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What is going on in the Gulch?

Posted by mminnick 5 years, 9 months ago to Ask the Gulch
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Over the last several weeks I have noticed a steady decline in the content of the posts in the Gulch. I don't visit every day but do visit several times a week. the level of discourse and acrimony has risen sharply and I do not understand why. All are free to post their thoughts and comments and usually are given a relatively large degree of latitude in content etc.
It has been years since I saw a post not shown due to low score or author issues. Don't really like seeing it now.
Has the insanity of the current political/social frame of our society penetrated into the Gulch to such a level that there are posts and replies that merit banning or decrementing to or below 0?
I'm sorry to see this happen there and fear the demise of the site if the trend gets worse.
There are many good people here. Somme I know via post and reply, some just by reading their posts and comments. There are some I'm just starting to see via their posts. I have not seen any that I would ban from posting or mark down their posts/comments.


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Previous comments...   You are currently on page 2.
  • Posted by ewv 5 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    You have an appreciation for Ayn Rand that many conservatives here do not.
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  • Posted by ewv 5 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Likewise for the Kavanaugh hearings and Google claimed to be a CIA Plot, the German Green movement claimed to have been "installed" by Rockefeller, and several other such pronouncements made here.

    But his statement characterizing posts on this forum as "Peopel who have promted themselves to the level of our liberal lords and masters, to be able to determine YOUR post is a conspiracy theory, but MY post is truth, and then proceed to have an entire series of rants about how they know all, see all and you know nothing" is a gross smear with no basis and deserves no respect. Categorical disagreement with it is not enough.
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  • Posted by ewv 5 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Your vicious personal attacks on me when you first pronounced that you refused to read what I have written were the result of your intolerance towards explanations of the right of abortion contrary to your religion. It was not "for good reason". That is 'closed minded". It was not "respectful".

    No one here "spouts chapter and verse" of Ayn Rand and the explanations and arguments here are not "trump cards" and not "narow minded". Your continued snide smears and insults are not "respectful", as you just demonstrated.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 5 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "our liberal lords and masters, to be able to determine YOUR post is a conspiracy theory, but MY post is truth,"
    I respectfully but categorically disagree. Not all claims are equal. There is nothing wrong with dismissing extraordinary claims in the absence of extraordinary evidence. Claims like the idea that the ancient Greek story of Atlantis is related to aliens under the Bermuda Triangle should be dismissed out of hand. It's a straw man to equate dismissing bizarre conspiracy theories with being an overlord acting as an arbiter of all truth.
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  • Posted by $ AJAshinoff 5 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It been ages since I've seen a post from you, with good reason. I'm not sure who dinked with the settings but maybe something has changed.

    Closed minded. Those who refuse to hear anything but what they elect to believe. You would say I am closed minded. Yet, I am here, and came here, around Objectivists to discuss the similarities of my Conservatism and the philosophy of Rand. Those conversations, years ago when this site was populated primarily by heavy hitter Objectivists, we're heated and, most often than not respectful. I'm still here. I'm still respectful. I still speak my mind and argue my points without berating people.

    The closed mind spouts chapter and verse (Biblical or Rand makes no difference in this context) expecting that to justify a position and anticipating it as a trump card to shut down the discussion. The closed minded cannot, or perhaps stubbornly refuses to, see the reasoning of the other side of the argument because it doesn't align with that narrow view of how things 'should' be.

    It for this very reason you've been the only person I've ignored in the 7 or so years I've been here.

    (I didn't take the point)
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 5 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Do believe you are talking to a pair of shoe laces. Me just a dino could be wrong, but I don't think so.
    It's just something about yesterday's switcheroo ExistenceUniversity troll attack timing.
    Hmm, the term "carpet bombing" comes to mind.
    Perhaps, the end game is supposed to be this board's death from a thousand cuts.
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  • Posted by ewv 5 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The comments of one person do not "upset an entire community", nor would that necessarily be the source of the problem, nor is the goal necessarily to "create disharmony". It is true, however, that there are such militants here on a crusade, and they aren't here to support Ayn Rand's philosophy of reason.
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  • Posted by ewv 5 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    There is no "why he did it" excuse for Dobrien's personal attacks, either that one or all the rest.
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  • Posted by ewv 5 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Why was this post 'downvoted', just to confirm mminnick's point because some angry nihilist likes it that way?
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  • Posted by ewv 5 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The hit and run 'downvoter' illustrates what mminnick is talking about. How would the hit and runners like to explain downvoting admiration for and recommending Ayn Rand's nonfiction?
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  • Posted by $ 25n56il4 5 years, 9 months ago
    If the comments of one person can upset an entire community, then you have a problem. Ask why did that person strive to create disharmony? Did he/she accomplish his/her goal?
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  • -1
    Posted by ewv 5 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The hit and run 'downvoter' illustrates what mminnick is talking about. So is nickursis's smear.
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  • -2
    Posted by ewv 5 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The hit and run 'downvoter' illustrates what mminnick is talking about, and so does exceller's smear.
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  • -1
    Posted by ewv 5 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The hit and run 'downvoter' illustrates what mminnick is talking about. How would the hit and runners like to explain the "ability to attain the impossible"?
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  • -1
    Posted by ewv 5 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The hit and run 'downvoter' illustrates what mminnick is talking about. How would the hit and runners like to explain the false quote?
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  • -1
    Posted by ewv 5 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    There is a lot to learn that is very interesting in Ayn Rand's nonfiction. Even when discussing politics, she had a unique, philosophical approach making her work timeless.
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  • Posted by ewv 5 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That certainly does happen, but what kind of "mantra" and "closed minds" are you referring to? The "Objectivist core" certainly is missing from this forum, in part because so many have no interest in or understanding of what it is.
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  • -2
    Posted by ewv 5 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    This post is itself a misrepresentation and a smear. Dobrien's posts are notorious for personal attacks on those who reject his opinions, as if no one has a right to counter what is promoted on a public forum and as if no reasons have been given. When promotions are rejected as contrary to the purpose of an Ayn Rand forum it is not without reason and not because they are "questions", which they are not. The personal attacks in response, substituting for discussion, most certainly do not belong here at all.
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  • Posted by $ 25n56il4 5 years, 9 months ago
    Some people get almost hysterical about politics! I can't do that. I spent too many years in D.C. and oftentimes I couldn't tell a Democrat from a Republican. Conservative vs Liberal, yes! Mostly nice people, but some real stickers.
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