Can you help me?

[Jack Sprat]

I am real depressed about something, but I am not certain whether it warrants such concern. Whenever I go to a Yahoo news story and read the comments or comment myself, I am confronted by the most hateful, irrational people I have ever encountered. Do you believe that the sampling of posters commenting there are a very small group of far right activists? Possibly even paid activists? They make up wildly exaggerated charges against anybody or anything moderate to progressive in nature. Please tell me these people are not exemplary of everyday Americans we see on the street everyday. Please.

[Fozzledick]

1. I'm guessing they're just yahoos

in the original Swiftian sense.

[roguevalley]

17. they are not representative. Don't go there for a while. Set a period

of time and don't go. Its almost a compulsion to do that, to see what they say. These people aren't like everyone else. everyone else is working, thinking, doing. I had to not have tv for three months and it was the best thing ever. I thought I would die watching the news. not having it saved me. When I got it back, it was different. I had been so compulsive about it I thought I was going to explode. But now, not so much. These are normal everyday people. They are people grinding an ax in anonymity.

[Jack Sprat]

18. I don't know about that, but

the picture of the dachshund is priceless. They are my favorite dogs. I have had 2 and the current one is now 16 yrs old. He looked just like the one in the picture when he was young. Now he's white around the eyes and around his body. Only 10.5 lbs though and still active. Great dogs for sure.

[roguevalley]

31. That one is Tippy, my angel boy. I had five including his sibling

now I have three and they are 13, 15, 16. One has bladder cancer and is doing pretty well, one a heart condition and the other slight dementia and arthritis. wonderful, awesome dogs.

[Motown_Johnny]

22. .

Classic



Both literally and figuratively

[ironrooster]

2. yes, i've noticed this as well - they don't seem quite sincere

do they? alot of it is really over-the-top.

[Jack Sprat]

5. Way way over the top.

It has just gotten to be a strategy of the Right to make things up, regardless of how exaggerated it is. They have become the echos of their shock jock radio personalities.

[hlthe2b]

3. I think certain news stories likely attract far right activists or even

paid activists as you say.... If you see the automatic talking points (and most of us can recognize them), then I'm betting your instincts are right. And, no, the average Joe is playing games on facebook or watching sports or otherwise blissfully unaware.

[Jack Sprat]

9. But when it's a story about crayfish discovered

in east Tennessee and they are turning it into a conversation demeaning Al Gore over global warming, then what can you say? They will turn any civil discourse on a neutral subject into a rightwing hatefest at any opportunity.

Thanks for assuring me that are not typical. I do worry about this country sometimes and where it's all going to end.

[hlthe2b]

11. Oh, geebus... I tend to only post on moderated forums...

That really underscores why. Apparently, it gives some kind of "cyber high" to be so hateful for some people. Uggh.

I may have trouble being an optimist much of the time, but I will never let myself believe that that is at all representative of most people.

[glinda]

14. On one of my moderated Groups the people have become very nasty.

Perhaps I just didn't notice before that Americans were awful creatures.

[hlthe2b]

15. they certainly can be...

:shrug:

[Jack Sprat]

16. They seem to be reaching new heights

of hatefulness. When I think back to the Dirty Tricks gang of Nixon's Committee to Reelect and then the Koch Industries busing instigators in Town Hall Forums this past campaign season, I fully suspect that many are organized and paid to stir up trouble. It isn't irrational to think they operate on News Feeds and internet forums as well.

[freshwest]

21. I think these are their kids and grand kids, to tell the truth.

[somone]

4. The comments are now useless

between the teabaggers spouting idiotic nonsense and the Chinese spammers trying to sell junk

[DeSwiss]

6. Run, do not walk.....

...to the closest exit - and leave the Yahoo news comment board as quickly as you can. Please no pushing or shoving. ;) Do not comment on Yahoo's boards except to take a parting shot as you go out the door. Those who frequent Yahoo's news comment boards, at least in my experience, seem to be trying to exemplify the browser's name to the nth degree -- and become the WORLD'S GREATEST CONCENTRATION OF YAHOOS.

Oh sure, it can be used for catharsis on those days when you're really, really PO'd about something or someone, and you just need a place to vent. But other than that, Yahoo's boards are otherwise pretty useless. In fact, I've found that most news website comment boards are. And a board like DU stands out as a shining exception in the clutter and BS you'll otherwise find out there. And your coming here regularly is very likely the reason that the contrast is so stark.

- Trust me, just let it go. It ain't worth it.....

/snark

K&R

[patrice]

7. K&R

[fadedrose]

8. There's a strong anti-progressive group, but there's ...

a strong anti-DLC group. Balances out somewhat, except the DLC group seems to be more vocal, imho.

[Warren DeMontague]

10. Oh, God, Yahoo comments?

Feh. Just ignore them.

[Gregorian]

12. Aha! I found something for you.

It took some digging. But it's just what you asked for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgGxk8xFgAE&feature=player_embedded

[cynatnite]

13. That's just a dumping ground for people to say whatever's on their small brains...

Yahoo had gotten rid of them some time ago. For the life of me, I can't figure out why they'd dredge it back up.

[Capitalocracy]

25. Web 2.0.

Everything has to be "participatory" (even if that participation is just whistling in the dark).

