and the same interests, and also who both have the same favorite word (and not a commonly used word) and the same 3-number combination after it. Which would be a pretty big coincidence.

[Spazito]

31. Ahhh, thanks for the clarification, the info you provided in your previous post...

still stands for me, even more as it came in the form of actual posts.

[Syzygy321]

32. What info in my profile? WTF are you

now even talking about? I have nothing on my profile aside from whatever goes there automatically. And you, Madame, are getting all twisty in the brain.

At this point it has become clear that YOU are the person who hid the diamond mexklace under my bed.

Or - perhaps more likely - you simply have that bloodhoundy desire to yell "Gotcha! Even if I have to make crap up... Gotcha!"

In the movies, that's the scene where the seemingly mild-mannered postman (who got turned down by the FBI academy and has never gotten over it) gets misled by his fantasies and imagines evidence, hoping to become famous for sniffing out a terrorist plot.

[Spazito]

37. LOL...

It seems it wasn't in your profile, it was in actual posts ie your posts in favor of lion hunting, etc.

No gotcha here, no coincidence either.

[Aerows]

61. My personal favorites

were the $100 donation to a Republican candidate and the positive review of a Bill O'Reilly book.

[bettyellen]

39. the problem with that argument is that the person with this twitter feed is not very smart at all...

https://twitter.com/syzygy321

They're not sure if they love that loser Carly Fiorina more than they do Scott Walker, so yes- they are a RW moron.. So there's that. And you guys post a remarkable amount in common. Amazing. Do you think they are copying you?

[gollygee]

21. It also doesn't take much to notice

that the specifics of the Twitter account (gender, job, pro lion hunting) and the specifics of the DU account are the same. With such an unusual username, it seems like a weird coincidence that everything else would line up as well.

[bettyellen]

25. coupled with the pretense that that rejecting that other OP was "binary thinking", LOL.........

Nope- some articles are complete crazy bullshit.
not an auspicious start. I guess they just assumed there were so many Sygyzys here and we would not catch that other bit of nonsense.

[Syzygy321]

47. I finally dared to look up your Syzygy321 tweeter.

She describes herself as a medical PHYSICIST for gid's sake, in someplace like FL.

A med physicist knows physics and applies it to radiation oncology. IOW: cancer treatment. And they don't care for patients exactly; they care for the machinery.

If you want the (dull and painstaking) job of combing through my posts you will see that neither her job nor her location are anything close to mine.

There are probably 500 thousand or more females who do something medical in America. Our jobs are not interchangeable. The days when you could call us all "Hey nurse!" are long gone.

Anytime you want to issue that apology, I will be right over here. Your choice.

[bettyellen]

76. cool story, sis.

[Syzygy321]

90. Wow - you are doubling down on your false accusation

even though I provide reasons not to.

You are clutching at irrational prejudices because it wounds your ego to admit your attacks on me were nasty and unfounded.

Look downthread to helpful Aeros. And then keep being Bettyellen. It's instructive to other readers.

If this were old Salem during the days of the Puritans, guess who you'd be?

[DemocraticWing]

15. I'm not surprised a few people took it seriously

Occasionally someone will trot out propaganda lines from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, or some other country simply because it's critical of America or Israel. Sure there are good reasons to be critical of America or Israel, but spreading ridiculous misinformation and conspiracy theories (Zionists created Isis! Gay people are happy in Russia! Women have all the rights they need in Saudi Arabia!) just to get the nugget of confirmation bias you want is a bad way to go.

[Bluenorthwest]

23. Saudi Arabia has the death penalty for gay people, so your OP promoting their wisdoms was uncool.

You seemed to be endorsing the message. The Kingdom is an absolute monarchy which abuses women, LGBT and ethnic minorities while suppressing the arts, religion and study.
If you do not share those views, you should consider being clear about that when promoting them here.

[bettyellen]

26. seemed to be endorsing and then denounced DU's "black and white, binary" judgement on some things...

People tell you who they are.

[ananda]

36. Basically, what you're saying is:

-- I apologize (but not really). You're messed up. --

And then you proceed in your typical condescending
fashion to upbraid us for not always seeing your pov --
which it is clear to me that many of us DO -- and then
proceeding to tell us what to read.

