Reply to "Confidence Men" paints a really poor portrait of Obama

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Reply to ""Confidence Men" paints a really poor portrait of Obama"

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[quote=TheManWithAUsername][quote=Anonymous][quote=TheManWithAUsername]I think it matters* because there are differences among 1) a sincere, considered opinion; 2) thoughtless parroting; and 3) propaganda from a paid activist/campaigner. Many people would choose to ignore #2, and just about everyone would ignore #3. It's the same as the difference between an honest product review and an ad.

* It's all relative, of course. Nothing here really matters.[/quote]

Well I'll say I'm definitely not 3, and since I've read about 75% of the book I don't consider myself 2. But now the conversation is less about the book, politics and policy and more about the level of discourse in the country as a whole and these boards are just a microcosm. If someone says or posts something that is not part of the ideology of the group then there is a quick lashing out. And on these boards its people lashing out at any conservative posting or thread. I would have understood if someone said, "yeah its a book whatever" but the first post was "troll". Maybe I will take your advice and call my moniker "FauxNewsTeaPartyTroll" (I actually like it) and thus when I post I won't hear "troll". Funny thing is that you and Jeff actually respond to threads instead of just pretending that anyone of the other end of the spectrum is the enemy.[/quote]
I think that's a cop out.

There are multiple factors. I think you're probably underestimating the effect of anonymity. There's a right-wing nut here who is an annoying waste of everyone's time, and I think it's whipped things up a bit. That relates to the second factor, reaction to a post that looks at all like spam. So when we see a very short anti-Obama post, we tend to write it off (and I don't even like the guy). You have control over both of those factors.

A third factor is just tolerance and civility, yes. So I can't guarantee that you'll get a completely different reaction if you control for the other two factors, but I bet it will make a big difference.

(Sorry for hijacking, BTW.)[/quote]

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