This is what happens when there's zero moderation.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

19. I GAVE UP ON THEM YEARS AGO... NOT JUST THE CRAZIES, BUT YAHOO

[freshwest]

20. I can't assure you of that. It makes me very disturbed, too.

You have analyzed the problem correctly about the behavior.

One can only hope that these are RW activists, or paid. I've run into some of the paid ones, and they either post obscenities (verbal or photographic), flame, play games, try to shut boards down by posting things on the board faster than the moderators can delete them, coming back under multiple names, shell posting, and then reporting the boards to the hosting server.

They only attack liberal or progressive posters, follow them around and attack all boards they post on. After awhile boards that have had for years a good or at least fair dialog between liberals and conservatives, end up losing the majority of their members. Who wants to deal with that? And they are savvy, have cyber stalked and gone to real life stalking, done all sorts of things. I don't believe there are that many unemployed people with broadband access, sophisticated equipment as they use, and the time to hit all these places at once.

But part of what you fear is true, I believe. There are a lot of angry, misinformed people out there. They are naturally braver on line than they would be in person, unless they were part of a mob, like the Tea Party mobs have proven to be.

On other websites populated by conservatives, Yahoo is the primary news sources other than Faux Noise. They get angry when you ask them to provide a source, since they can't yet download to print the voices in their heads from Fox and the RW radio pundits.

So they try to get to the keyboard as fast as they can to type what they heard. Since they are repeating what they heard, something we can all be accused of to a greater or lesser degree, they don't know the talking points unless the speaker says 'talking points.' If you check out the times of the postings, they are during or right after the hate radio shows in their time zones, or some RW pundit on Fox. They get filled up and vent. You catch the code words, phrases, sometimes they repeat entire sentences. Then they forget the rest of what they heard, get mad and fall back on name calling. Some boards on other websites are full of this, it's not just Yahoo. They get very personal in their insults, without knowing a thing about you, except that you didn't high five their meme. That means you are the enemy!

They can't defend anything they say or believe, because they are being confronted by you with questions or statements that blow holes in what got to them emotionally. So they spew vitriol to shut you up.

I've found yahoo answers to display the most insane questions getting clueless answers. It is the place for people who never learned how to google or analyze a word they heard, much less the motivation or ideas. Most RW nut cases that I've endured can only cite yahoo, because they know if the cite Freepers or something like that they will catch hell.

Yahoo news comes up with yahoo email accounts and the stories are vapid and mostly celebrity news. Or they are about something that anyone who attended high school knows already, then it's posts as 'news!!!' Like, water is wet.

Okay, I'm going pretty far out but if I never saw another Yahoo news story I would be happier. You're not doing anything wrong except trying to answer a segment of the American population too lazy to read for the most part and very gullible. And when you contradict them, they get very angry, because they know they're just bluffing. Pretty appalling. Zombies are real.

[Festivito]

23. The internet concentrates anti-social people. Do use the ignore feature.

Don't be further depressed. It is not necessary to be further depressed. There's too much good stuff to see.

[Capitalocracy]

24. Polls are still on our side.

Don't know what it is about Yahoo that brings out the whackjobs, but I've noticed it too. There's a lot of crazy out there... and crazy always comments.

[toddwv]

26. It's called Freeping

It's an organized maneuver by right-wing forums and sites to hit anything that has a "post" button with their vile ideology. Nothing to get upset or depressed about. It's just a concerted effort by the right to make it look like they are "legion". It's an extension of the teabaggers tactic of going poisoning town hall discussions by shouting down opposition and generally acting like assholes.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=freeping

[Maraya1969]

27. This little poem helps me

There's A Hole In My Sidewalk:
In Five Easy Chapters

CHAPTER ONE
I walk down a street and there's a big hole. I don't see it and fall into it. It's dark and hopeless and it takes me a long time to find my way out. It's not my fault !

CHAPTER TWO
I walk down the same street. There's a big hole and I can see it, but I still fall in. It's dark and hopeless and it takes me a long time to get out. It's still not my fault.

CHAPTER THREE
I walk down a street. There's a big hole. I can see it, but I still fall in. It's become a habit. But I keep my eyes open and get out immediately. It is my fault.

CHAPTER FOUR
I walk down a street. There's a big hole. And I walk around it.

CHAPTER FIVE
I walk down a different street.

-- Portia Nelson

[Sherman A1]

28. Simple solution

If you read the news stories on Yahoo, most of which I find useless, is to never read the comments. If you do, don't take them seriously.

[Shandris]

29. Yahoo has LONG been a mainstay of the right.

Back in '99 I was one of the rightwing posters in the political chatrooms. Looking back, I'm ashamed of a lot of the drivel I believed then. But, thanks to one liberal chatter there and one poster on another forum, I slowly came around.

Still, I wouldn't get too upset about anything there. They're bombastic on purpose. It's like 4chan for adult wannabe's.

[Dappleganger]

30. It's been discussed over on Reddit before, the right-wingers have taken over Yahoo...

It's been like this for at least two years.

[Catherina]

32. I believe those peole are representative of the average American

Our country wouldn't be in this state if they weren't. It's a result of our nonexistent emphasis on education imo.