Well, congratulations, DU...

[MineralMan]

220. While I'd like an answer, I don't expect one.

I'm not willing to sit by, though, and see good DUers and others called "right-wingers," without even naming anyone. This sort of open-ended name-calling makes DU suck. Anyone on DU can disagree with or refute the arguments of any other DUer. That's the great thing about DU. There are limits in how that disagreement or refutation can be worded, but that's it. You also can't take a genuine right-wing position on DU without getting TOSsed from the site.

When someone makes some sort of blanket statement that some nebulous "group" of DUers are "right-wingers," or makes accusations about DUers being paid to post here, if no DUer is identified, then the statement is meaningless. We're supposed to, I suppose, imagine who is being talked about and put our own names to the accusation.

That is the weakest of arguments anyone can make. It's on a par with the "some say" and "we hear" statement often used by places like Fox News, when they really have nobody they can name who "says" something they want to say. It's weak and borders on cowardly. How easy it is to make some broad statement about some class of people on DU and call them "right-wingers" or "trolls" or something equally ugly. It's easy and it makes no sense at all.

If someone calls me a "right-winger," I'll come to that thread and ask them just exactly what they mean by that. I've done that very thing a few times here on DU. The answer is never anything that makes any sense. Usually the answer is that I disagree in some way with what they are saying, or that I'm not vehement enough about wanting ideals to be achieved or something equally undefinable.

But, I'll still be here, and I'll still challenge people who try to broadbrush some group of DUers. If I disagree with someone's position on something, I'll say so publicly, directly to that person. That is how discussion occurs. It does not occur with accusations of unnamed people on DU, without even an explanation of exactly what makes the accuser so sure about the statement.

It's just weak argument and poor logic. If a DUer thinks someone is taking a right-wing position, let that DUer say so in a thread where that person has taken that position. And let that DUer speak directly to the person being accused, so that person can defend him or herself. That's honest discussion and honest debate. Third party accusations of unnamed people is just weakness.

So, I've asked the poster of the OP in this thread to answer the question of who he is talking about. If there is no answer, that is sufficient answer for me. It is nobody. The OP is talking about nobody. The question is answered.