- Aug 20, 2000
- 20,577
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This is pretty sad (to me). Here is my story - that of an once-neutral post in Politics & News.
For a while now, I've kept harkening back to the pre-Iraq War II days where everyone, and I mean everyone, knew that WMD was in Iraq somewhere. The UN inspectors were ridiculed for their lacklustre performance in finding those weapons - and perhaps that wasn't their fault at all. So I did some Googling, and fought the tide of blog "news" posts crying out for Bush's head in my quest to find proof of my memories.
One day, I found that proof. And I posted it in this very forum, under the title, "What's with Hans Blix's new stance on Iraq?" I sat on edge for minutes waiting for people to be the better man and acknowledge that yes, even Blix himself once upon a time (a whole 2 years ago) hedged towards the side of Iraq having weapons, instead of the polar opposite he speaks of now.
My post garnered no responses.
Then I realized a truth that I already knew. Nobody in this fscking forum actually is looking for information or constructive dialog. They're just looking for posts that back up the views they've already solidified in their heads. As an experiment, I gave my thread a new, racier title. Instant responses shot down the pipeline. Much to my surprise (irony), not a single one acknowledged the facts stated in the original post. One mocked my bias. Another brilliant mind linked me to a silly Flash game. A third played a classic hand: Appealing to emotions rather than dealing with facts.
Why, I thought, do we even keep this forum around? People seem to register solely to post hate-filled in it which lacks even the amusement factor of the Off Topic forum. Then I remembered what one moderator told me in private early on - "It sure keeps the worst out of OT though, doesn't it?" Ingenious, mods. Ingenious.
For a while now, I've kept harkening back to the pre-Iraq War II days where everyone, and I mean everyone, knew that WMD was in Iraq somewhere. The UN inspectors were ridiculed for their lacklustre performance in finding those weapons - and perhaps that wasn't their fault at all. So I did some Googling, and fought the tide of blog "news" posts crying out for Bush's head in my quest to find proof of my memories.
One day, I found that proof. And I posted it in this very forum, under the title, "What's with Hans Blix's new stance on Iraq?" I sat on edge for minutes waiting for people to be the better man and acknowledge that yes, even Blix himself once upon a time (a whole 2 years ago) hedged towards the side of Iraq having weapons, instead of the polar opposite he speaks of now.
My post garnered no responses.
Then I realized a truth that I already knew. Nobody in this fscking forum actually is looking for information or constructive dialog. They're just looking for posts that back up the views they've already solidified in their heads. As an experiment, I gave my thread a new, racier title. Instant responses shot down the pipeline. Much to my surprise (irony), not a single one acknowledged the facts stated in the original post. One mocked my bias. Another brilliant mind linked me to a silly Flash game. A third played a classic hand: Appealing to emotions rather than dealing with facts.
Why, I thought, do we even keep this forum around? People seem to register solely to post hate-filled in it which lacks even the amusement factor of the Off Topic forum. Then I remembered what one moderator told me in private early on - "It sure keeps the worst out of OT though, doesn't it?" Ingenious, mods. Ingenious.
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