How to Handle an Open Thread on Liberal Blogs
Liberals, being the lazy sons of guns that they are, often have open threads on their blogs. That way they can keep visitors interested in talking amongst themselves, keeping them on their blogs without having to actually do any work.
For us conservatives this presents a wonderful opportunity, if we choose to act on it. Remember, anyone is allowed to post on an open thread. There is no determined topic. This is your chance to take control of the blog and direct the flow of conversation the way you want it to go.
Rule #1: Attack. Hit the liberals where it hurts. This is your time to take control of the debate. Don't pull any punches. You want them on the defensive the minute you're there. Liberals generally aren't very quick thinkers, if you hit them hard in the first post they won't know how to respond.
Rule #2: Attack, but always be courteous. The liberals will troll you, flame you, insult you, use every dastardly trick within their arsenal to assault you without actually joining in any sort of debate. Always keep the higher ground and do not resort to their level. More people are reading these threads than posting on them, and they will acknowledge you for your courteousness and attempts at reason being thwarted by irrational liberals.
Rule #3: Don't be scared off by hordes of liberals trolling you. You may be in their territory, so to speak, but you are right. Don't let yourself be swayed by the growing influx of parrots all chirping nonsene at you like mongrel hordes of dogs.
Rule #4: Join in the side chatter. Remember, this is an open thread and there will be discussion that isn't directly pointed at debate. While you shouldn't let it sidetrack you from the topic at hand (the topic that you began), joining in non-debate discussion will ingrain you into the community.
Rule #5: You are in charge. Don't let yourself be swayed by the liberals. Keep to your point, and don't let yourself be drowned out. If these people are ever to see reason, it will be through your efforts and the efforts of others.
Rule #6: Always keep in mind that your reading audience is far larger than the few liberals who will be responding to you. You probably won't reach those who actually post, but lurkers and those who are just reading the blog will see what you say and pay attention. Remember you are writing for them too.
Rule #7: Have Fun!
posted by Anonymous @ 12:25 PM
31 comments
31 Comments:
Wow this is awesome stuff! Thanks!
There's been no provocation on my part.
"Liberals, being the lazy sons of guns that they are..."
"Liberals generally aren't very quick thinkers..."
"Don't let yourself be swayed by the growing influx of parrots all chirping nonsene (sic) at you like mongrel hordes of dogs."
So according to you liberals are lazy, not very quick thinkers, chirping parrots and mongrel dogs (way to mix metaphors, btw) but "there's been no provocation" on your part.
Riiight.
I did not provoke Scorpio in any way at all. I did not name Scorpio, I do not even know what Scorpio's politics are.
So you can insult, repeatedly, half of the political spectrum, but as long as you don't insult any one specific person, no-one has been provoked?
I say again...riiight.
I insulted no one. I merely posted observations on liberals that I have made over a lifetime of dealing with them.
Okay, that's just rich. I'll have to remember this little bit of "logic".
"I daresay, conservatives can't form a logical argument to save their lives. They are senseless, heartless oafs, arguing from emotion and over-quick to demonize their enemies. Don't be swayed by their pig-like squealing."
"Hey!"
"I insulted no-one, I was merely making an observation."
Yeah, that'll be good for a laugh sometime.
Resorting? No. I just include the sarcasm because it's fun. Think of it as a condiment. The arguments and analogies are the main course, but when you get right down to it they're only there for form's sake, and for the anonymous audience you yourself referred to. After all, based on the evidence in this post alone, I don't expect any argument I make to shift you from the weighty rock that is your preconceptions ("factual observations", that's a good one).
You yourself sound a lot like a troll. You ignore the content of comments you receive to whine about how anyone who is disagreeing is ignoring your original content--but you're not asking for debate. You're asking for agreement. Anyone doing otherwise you hold up for mockery. That's a lot of statements starting with you. Here's one that starts with I: I disagree. I disagree with your tactics. I disagree with your reasoning. I disagree with your inability to refrain from resorting to logical fallacies.
But you'll ignore my points to call me ignorant anyway, so I don't intend to come back.
Mr. Thomas:
Inflammatory rhetoric is inflammatory rhetoric.
"...being the lazy sons of guns that they are..." is inflammatory rhetoric. "Liberals generally aren't very quick thinkers..." is inflammatory rhetoric. "...the growing influx of parrots all chirping nonsene [sic] at you like mongrel hordes of dogs" is, too.
As for Scorpio, above: "Idiot child" is inflammatory rhetoric.
Everything both parties have said, ever, and by "both parties" I mean not only the individuals on either side in this blog, but both sides of any issue, ever, can be read just as well without any of these phrases contained within.
We must never fail to ever have the utmost respect for our enemies.
Observations are not factual until tested and retested for consistancy. To claim something is a fact, based upon your own perspective is quite pathetic.
But then again realizing that the average conservative cannot handle logic because it is in direct antagonism of their belief system makes everything you 'observe' to be 'fact' when it is no such thing.
