Reply #117: Sometimes DU looks too much like FR, depending on the topic

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Almost any discussion involving these topics is likely to make us behave towards each other and the facts in patterns very similar to those we make fun of at RW sites. A few examples are autism, obesity, I/P, the South, various health and medical topics.

Starting back during the primaries, it became increasingly difficult to question much of the CW involving Obama, his life, his policies, how progressive he might be, etc. because many such threads become attacks on individual DUers and their motives, even when the fact itself seems well sourced and documented, and without bias (other than the liberal one).

My post #6 was trying to say that something as trivial as Obama having lived in Seattle had been enough to trigger this type behavior in a recent thread. Little did I expect that just mentioning Seattle in this thread would generate an even greater reaction. Within minutes, I was being called out as a birther and my motives questioned.

My post about the hospital's birth record to atreides was because I was curious and because the OP showed that being raised by someone at FR and asking someone born at the same hospital seemed appropriate. I could have saved myself some pain and effort if I had asked the question in PM, but I really dislike the idea that we have to be careful what questions we ask or what facts we discuss or what officials we criticize.

I have been politically active since the early 1960's and I resent when a progressive Democratic forum degenerates into intimidation, name calling, personal attacks, and such in any attempt to suppress or disrupt civil discourse and full and complete examination of policies and actions of our government and its leaders. That said, in this thread I regret that I have let myself become part of the problem, the back and for, defending myself on various fronts, but also adding a couple of extra coals on the fire.

BTW when I looked back at the OP and the FR posts, it actually seems relatively restrained to me, but using the OP's example of RW "heads exploding" as a guide then heads are always exploding here at DU.