I finally remembered Bosco's name today. Good times that. #neverforget #dontfeedthetrolls #9/11 #nofilter #iwokeuplikethis

The day Bosco came out as a liberal pretending to be a conservative troll was hilarious to me as I thought about all the times he embodied the most extreme, idiotic versions of the current conservative platform and then led those blindly submissive, obedient conservative trolls like Aktung on like this wild goose chase of 'no one can possibly be that stupid.'

Now it doesn't seem so funny.

Because now its been weaponized. A DDOS attack on social platforms, not to overload servers, but to overload users. Using talking point arguments and well rehearsed stratagems to just waste a real persons time, what better way to shortcircuit a democracy than to poison the discussion well. Its seeing great dividends for the russian government.

For what it's worth, since the nineties, there's been little reason to believe any particular accusations against the Clintons - there was a very active disinformation campaign against them, accusing them of drug trafficking, graft, espionage, treason, theft, murder, homosexuality, libertinism, satanism, and rape. I probably left some out.

From the New York Times today: I Believe Juanita

Conservatism needs fear to control and manipulate. Identifying Clinton as the boogie man not only deflects the issue with Moore, but it labels liberalism as morally corrupt.

The end game is to destroy liberalism in all it's forms.

Honestly i think we just hit raw ass tribalism at this point. Politics in america in regards to the liberal and conservative divide has as much to do with their political ideologies as blue team versus red team has to do with wavelength as measured in nanometers.

*Dramatically drops downmods on ground, in middle of flame war, and raises hands in air*

SAC, ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

-1 Whatever

Well, this seems like a cosy place.

DIE IN A FIRE, NOOB!

We are all n00bs on this blessed day.

Seriously though have you considered UBI? Same liberal taste now with 20% less communism.

Pointing fingers makes you come across even more as a little child. Personal beef bullshit is equally childish, so perhaps it’s more fitting than I thought.

@steele: Whenever I see a "filtered comment under your threshold" I like to click on it to see what all the fuss was about, both out of morbid curiosity and to ensure that valid but unpopular opinions aren't being unfairly censored, as happens from time to time. As a subscriber, the perk that lets me mod and reply to comments from the main thread instead of from the individual comment's page makes reading filtered comments unnecessarily painful on mobile -- I always end up having to zoom in to hit that little "&" between "mod" and "reply".

Is there any way you could let us disable either the inline mod & reply feature, or, ideally, comment filtering itself? Because right now my monthly subscription buys me a worse user experience than I'd get as a freeloader.

You know you can click on the mod score (-5 Whatever) to get to that page too... right? :)

I'll consider making it so that instead of completely removing the comment as being under your threshold it collapses the comment thread with that message so you can just + it back out. I think that's what I was working towards with the beta.

Well fuck me! You know, I'm pretty sure I must have known that at some point, but yeah, that's a little easier.

Collapsing the comment thread would be great.

No worries. I'll play around with it when I get the chance.

Over the years, my feelings on the impeachment of Bill Clinton have changed.


Growing up in a conservative house, he was eeevilll and deserved it.

Then, as more of a moderate, I saw how politically motivated it all was, and thought he didn't deserve it.

Now, I feel it's much more of a right thing for wrong reasons. he deserved impeachment and conviction. Not for cheating on his wife, bt because we should demand a higher standard from our leaders.

First, Boss/intern is ethically difficult, no matter how consensual it is due to power balance. Second, just a Nixon shouldn't have been pardoned, Clinton should have been impeached for playing too loose with the truth.

Maybe, just maybe if Nixon had died in jail, and Clinton pushed out of office (at the least) we wouldn't have the current dumpster fire because we would have clear lines not to cross with huge consequences.

I was more conservative then and I could have given a shit about the sexual act itself.

You are right that it is the difference between boss/employee. More importantly people lose sight of the fact that he was impeached not for the blow jobs but for perjury.

The fact that Hillary and company went out of their way to ostracize his accusers speaks volumes about their character and motivations. Today, there are multiple examples of Hillary speaking out against sexual harassment and situations like this. When it came to her husband's accusers she took the exact opposite path as did many on the left... Like Gloria Steinem who was a woman's advocate and one of the more famous feminists. Steinem defended Clinton. The same Steinem who is bashing Harvey Weinstein.

You can't have it both ways. Bill Clinton is no better than any of the other accused. Same offense. His being a president or well regarded should make no difference.

Ah, that's a pretty clickbaity title, Alfie Hoffman

The Washington pervathon continues...