Conservatives more often talk about 'control' than anything. However, the U.S. is a 'freedom' based society. Government over control of the populace is facist. However, no control whatsoever is mere anarchay. The hardest path to walk is one of balance. One where you can properly analyze events and actions and be free to decide whether or not those actions are ones you can approve of and accept in your life.
The tactics you describe in your post, are the correct tactics. ANYONE can use these tactics and successfully 'control' a thread in a blog, or anywhere else where a time delay is available to carefully construct your arguments. What you're counting on using these tactics, is that your opponent will react out of their emotional state from the post you've made instead of carefully considering their rebuttal, and 9 out of 10 times you will get that exact reaction.
However, in my own personal experience, when confronted with a person who has chosen to use these tactics you have described, if I take my time, carefully construct my responses, and press them with sincerity and resources, I can usually corner the attacker and either get them to back down, or claim 'victory' and leave the thread.
No, I'm not a 'liberal'. I hate that label. I also hate the label 'conservative'. To find out what I really am, you will have to present me with a certain cirumstance and see how I react.
say what you want Mrs. Butler Thomas... Continue to be a good christian wife and blog for bush. He's going to need your support after the next few wars he'll throw; maybe one will be against the liberals too.
How will you handle an open thread then?
I want to know where they're making fun of us!
Who do they think they are?
A good debate does not presuppose that either side is correct until the debate is finished. I find your post suspect because you do make the assumption that you are correct and that everybody else is wrong simply because they disagree with you. Moreover, you don't actually provide any objective arguments to support you. Simply saying " I am right and you are wrong," does not prove your case.
I don't see any evidence that either side of the political spectrum has an advantage over the other in terms of intelligence or ability to make a rational argument. I've seen brilliant minds as well as idiots argue for both sides.
Unproven generalisations and misdirection are apparently the weapon of choice across the political spectrum.
Yes Actually. More proof is always necessary. If you rely on just a few random shreds of evidence, and only that evidence that supports your point, the broader picture never comes into focus, and that, is why, both 'liberal' and 'conservative' are very much at odds with each other. Both groups only stare at a very small portion of a HUGE tapestry of reality and then, only those parts of the tapestry that appeal to them, every OTHER part of said tapestry, to extend the analogy, is anathema to them, and thus to be ignored, ridiculed, and discarded from their lives. You do it, they do it. People who see the world only in black and white, when in all reality there's at least another 254 shades between the two extremes.
Plus, on your tactics from 'conservatives' to control 'liberal' open blogs.
You rely on emotion and baiting tactics to exert the control, in the full frontal assault of reason and evidenced facts, and not just 'observational facts' which are nothing more than opinions, these tactics FAIL MISERABLY. But then, that's what 4 years of rhetoric and debate have taught me...
Yes Message boards can be 'fast paced' but, not so much so that a skilled debator will allow themselves to be taken by tactics such as those you suggest. I suspect you have only had experiences with people that only want to complain, which, there are a great many of in this world. Most people are more than content to sit on their asses and complain all day long about what's going on, but ask them to take half an hour out of their day to go and vote, and they'll say 'oh I don't have the time' or some other bullshit response. I live in a small town, with a voting populace, registered, of 1500 people, we just had a local election last week... 286 people showed up for it. Not even a FIFTH of the populace, and yet, when I sit in the diner for dinner here, what do I hear? Nothing but a bunch of whining simpletons complaining about all the 'problems' they perceive in this community.
Anyhow... I digress, so I will end this post now.
butler thomas said: The factual basis of my observations was not challenged. Rather, I was attacked for making these observations.
That is incorrect. In an earlier comment I said: I find your post suspect because you do make the assumption that you are correct and that everybody else is wrong simply because they disagree with you. Moreover, you don't actually provide any objective arguments to support you. Simply saying " I am right and you are wrong," does not prove your case.
If you read other blogs as carefully as you read comments in your own blog, it's no wonder that you can make unproven and inaccurate generalisations with as much certainty as you do. If you require further clarification, I did indeed challenge the factual basis of your observations.
You have stated, "Go to any liberal blog and you will find enormous amounts of vitriol directed towards conservatives. However, you will not find conservatives coming onto these blogs and whining about this fact. Conservatives are above this."
In my experience, this is called a sweeping generalisation, something that is rarely accurate. To state categorically that any group only has one type of person in it is absurd in the extreme.
"Although factual, these statements about liberals are somewhat subjective in nature."
They are not just subjective, they are inaccurate. Having read a wide variety of blogs and discussions, I have seen liberals who don't behave the way you have described, and I have seen conservatives do the very things you condemn. In fact, I have seen both liberals and conservatives behave in a variety of ways, both good and bad, and can't make the kinds of sweeping generalisations that you seem to make with such ease. My observations, which are based on empirical evidence, are certainly no less valid than yours.
"But still we come to the question, what is it about my post that is really so bothersome?"
What is so bothersome? The thing that I, personally, find bothersome is that you present unproven opinions which purport to be facts. At the same time, you accuse others of doing the same thing, with wild abandon. That is the very essence of hypocrisy. Furthermore, I find that your arguments are markedly devoid of logic, and I detest illogical arguments.
