Tuesday's Most Active Threads

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "The Tucker Carlson videos are dropping" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. As you can guess from the subject line, this thread was about video footage of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of former President Donald J. Trump. Speaker of the House Keven McCarthy gave Fox News host Tucker Carlson exclusive access to the footage and Carlson has been presenting select portions of it to his audience. The discussion in this thread is divided between those who believe that it completely exonerates the January 6 insurrectionists and those who argue that it is deceptively edited and that the facts of January 6 are well-known and indisputable. The thread is 21 pages long so I can't summarize much of it, but it looks like many of the posts consist simply of embedded tweets that support the poster's viewpoint. Many of the pro-Trump posters argue that the videos show that the public has been mislead by Democrats and believe that those convicted of January 6 offenses deserve new trials. Posters with opposing viewpoints insist that the lawyers of those convicted had access to the video and could have used it as part of the defense had they so chosen. The January 6 Congressional Committee was also the target of considerable criticism, particularly from posters who seemed to confuse its role with that of the Justice Department and the Courts. It is notable that Carlson's presentation has not only been criticized by Democrats, but also by leading Republicans including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. As is so often the case these days, discussions like this one do little to inform or educate, but instead are simply venues for amplifying previously held viewpoints.

Yesterday's second most active thread was posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. Titled, "Gender Tropes, Reluctant Truths", the original poster notes that discussion of negative attributes of others often provokes defensiveness and limits the usefulness of discussion. Therefore, he suggests that posters engage in some introspection and list what he describes as "reluctant truths" about their own gender. His example is that men often want their wives to "mother" them and take care of everything in their lives. This is a 17 page thread and I won't be able to read much of it, but I can already see that despite the original poster's good intentions, the original post suffers from a number of problems. First, the negative traits that the original poster wants others to list are — by the original poster's own admission — characteristics of individuals, not groups, let alone entire genders. Yes, some men want to be mothered, but not all men. The second shortcoming is what really ruins this thread. While the original poster gives the impression that he is attempting to be introspective, he is not actually focusing on himself. When the original poster describes "a lot" of men as wanting to be mothered, it is pretty clear that he is not including himself among that group. Likewise, very few, if any, of those responding seem to engage in any real self-reflection. Most of the posters don't identify their own gender, but my impression is that most posts are not even describing "reluctant truths" of their own gender. As such, the thread seems to consist mostly of negative stereotypes of the opposite sex. I am not sure that a thread in which posters do little more than criticize others is of much value.

Third was a thread titled, "Decline Prep offer" and posted in the "Private/Independent Schools" forum. We are now in the heat of the private school admissions season and many threads deal with related topics are popping up. This one is about the son of the original poster who was accepted by Georgetown Prep but is leaning toward declining the offer. The original poster wants to know if others have declined such offers and whether or not they regretted it. Since the poster in the earlier thread was interested in "reluctant truths", here are some reluctant truths about the DCUM private school forum. Number one, a good number of posters cannot get over Brett Kavanaugh and the fact that he went to Georgetown Prep. Number 2, a disappointing number of posters are very anti-Catholic and critical of any Catholic school. Number 3, members of both of those groups lack even the slightest bit of self-control. As a result, even the most innocuous mention of Georgetown Prep is going to attract haters who have no interest in the topic of the thread but simply want to engage in their own diatribes. This thread is perfect example of this phenomenon as the vast majority of it is devoted to rehashing the Kavanaugh hearings and criticism of the Catholic Church. There is even a divergence into a discusion of the Federal Reserve Bank. Generally, this thread is far beneath what I would hope from our users and reflects poorly on DCUM. I have to agree with the original poster who, in frustration, writes, "You all are truly ridiculous!!" and begs posters to stay on topic. To say that plea went unheeded would be the understatement of the century.

The final thread from yesterday that I will discuss was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Titled, "For those of you who believe that single motherhood is a serious problem that needs to addressed,", the original poster asks what solutions those holding such a belief propose. Since I don't view single motherhood as a problem, let alone a serious one, I am not the target audience for this thread and I have not read it. I sort of enjoyed the first proposal, however, which was to marry single mothers to millionaires which would presumably reduce wealth inequity and increase marriage rates. Though, I assume this idea would not go over well with the men who regularly complain in the relationship forum about women only marrying for money. I see that one poster did point out that whereas single mothers are seen as a problem, single fathers are lauded and praised. Generally, I can't imagine that there is much worthwhile in this thread so if you want to know more about it, you will have to read it yourself.