To our new members here: Why are we often too quick in calling new posters trolls?

[Warren DeMontague]

40. "Those quotes were within the last two days." - wait; were they said on DU?

If this is a thread about who said what on another site; a valid discussion, perhaps, but a different one to my mind, than mulling over what standards new posters ought to generally be held to here on DU.

For one thing, a new poster doesn't generally have a name and a history which people can examine- that's part of the problem, actually- so many of these characters are just repeat customers coming back under new names.

I've never felt that criticizing of all Democrats all the time should be off the table- that's how we get our leaders to lead. We had to gently push some of them along on the topic of marriage equality, didn't we- I mean, even Joe Biden 'trolled' President Obama on the topic at one point. I suspect after the election we will have similar conversations on things like marijuana legalization, where some of our Democratic leaders are ahead of the curve and in line with the majority that supports ending prohibition, while some still drag their feet. These are important conversations and shouldn't be confused with bashing, of course.