Hmm... I know what I think.

[bettyellen]

41. noting that they are posting garbage here without comment is helpful- but they seem to be

arguing there is some merit in that pile of garbage, and we shouldn't judge it so "black and white".
I know what to think too.

[KamaAina]

38. The sarcasm emoji would have come in handy.

Type a colon, then the word sarcasm, then another colon, and you get this.

The tinfoil hat emoji would have worked, too. Same thing with tinfoilhat.

[Syzygy321]

43. Thank you for the kind hint. I actually

thought of the sarcasm tag but didn't want to give away the psychotic punchline in advance.

Plus its big red drippiness seems crude to me. A little winking face after the link, ok, I should have done to prevent misunderstandings.

(Another emoji seems crude to me:
It's that cartoon of the person rolling on floor laughing. Does it do anything besides help posters be nasty to each other? Anyone want to join me in a petition to have it disappeared?)

[KamaAina]

45. I usually put it after the post

for just that reason.

And I use all the time to praise my fellow DUers for their hilarious posts!

edit: as for the drippiness of ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027063006#post30

[Syzygy321]

40. Anyone who wonders how conspiracy theories start,

and are maintained, promulgated, and embraced as gospel:

Please see above under "bettyellen and friends."

Take a certain personality insert into a certain milieu, tell her something that gratifies her in some way, and she will be able to come up with plenty of circumstantial evidence.

For example: Zionists wanna slaughter Arabs and ISIS wants to slaughhter Arabs, and we have to be on guard against our enemies because they are everywhere and they want to destroy our kind!

Look: I caught one!
It's a commie using Hollywood to undermine American values.
It's a black who is "passing" - Next he's gonna sleep with our womenfolk!
The guy in this army unit that we didn't like anyway - I saw him eyeballing my crotch in the showers. And he likes theatre, and comes from California - that's near San Francisco ain't it?
Our kingdom has been infiltrated by
zionists.
There's a troll in this forum and she's right over there!

You have seen it a thousand times before.

Now you are doing it.

The face of the enemy is in your mirror.

And yes - mine too.

[Syzygy321]

42. Addendum: I posted heavily on a thread

about an honor killing - because that's a subject close to my heart. As always, the cments were all "oh how can those men do that? Shocking! So unlike us Americans and any civilized place!"

And, yeah, honor killings are very much an outgrowth of mainstream Muslim teachings. But the other point is - we could all be like that. Do you see, above?

It feels so good to stone an adulteress, or a lion-killing dentist. "Hey, did ya hear about Farkhina? Well, the imam said she burned a Quran! Let's beat her to death and set her on fire!".

This is what people do. It's how people are. And it's why I was driven, in my twenties, from the extreme liberal side of politics to the moderate center.

It's because the far sides are where the thoughtless mobs are. The people who feed off demonizing an imaginary Other, to reassure themselves of their own perfection and (in the case of religion and politics) their moral superiority.

The extremes draw those people who have a psychological need to hate The Other Guy so they can feel perfect.

Me: I figured out a long time ago that I am not perfect, so being moderate suits me fine. ( I still don't like being unexpectedly attacked, though.)

Thanks for the rousing DU welcome, people. Enjoy your stay.

[tblue37]

44. If someone posts from a disreputable or untrustworthy site,

Last edited Fri Aug 14, 2015, 09:23 AM - Edit history (1)

we expect him to add in the same post some commentary to the effect that he recognizes how bad the nonsense is. Otherwise he is suspected of promoting the nonsense.

Also, even with commentary, posts from untrustworthy sources upset a lot of people, because even just posting them gives them more exposure, so their nonsense wins new adherents or offers new "arguments" or "evidence" for those who believe such nonsense--as you saw when some people jumped to agree with the article you posted.

[Syzygy321]

46. Ok. Good points.

But the flip side is:

We really can't understand - fairly - stuff like where ISIS comes from or why Israeli is big on defensive/aggressive posturing, without understanding the widespread attitudes that they are derived from (iSIS) or reacting against (Israeli government)..

And: if I were to just say "Lots of People in Region Y think X", everyone would (rightly) demand to see my evidence.