Be fair, TNH. Some of us are also laughing with you.
Let me get this straight: in the thread to a post in which you post instructions on how to troll liberal blogs, you're crying about how someone liberal found it came here to troll you?
Gotta love the conservatives, always playing the victim.
George W. Bush knew, well in advance of the invasion of Iraq, that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.
Secretary of State Powell and National Security Advisor Rice said so, in public, on the record, in early 2001.
Furthermore, Bush was well aware that Iraq had nothing whatever to do with the 9/11 attacks on America, and was not allied in any way with al Qaeda.
Nevertheless, Mr. Bush started a war, an unnecessary war, quite deliberately, garnering support by lying to the public on those two points.
The inevitable result of this adventure, first imagined in the Project for the New American Century, will be to hand over the world's second-largest proven oil reserves to an anti-American Islamic government. That that goverment may be a democratically elected anti-American Islamic government should not give us any comfort.
Bush lied, and the predictable result is harm to the USA.
Bush's warrentless wiretaps are an obvious violation of the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of searches without a warrant. As such they are an impeachable offense.
True conservatives are calling for Bush to be investigated, censured, and impeached.
I've fallen for these threads before. This is a spoof, right? "Butler Thomas" is not a real person?
It appears liberals can follow your rules as well.
To be honest, every post I've read on this post and on these "liberal blogs" that are referenced on this blog as offensive.
Everything I've read regarding the "other side" is aimed soley as attacking, as opposed to actually creating anything constructive.
Honestly, these posts are just sickening.
Apologies for the anonymous post, I don't want any of you on my journal.
Apologies for the anonymous post, I don't want any of you on my journal.
Oh but it's fine for you to come on here mouthing off anonymously...like anyone wants to come to your stupid journal.
Butler Thomas said:this TNH person has gone to the trouble of making a Blogger account just to come on here in an attempt to troll me.
Such irony.
Behind your back?
I found her posts, and you know what, they were in public.
Behind one's back would be something done clandestinely.
Just so you are clear on that, it's a challeng to the factual basis of your statement.
Ta-ta.
Just as expected, the conservatives are can't refute the facts regarding Bush's high crimes and misdemeanors. They aren't even capable of addressing them.
Typical conservatives. Unable to face facts.
The conservative movement is weak, corrrupt, and out of ideas.
When do you suppose that Bush will tell congress that those "biowar trailers" were no such thing? When will he inform congress that those aluminum tubes weren't intended (in fact couldn't be used as) tubes for gas centrifuges? When will he tell congress that the Niger Yellowcake documents were forgeries?
Bush hasn't fired Rumsfeld. That makes it very clear that Bush favors incompetence.
This post is a perfect example of what is wrong with politics today. People stand on two sides of an issue and call all the people who disagree with them names, they insult one anothers' intelligence, they claim to have the only correct solution. I am talking about both liberals and conservatives here. There has been no intelligent discussion of any political issue in this thread. Just name calling and semantics.
Oh my god, your the bomb!
At 11/4/06 10:22 AM, AnnieAngel said...
I want to know where they're making fun of us!
Who do they think they are?
Who am I? I'm a human being, just as you are. Created by God and modeled in his image, created equally just as you were.
I want to know why you feel it's necessary to provoke and demean someone such as I with your radical oversight and "attack" me when I have done nothing to provoke you in the first place.
I want to know why you think you're somehow better than ME. I want to know why just because I don't attend church four times a week, or even once a week, makes you better than me. I want to know how you come to that assumption.
And Mr. Thomas (do you mind if I call you that?), you yourself said that you will not find conservatives coming onto these blogs and whining about this fact.
Guess what? I can guarantee that there's going to be a few conservative readers that stumble upon your little website here and are appauled by your comments.
I love how you say that this post wasn't meant to address "political issues" when the words "Conservative" and "Liberal" are, in fact, political words. In fact, isn't "informing" conservatives on how to handle Liberal open threads somewhat of a political issue? You're teaching people how to demean and embarrass other people. It's slander in it's purest form. Shouldn't you be teaching other "conservatives" to stay where they can confide with other conservatives, and stay away from people who disagree with their principles? It makes sense, you know.
Instead, you're here providing instructions to deliberately incite people's hate for you. You're telling your readers to openly MOCK those who disagree with you.
O_o
Wait! I thought you said "As we all know, mockery is the last refuge of the weak."
Then you comeback with this: "It might be wise to copy the above post and save it in your records as a typical comeback by a liberal."
Isn't that mockery too?
Do I know you, Brandon? What's with all the anger?
Let go and let Jesus. You'll feel so much better!!
Excuse me, but are you rightards ALL that desperate for attention that you feel the need to bother people who don't want you on their blog?
I mean, why can't you go to LGF or Free Republic...with your kind?
Or do you like losing battles of wits with people who are so much better armed than you are?
Right wing trolls are pathetic.
I must be a slut because I have loads of sex.
No one gets hurt by it though.
Also I like rap music and dance in clubs with short skirts on. Yet no one gets hurt by it.
I am trolling you a bit yep.
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