"Al Franken apologized Thursday after a Los Angeles radio anchor accused him of forcibly kissing her during a 2006 USO tour and of posing for a photo with his hands on her breasts as she slept."

dude, every time you mention that shithead from here on out, you just remind everyone how he dominated you in a pissing match

no matter how correct you feel about your position, it stopped being about the topic you were discussing and became "how long can I keep him spinning" a long time ago.

I realize I'm not the first person t have said that, but you seem to be only hearing yourself say "But I'm right!"

everyone knows you're right, no one is listening anymore. move on.

My point is that even when given literally everything he might ask for, it is just about keeping people spinning. It's not about you, or trying to impress you. I am tired of trolls getting a free pass on the fact they are trolls alone. I suspect that exact attitude is why they have become a political force to be reckoned with, rather than the laughable degenerates we know them to be.

It's been nearly a decade. Have they gone away? Have they suddenly started standing behind reason? No? Okay. So ignoring them didn't work, engaging them intellectually didn't work, perhaps mocking and reminding them they don't even meet their own statements will.

I suspect not, but at least I get to have fun. Feel free to downmod and move on.

i totally get it, I'm not mad bro, I'm more thinking about you personally.
'giving them a pass' can also be called 'ignoring them', the difference is in how you let it affect you and your ticker.

also, being pigs they will eat literally ANYTHING, even their own crow, and turn it into the same pile of shit they produce under any other circumstance. its just not worth it.

I agree, it's not worth it (at least in any sort of serious sense). These people will shit all over themselves just so we have to smell it. And my point is, ignoring doesn't work. Ignoring it has lead to the election of a troll to our highest office. I don't suspect there is much any can do about it, but I do believe the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So, excuse me if I don't simply agree that ignoring them is the right answer any more.

As for my own head, I think you are projecting an emotional state on to me I do not have. I am actually amused with this turn of events. You're certainly free to interpret this as his getting to me or my "being owned", but once it was pointed out to me that Fish didn't have the karma to post, I was feeling both scientifically and comedically minded. So far, I find this whole thing hilarious, even your comment to numbers which run directly in the face of what you said here. Lets face it, it's hard to simply ignore hate and ignorance. So why do it? Does ignoring it get us somewhere we were not before?

all good. spend your energy pellets how you will. just please tell me you recognize my vitriol at numbers was intentional irony porn

The only way the trolls get a free pass is to keep giving them attention at the level that you are. Read their comments and then downmod if you disagree to stop giving them a free pass. Or just completely ignore altogether.

http://sensibleendowment.com/comment.php/10706/122056#comment

Yes, i read that and thought it still needed to be said.

So how do you respond to the challenge that ignoring them not only hasn't worked, it has demonstrably made the world a worse place?

Troll them back? It makes numbers whine at least.

Give the man a prize.

We don't know if ignoring the trolls works or not because we've never tried it. There have always been people here who respond to the trolls. I would stop them if I could, but I can't. I guess feeding the trolls is simply too tempting for some people.

If that what makes those people happy then let them. They can find each other via the bold red -5 beacons. Just remember to mod, so folks can have a clue where to zip to for their little scrumm. Better than having to sift through columns of facebook personal drama.

Oh, I have absolutely no issue with diverse range of opinions. However, "what-abouting" is certainly not holding a honest opinion. It's why I tagged Fish in all those posts, so he could talk about them, where the subject was relevant.

Notice that he has not?

Why might that be?

Where did I jump into your conversation with cakkafracle?

Are you referring to where I called him out for hypocrisy after downmodding him? Cause, that was me replying to him after a message directly intended for me.

Right, that's a mod. That's isn't jumping into your conversation. You two are perfectly capable of continuing your conversation without further input from me.

I didn't forget it, I am saying that your claim is extemely facetious. I did not jump into your conversation, well, technically I did only because I was specifically called to by cakka. Modding in no way is my jumping into your conversation. It is an expression of opinion however, but one that is no way disruptive or changes the flow of conversation.

In this case, your suggestion that it's personal. That seems like the first thing every troll jump to, thus the mod. Maybe you could read the comment again, specifically the first part.

I think he's right. You're a sock puppet.

That's personal to you, I guess.

I think he called you out for being a sock puppet, I think you are. I also think you're a cunt, but I also say the same thing about myself. Either way, act like a troll, get treated like one. I still haven't jumped into your conversation, at all.

So.

Are you guys... like... gonna do it?

