The Most Active Threads Since My Last Post

After nearly a week of not writing blog posts I was not sure whether I should treat today as just another Monday and write about the most active threads over the weekend or discuss the most active threads during the entire period I skipped. I decided on the latter option. So today I will write about the most active threads for the past week. The most active thread during that period was the thread I've already discussed about Republican women. I'll skip that one today and move on to the next most active thread which was titled, "Princess of Wales to attend public event tomorrow" and posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum. This thread was created on Friday in expectation of an appearance on Saturday by Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, at the annual "Trooping the Colour" parade which celebrates the King's birthday. As I am sure everyone is aware, the Princess has been undergoing treated for cancer and has almost entirely been out of the public eye. This thread is already 42 pages long and that does not include at least 5 pages of inappropriate posts about the the Prince and Princess' children that I removed. Needless to say, I have not and will not read all of these posts. Threads about Kate Middleton all have a familiar pattern by now. Like this thread, they often involve a photo. In this case, the photo shows Kate standing in front of a tree and is said to have been taken earlier in the week. These photos are picked over as if they are the Zapruder film with one group of posters interested in her appearance, desparate to find any impact of her treatment, and another group eager to reveal the photo as fake. Kate fans generally find things to praise about the photos while her detractors pull any possible thread to weave whatever conspiracy theory currently has their attention. Not only is the pattern of the threads consistent, but so are the posters that show up to comment. There are, of course, the Kate fans who are unwilling to brook any criticism. But there are also the Kate haters who, purely from the point of analysis, are far more interesting. The number of ways in which they can find to dislike someone is simply astounding. Central to this thread is the topic of Kate's weight. She has always been thin but whether she has a healthy weight or is clearly suffering from an eating disorder is, let's say, subject to interpretation. Moreover, there is some expectation that cancer treatment might have caused further weight loss. The topic of Kate's weight is so touchy, especially with those posters convinced that she has an eating disorder, that posts complimenting her on her appearance were reported for allegedly encouraging eating disorders. I had to work my way through the logic of those reports but, as best I can tell, the theory is that describing a thin woman as "looking great" is providing support for disordered eating as a means to stay thin. Another aspect of the pattern these threads follow is that posters soon run out of substance on which to comment and begin discussing each other. Instead of, for instance, talking about Kate's outfit, posters will say, "Kate fans do such and such" while others discuss Kate haters who always say x and y. More time then gets spent on posters describing each other rather than discussing the actual topic of the thread. This normally leads to the thread being locked which probably soon to be the fate of this thread.

Speaking of locking threads, the next most active thread did get locked. This thread, which was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum, was titled, "Hunter Biden indicted on nine tax charges, adding to gun charges in special counsel probe". This thread was started back in December when President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, was indicted on tax charges. At that time, Hunter Biden was already facing gun charges due to having purchased a gun while being addicted to drugs. The thread was especially active over the past week because Hunter was tried on those violations, ultimately being found guilty on all charges. Rather than discussing the 63 pages of this thread, I'll just comment generally on the case. Hunter Biden has acquired a particular prominence among conservatives. Conservatives have engaged in almost every act for which they have criticized the government with regard to investigations and charges against former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump and other Republicans. For instance, conservatives claim that investigations into Republicans are politically driven. There is actually very little evidence of that, but it is clear that the investigations of Hunter are politically-driven. David Weiss, the special counsel who brought charges again Hunter was appointed while Trump was president and after Trump applied considerable pressure to the Department of Justice to appoint a special prosecutor. Weiss, who investigated Hunter for more than five years, eventually negotiated a plea agreement with the younger Biden. However, this agreement blew up after conservatives erupted in outrage over it, making threats to Weiss and the judge in the case. Therefore, political pressure influenced both the inception of this investigation and prevented its initial conclusion. Even prominent Republicans agree that almost nobody is ever prosecuted for the gun charges on which Biden was convicted. Conservatives were overjoyed by the conviction, comparing it to the guilty verdicts returned against Trump. This would be a meaningful comparison if Hunter were running for president, but he isn't. The fact is that Hunter Biden, like millions of other Americans, struggled with drug addiction. During that period he purchased a handgun. Evidence which was prohibited from being used during the trial shows that the gun shop owner failed to follow the law with regard to the background check form, the exact form that was used to find Hunter guilty. This shop owner was immunized for his illegal behavior in order to testify against Biden. Biden't sister-in-law quickly found the gun and threw it in a public garbage can from which it was recovered. This minor infraction, again for which almost never is prosecuted, is being compared by Republicans to the 34 financial crimes for which Trump was convicted. The exploitation of Hunter for partisan political motives is really outrageous. After his struggles with drugs, Hunter entered recovery and, by all appearances, has been clean since. He is married and a father and has his life in order. But Republicans would destroy all of that for the small political advantage they believe it will provide them. These are truly terrible people.