So i would say there's a balance to be struck between censorship of wacky stuff for the reasons you give, and exposure of wacky stuff because it's existence informs our understanding of current issues.

I posted this article because it was *extremely* wacky, and yet published in a mainstream daily - in fact, in the segment that specifically gives its aim as "bringing mainstream Arab opinions to an international audience.".

So that made it (to me) both fair game for exposure, and important for people to see.

But, your point is taken. Thx.

[cwydro]

50. I'm not sure if any of these accusations from our friendly DUers are true.

If not, I apologize and welcome you to DU.

If so, hey, contrasting points of view don't bother me.

[Syzygy321]

51. Calm and fair: exactly why I like you.

Thanks for the welcome.

[WinkyDink]

48. You lost me here: "appalling...binary thinking on this site....Democrats good so all Repubs evil..."

YOU'RE DAMNED RIGHT.

JUST TRY TO NAME A "GOOD" REPUBLICAN. Oh, sure; you can name some decent on one topic or another, but OVER-ALL? IF HE OR SHE IS A REPUBLICAN, THEIR WORLD-VIEW SUCKS.

And you can knock it off with the "appalling" and "cartoonish thinking" and "you are truly messed up."

[Syzygy321]

57. Umm, how does the "ignore" thing work?

Nothing personal.

You may be a very kind person, and feed stray cats, and shine joy on your loved ones.

But it's not likely that you and I will have any interesting conversations.

[cwydro]

58. Lol, I never ignore anyone

because sometimes you miss some fun times if you do.

[Trajan]

78. I'll show you how ignore works

Not a fan of duplicitous personalities ...

[Syzygy321]

85. Whee! Now I feel like Perseus!

Got the cap; don't need the sandals...and now if I wrap my shield in aluminum foil...

[Crunchy Frog]

88. A good Republican.

Joanie Mahoney

They're as rare as hens teeth these days, but you still find one here and there.

And one of my dearest friends ever was a Republican voter. She was elderly, and brainwashed by RW radio, but a lovely person nonetheless.

[WinkyDink]

89. So was my recently deceased best friend. I was thinking (but shold have written) "Republican politi-

cian."

Sorry, but the OP post looked to me like one big morass to hide his main point: Republican pols can be good.

[Iggo]

52. This thread is fucking gold!!!

[Syzygy321]

55. Hell, it's free entertainment! Enjoy. NT

[Mosby]

53. what was the second post you had hidden?

[Syzygy321]

54. Isn't there something called a "transparency page" somewhere, where you can see it?

I gently teased a guy and got smacked for it. Ok, lesson learned.

One of the jurors referred to my supposed evil tweets as the nefarious Other Syzygy321 - that's why he/she voted to hide apparently (nice!),

which is why this time loop has reset itself.

[Mosby]

66. click on my profile

Then click on the button "transparency" it will be greyed out.

Then click on the link "show me my transparency page".

You can alert on jurors, there is a link at the bottom the email.

[Syzygy321]

73. Thanks. I looked at the hide email and found

the button called "alert abuse" - looks like it shoots an email to the administrators.

So you are saying I can go straight to the top with my sad tale of "Juror number one admits he/she hid me because he/she thinks I am a different syzygy321 who tweets Republican stuff and is a medical physicist. Which makes juror one stupid on many levels."

And what happens then? Juror Numbah One gets outed and is forced to make a public apology for being an ass, and wrong, and - did I mention - an ass?

(Because I would like that!)

Honestly though: aren't there just two or three administrators? Surely the poor guys don't have the time or the interest to publicly shame every prejudiced ass on every jury who makes a fool of himself. Even Sysyphus would weep.

[GitRDun]

56. Welcome to DU

I liked your OP and absolutely laughed out loud at the beating dished out within the thread. Only at DU can you make a sincere apology and get beat over the head with it.

The thinking can seem binary, but I've always looked at it more as advocacy....people like what they like and promote / advocate their thoughts sometimes very aggressively.

Keep posting, and get to know the posters. You'll figure out after a while who the black and white / advocate folks are...it's more fun once you sort that out.

Have fun with it!

[Syzygy321]

59. Best freaking advice.

My secret weakness is that I love to argue but get all nauseous and trembly when attacked (yes, even by invisible harmless screenname-creatures.)