Red and blue makes purple if you know what I mean.

Wacky norok says he doesn't virtue signal, yet that itself is virtue signalling. PARADOX!

Hmm, excuse me but what exactly is the purpose of a mod system if not to express your opinion without having to interrupt the conversation?

Okay, and the purpose of upvoting things? I mean, couldn't you just leave a comment saying "that was funny!"

Right, because that's a waste of time and effort, and might needlessly derail a conversation in progress.

Its part of a filtering system so actual content gets highlighted and noise filtered out. This place is a forum for discovery and discussion. Posturing happens, and sometimes outright wankery.

Even the wankery is tolerable, but for some its gotten simply boring. The same one man passion play. Its noise at this point. So someone needs to work up a better third act. Regardless the performance is still there, preserved, its just that the audience will need to click. To want to. I know the rebuttal, and to that i say why is it that i owe a cut rate Louis C.K. an audience to their jack off session?

Small digited numbers makes bigly show of virtue signaling, but still silent on #RapistRepublicans. UNSETTLING!

Concept of modding invented for and by steele! Many such cases! Me me me me!

I suspect the sock puppets are talking to each other again.

FAKE TROLLING.

CRISIS TROLLING.

Well. It doesn't seem that they have been ignored. Largely the opposite, they almost always get a reaction. Usually a strong one.

The only thing arguing does is bring on a headache and doesn't do anything in the end. They likely either won't be swayed by a valid argument, as you have noticed, or are just trolling which means they don't care about being swayed and may even agree with you but just want to elicit a reaction.

Go literally anywhere on the internet where conversation happens. What is going to be the most common rule? Why, "Don't feed the trolls." or "Ignore trolls."

By and large, in my experience, that's what happens. Sure, you get a few people that always take the bait, but for the most part people ignore it and move on. Meanwhile, those ignored trolls get to look like some sort of anti-hero for basement dwellers since they were "just trying to tell it like it is." Repeat, over and over, and you get where we are now.

I am not even of the mind that what I am doing is helpful. However, it's a step above doing what I already know won't help. They wanna troll? I guess two can play that game.

So to beat a troll you become a troll? If the group that may be able to be swayed by a cogent argument then view your responses in the light of being a troll is your point not lost from the start, losing hope of educating anybody?

I am specifically saying that trying to enlighten them is a hopeless task, since they are not making statements in any honest attempt to debate or learn. I suppose the strongest case to be made for engaging them intellectually is that someone on the fence of an issue might learn which side is more reasonable. Should I even need to do that in the case of "hebephilies shouldn't be senators?"

My argument for not engaging them directly or by being a troll in return is exactly that, to keep your arguments intellectual as to not lose clout with those whose minds that could be changed.

No you shouldn't need to do that in the case of hebephilies.

Edit: If you become thought of as a troll by the people who could have their minds changed, then they may simply ignore you.

Okay, we agree this is not a conversation topic where I should need to change anyone's mind.

So then what would be the point of remaining intellectual? I have ignored these people for years, though I will admit to engaging with numbers from time to time when they make a point that is grounded in reason.

Given a golden opportunity to throw it back to them, at this point, I will take it. I won't alienating anyone from my position (though I might ruffle a few feathers of those concerned with decorum, such as yourself,) and it gives me a chance to try something different.

Nah. Didn't ruffle my feathers, to each their own. Have fun! As usual, i'll be over on the side with my popcorn.

I would say that being able to make this arguement makes whatever the rest of you feel about me doing this worth it.

They can pretend all they want. Now it's demonstrable. If they want to there, now all of us have a ready example at hand.

Have a look at this thread :

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/11/3-times-jeff-sessions-made-false-statements-to-congress-under-oath/

Pay close attention to Rosco Filburn.

Hebephilia isn't a crime, it's just a sexual attraction to tweens/young teens. As long as they're not acting on that attraction in a way that causes harm to others it's just a matter of having questionable but harmless tastes. Kind of like being a Nickelback fan or thinking The Final Frontier was better than The Wrath of Khan. Awkward opinions, yes, but not ones that should necessarily disqualify someone from public office.

"Kind of like being a Nickelback fan or thinking The Final Frontier was better than The Wrath of Khan. Awkward opinions, yes, but not ones that should necessarily disqualify someone from public office."

No. Just No. Fuck you and your perverted idea of humanity. Especially the part about Nickelback not disqualifying you.

100% chance KyleMcBitch’s dating profile contains phrase “drama free”.