Internet. Serious Business.

Most forums won’t even allow you to discuss politics. Reasons are pretty clear as it is certain that debates can get heated. Other than religious discussions, politics are certainly the top headache for most moderators on any message board. Many are quick to pull out the old banstick when political discussions arise. Moderators seem to be as heated about politics as the posters and their position as Board Almighty, the Fair Treatment Advisor, is sometimes clouded when differing views from their own are expressed. A liberal moderator seeing conservative views is likely going to cause a bigger beatdown to your account than probably anything else as a message board violation.

What of forums designed strictly for politics? These are where the real debates happen. Well..in most cases it is a bunch of ignorant people spewing ignorant things that they heard in some campaign slogan, but I digress.

From my observations there are typically 5 main camps on politics forums.

1. Liberals-Liberals are Democrats at heart. They want to help everyone and believe that everyone should have health care, free money from the government, and generally seek a pretty place for everyone. They are very focused on preserving our individual rights and equality of opportunity. They are most likely ones to be called Communists.

2. Conservatives-These are the war mongers if you ask the Libbies. Although many of them support force to solve problems these posters tend to be more focused on Capitalism than the Libbies. They believe that everyone has a chance to be rich and that government hand outs are enabling them to be lazy. They want traditional values, religion forced down your throat, and slow but steady change. George Bush is correct in taking all of our rights away since terrorists are not bombing us everyday.

3. Libertarins-Libertarianism is a collection of political philosophies possessing the common themes of individual liberty. Libertarianism’s ideals, although often varied in detail, typically center on policies in favor of extensive personal liberties, rejecting compulsory socialism and communism in favor of allowing private property (whether being held on an individual basis or in collective by a group of individuals), promoting personal responsibility and private charity and opposing welfare statism, and advocating either limiting or entirely eliminating the power and scope of the state in order to maximize individual liberty.

4. The Straddler-The straddler is just someone that believes what is right is right. Party differences are meaningless and whatever the issue is, there should be consideration that doesn’t require you to take a stand based on your party affiliation. This is the best buy philosophy IMO. These people seem to me more logical than the other groups. Each issue can be discussed as the issue and no other influence is needed. If you believe that abortion is a woman’s right to choose and are in this camp it doesn’t necessarily make you a Libby. You may be a great supporter of the war, or whatever conservative view as well, but you take each issue as they come and aren’t squeezing yourself into a distinct category. AT first glance I would say it is like being an Atheist in some regard, but considering the name I gave it I suppose you have to go with the term Agnostic…lol

5. The Idiot-This politics forum poster is just what the name implies. This poster can be found on any forum. This poster is one that believes they have the correct answer no matter what topic is discussed. They think tat because they read an article about the subject they have in depth knowledge on the issue and need to talk SO bad that they will chime in on it no matter how ridiculous their conclusions may be.

At the end of the day these groups get together and when they can’t think of anything meaningful to say they just beat on the Idiots. Although some may claim to be part of the other 4 camps, there is a high probability that they may actually beloing in the Idiot camp. These people are easily recognizable as they tend to attack idiots as if they are themselves geniuses on the subject, but seeing another idiot so wrong they can’t help themselves. This gives them great satisfaction and hides the fact that they don’t really have a clue what they are talking about either. They use general statements to bash other idiots, but ultimately if they were to join a more serious discussion they would be exposed themselves. This group could probably be given their own title, but I deem that an idiot is an idiot and there is no need to distinguish between them.

Filed under: Message Board People

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