I am hoping DU toughens me up. And I really appreciate the kind words.

[Aerows]

60. Hmmm.

Did you give $100 to Allan Mansoor - R (CA) in 2010?

Like a Bill O'Reilly book?

Just curious .

[Syzygy321]

62. Well I was recently discussing

"Little House on the prairie" with an old friend, and for the thousandth time I wondered wtf kind of name was "Almanzo" for a pioneer guy. And, voila, I got this explanation off Wikipedia:

Apparently (itwas explained in one of the "Little House" books) there was a boy named "Almanzo" in every generation of his family going back to the Crusades. This was because an Arab named Al-Manzur had saved the life of Amanzo's ancestor - and been honored by his progeny ever since.

That's an awesome story.

Beyond that, I have no idea what you are talking about. But I hope you enjoyed today's brief moment of pioneer trivia!

[Aerows]

63. The internet is a fascinating place

It's tough to get rid of your internet footprint once it is out there - neat, huh?

[Syzygy321]

64. You know how psychics work? "You will meet someone soon...

"You will travel across water... There will be excitement, and unexpected news.".

And, gosh, it all turns out to be true!

Since I have the same moniker as a different Syzygy, please continue to indulge yourself.

I think a lot of people are enjoying the entertainment value of this thread, and I am beginning to, myself!

[Aerows]

65. Your own posts

Have a nice day

[Syzygy321]

67. Yes, those are my posts. What's the problem?

I work in a medical field.

I am not a medical physicist.

You are trying soo hard to fit me to your pre-judices. Tsk. Not very liberal or tolerant or polite.

Please look up "Medical physicist". There are not many of them - it's a pretty cool and small area. They don't go to med school; they take a special grad school program.

A friend of mine is married to one, actually. He has a master's, but most have PhD's, he says. If you are looking for a job, please consider it. I think it pays well.

[Aerows]

71. Um, yeah.

Thanks for the advice, but I manage pretty well on a Network Engineer's salary just fine and don't have student loan debt.

It's wise to be circumspect when encountering people that know the internet and networks - you are going to run into any number of them on any forum.

Here's an analogy - you never enter a cave for emergency shelter when hiking. Why? Because obvious shelters will already be inhabited by local wildlife and they've been doing it a lot longer than you have.

I figured you would appreciate that analogy.

[Syzygy321]

72. Analogy? You misunderstood me again.

A-P-O-L-O-G-Y.

Whole different thing. Again, see dictionary.

It's the path taken by people who have been nasty for no reason, and realize it, and are decent enough to regret it.

Still waiting.

[Syzygy321]

68. Oh! I just figured it out!

You think "medical physicist" means "physician"!

Because they both have a little phyzz at the start of them.

Here's what you do: you get a friggn dictionary.

And then the apology, please, if ya have any decency.

(and thank you for dredging up those old posts - something i suppose I could have done to clear my name, except that, pfff, it's far beneath me. You sure put a lot of time into making yourself look really bad, in public.)

[cwydro]

69. I'm laughing here.

Again, I reserve my judgment because I've been burned before, but glad you got your flame suit on.

Many on DU love a pile on.

[Ms. Toad]

74. You might want to search the name of the owner of the twitter account by the same name

and LinkedIn. That person's education is BS in physics, and an MS in Radiological Medical Physics. Not exactly an MD.

[Aerows]

75. Respectfully

I suggest that if you follow a trail down a rabbit hole which is about two inches deep, then branches out in equally shallow but wide warrens, it isn't so difficult to see where the pattern starts.

[Ms. Toad]

77. My point is that you (and others)

are insisting that the OP is the same as the Twitter user based (in large part) on demonstrating they have the same career - why else would you post the excerpts referencing that the OP is an MD? Even if you don't know what a medical physicist does, the Twitter user gives her real name - which matches to a LinkedIn account, which lists all of her degrees (none of which is an MD).

I don't know whether they are the same person or not (although my guess is not). I'm pretty sure that the Twitter user is not an MD, so dredging up posts suggesting that the DU member is an MD doesn't support your assertion.