Next was a thread titled, "FCPS Early Release Mondays" and posted in the "Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)" forum. The original poster linked to an announcement from Fairfax County Public Schools saying that, during the next school year, elementary schools would have seven Mondays during which students would be released 3 hours early. The purpose of the early releases is to allow teachers to have dedicated planning periods. The original poster questions why the early releases are not on Friday and says that they will be disruptive to families. This thread appears to be the first time that many of the posters are hearing about this change, which suggests that DCUM has an interesting role in FCPS communications. Once informed of the change, posters have a variety of concerns. Some posters are concerned about childcare during the hours of the early release, a concern somewhat alleviated by a promise in the announcement that after school care will be provided. Other posters are worried that this will take away from teaching time and complain that their children are already not learning enough. But this is also addressed in the announcement which says that instructional hours will not be reduced. Rather, the hours will be taken from days set aside to make up for snow days. Other posters argue about who is to blame for the change, some pointing at Superintendent Michelle Reid and others at Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. Others blame the union. Teachers are blamed for the early release days being scheduled on Mondays due to the fear that they would leave early if the days were on Fridays instead. Ultimately it appears that the new schedule is a response to state mandate requiring more professional development time for teachers. A number of posters like the idea of teachers having planning time. Apparently, in the past every Monday was early release and some posters want to return to that schedule. Other posters question the need for such days. All of these points are repeated in numerous combinations and permutations. The schedule causes childcare issues, some say. Those problems will be addressed with after school programs, others reply. Who will pay for the programs and how much will they cost, some ask. Why do teachers need these days? Teachers are busy and don't have enough time. And, COVID, always COVID. Kids who suffered through COVID-related school closures should not have to miss more instruction time, posters argue. Of course, according to the announcement, they won't. But nothing stops the complaining. An opportunity to debate COVID closures is never missed. Similarly, a chance to bash teachers is never passed over and posters in this thread spend plenty of time doing that. The questioning of the need for the professional time is endless with no explanations proving adequate to convince the doubters.

The final thread that I will discuss today has some things in common with the second thread that I discussed above. Like that thread, it was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Also like that thread, it was about a Biden, though, in this case, President Joe Biden. And, also like that thread, this one was started some time ago, back in February. Titled, "did you know that Biden is old?", the original poster responds to a column in the New York Times by Ezra Klein arguing that Biden should be replaced as the Democratic nominee for President because he is too old. The original poster realizes that Biden is old, but suggests that given the importance of preventing a second Trump presidency, Biden's age simply doesn't matter. The thread is currently 42 pages so, of course, I am not going to read all of it. But, I have seen enough of this thread over the months to have a pretty good idea what it is about. Back in February, not only did many voters, including Democrats, agree with Klein and oppose the original poster's point, they still believed, like Klein, that it was not too late to replace Biden. Realistically, this has never been a real possibility. There is no clear leader to replace Biden. The most obvious is Kamala Harris, but she is hardly a dominant figure in the Party. California Governor Gavin Newsome would clearly love the role, but probably carries as much baggage as he does strengths. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer could be a strong contender, but hasn't laid the necessary groundwork yet. Basically, Democrats are stuck with Biden and have been for some time. As this reality began to sink in, the thread lost its initial purpose. However, previously there was a thread about gaffes made by Biden. The thread was mostly used by a small handful of posters to simply repost tweets showing Biden making, or appear to be making, some sort of mistake. That thread was little more than Republican propaganda and I locked it. The same posters who dominated that thread have now taken over this one. A normal day's posting amounts to little more than a series of tweets from questionable sources and similarly suspect Youtube videos. The latest craze among Republicans is what is known as "cheap fakes" in which videos or quotations are edited in a manner to distort reality and to make Biden appear to be failing mentally. One of the latest examples appears to show Biden wandering off into nowhere while at the G-7 meeting. In reality, paratroopers carrying flags of each of the nations in attendance had just landed and Biden was going over to shake hand with one of them. The paratrooper was edited out of videos circulated by right-wing sources and posted on DCUM. So, instead of showing Biden walking towards a soldier, he appeared to be in the middle of nowhere. Because this thread has basically taken over where the "gaffes" thread left off, I'll probably lock it as well. I have no interest in having DCUM used for right-wing fake news. Moreover, as the original poster started out saying, we all know that Biden is old. Trump is old too. Trump is also bumbling. Nothing Biden has said compares to Trump's recent rant about electric boats and sharks. So we have two candidates who are old and not at the top of their games mentally. But, in the opinion of the original poster and many others, a senile Biden is far better than a senile, or even not senile, Trump.