[Aerows]

79. Well, it is up to you to make your own judgment when evaluating any post by anybody.

[Ms. Toad]

81. I just get very tired of all the troll hunting here.

Trolls eventually show their true colors and get bounced. As Skinner has said a numbers of times - is isn't like they are going to kill us in our sleep. No need to actively hunt them out. I have, unfortunately, seen a number of potentially interesting newer members run off by troll hunters. Who knows if they would have continued to be interesting - but now we'll never know since they said something someone took offense at and were run off.

(Not to mention that my job, not so long ago, required me to find dirt on folks online. A similar or identical user name on different social media sites would pique my interest, but nothing I've seen so far here would lead me to the conclusion that they are the same person.)

[Aerows]

82. It takes all kinds

to make a discussion board.

[snooper2]

91. What is wrong with troll hunting? Not like they are an endangered species LOL

[Ms. Toad]

92. Because too many people see trolls where there aren't any.

Spend some time in MIRT - any variation from the party line triggers a troll hunt (including many who are dragged into MIRT because MIRT member notices what they perceive to be a slightly off post in the rest of the forum.)** The OP is correct - in many ways DU thinking is just as black and white as the thinking we accuse CC or FR of - and you can see it more clearly in MIRT where discussing people who step out of line can be done freely, without the concern of hidden posts because of bluntly accusing someone of being a troll, republican, conservative, etc. One of the things I value most about people I see as truly progressive is that they really embrace multi-dimensional thinking. The OP is at least correct that very little of that happens on DU. I wish more would.

** This is not to totally trash MIRT. MIRT members do a lot of work, and make the place much more pleasant for the rest of DU by identifying and quickly eliminating known trolls (LG, DTG, etc.). They also quickly dispatch spammers and obvious disrupters. All that is good, and necessary work that takes considerable time. I did two terms on MIRT - and if you take it seriously, it is a lot of work. My concern is when any variation from the party line triggers an assumption that the person is a, and triggers a troll hunt that often either results in a PPR - or the person leaving because of badgering like some of what is going on in this thread.

[treestar]

70. Some people are pretty dense

I remember reading "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and some lady I worked with saw my book and thought I was becoming a Nazi. I guess that is a side effect of anti-intellectualism. The book banning mentality. If you were to read Das Kapital, you become a Marxist, so the solution is to ban the book.

[pnwmom]

80. Thanks for the apology and for making a good point. The world isn't binary

and we might benefit from exposing ourselves to the points of view of a broader range of people from around the world.

Unfortunately, some people were so busy playing Twitter detective that they ignored what you were saying.

It might help, though, if you used the sarcasm tag more freely. I had to learn to do that, too.

P.S.

Most of us, if we know many people, know at least some Republicans that we wouldn't consider evil . . . just misguided.

[AngryAmish]

86. Do not dismiss crazy middle east conspiracy theories just because they sound crazy.

They live in a different culture than the west, have different mores and beliefs. They have their own histories which impact their beliefs, just as we do.

They freemasonry? Well, the Ottoman Empire was finally overthrown internally by the Young Turks, who organized in Masonic Temples (better to hide from the Sultan's secret police) and many were crypto-jews, members of the Donmeh families who converted (maybe) to Islam when their proclaimed Jewish messiah, Sabbatei Zevi, converted to Islam under threat of death and became a trusted advisor to the Sultan. The Donmeh became very powerful, still are to this day. In the ME, this among many things is why a jewish and masonic plot seems plausible.

The people of the ME are rational, when you see things from their point of view.

[Syzygy321]

87. People in general are rational to some degree,

in that we look for patterns and draw conclusions.

For example, Nazi ideology was perfectly rational:

We Germans are suffering and don't deserve it; therefore it is some other group's fault. There's a group that lives among us but is weird and different, and some of them are richer than us, and the Bible proves they helped kill Jesus, and they've been recognized (by so many previous rational minds!) as horrible, duplicitous blood-suckers throughout history. Plus, they are dark and we are fair-skinned. Thus they are inferior.

The evidence is all laid out for us: Jews are the source of our problems. Let's kill 'em. Then we will be free and proud.

Of course it's rational!

Thank you for rationalizing the murderous prejudices of others. Thanks a million. No wait - thanks six million!

Tracts have been written throughout history to do just that.