Why are technical message boards overwhelmingly liberal?

[rudder]

Originally posted by: BoomerD

Originally posted by: Genx87
I think if you look at most boards they break down the same way. Liberals tend to have a bigger mouth and are happy to use it. Rarely do you see conservatives out pissing and moaning about things like a liberal. We tend to piss and moan in private and damn the world!

Watch the conventions. RNC will be protested like there is no tomorrow. I dont know about the DNC, but I suspect if there are any protesters they will be ultra lefties pissed off at how centrist Obama has become.

Rush Limbaugh
Ann Coulter
Bill O'Rielly
Sean Hannity
Newt Gingrich

yep, liberals are the ones who piss and moan all right...:roll:

The people you mention piss and moan for profit. I think he was referring to conservatives who visit forums.

 

[jjzelinski]

Originally posted by: loki8481

Originally posted by: jjzelinski

Originally posted by: eskimospy
Most people don't change political affiliations with age. Usually what you are when you are young is what you remain your whole life, so this whole "come back in 20 years and see all the conservatives" isn't correct. I would say that in general people on technical message boards tend to be more educated than the average. The more educated you are, the more likely you are to be liberal. (cue the "HURF BLURF LIBRUL COLLEGES!") Regardless of what you want to say about why, it's a fact.

I also think the split is far less then you think. Conservatives tend to have a persecution complex. I mean you see them making their own wikipedias and youtubes because somehow the entire internet is too liberal, you see them making their own museums because science is too liberal, etc. When I look at these boards I see a bunch of hyperconservative people, a few extremely liberal people, and a bunch of people who don't really know what they think.

Persecution complex, is it something like this?

Originally posted by: loki8481
afaik, the demographics on AT tend to skew relatively young and coastal.

also, being conservative on P&N requires a pretty thick skin to survive the onslaught from a dozen people after posting anything that goes against the norm.

Originally posted by: sierrita

Whine whine whine.

I don't really think of myself as conservative (I mean, can you be a gay right and social welfare-supporting communist republican who's voted straight down the D line post-2K?), but you'd have to be blind not to see it any time conservative members of this forum open their mouths.

I can't say I'm not biased as I most likely am, but there are only a handful of conservative posters here who even bother to formulate arguments or counter-arguments (Genx87, TLC, a few other.) I respect them for their willingness to discuss issues (despite typicaly holding perspectives that I strongly disagree with) but folks like them are few and far between amongst the righties on this board. Take that with a grain of salt of course.

 

[fskimospy]

Originally posted by: loki8481

I don't really think of myself as conservative (I mean, can you be a gay right and social welfare-supporting communist republican who's voted straight down the D line post-2K?), but you'd have to be blind not to see it any time conservative members of this forum open their mouths.

I'm sorry, but I think that has more to do with the fact that a lot of conservative people on here post a lot of really stupid things. I see threads that conflate Obama with being a muslim, a socialist, all of which are absolutely ridiculous assertions. I think I remember a thread wondering if McCain was crazy from his imprisonment, but other than that I can't really remember nearly as many similarly stupid things coming from the left.

Add on top of that the evolution deniers, the anti global warming crusaders coming over from Dailytech, Butterbean, and things like the big bang doubters and you have a lot of room for bashing people.

EDIT: Not 'any', but 'nearly as many'

 

[jjzelinski]

Originally posted by: eskimospy

Originally posted by: loki8481

I don't really think of myself as conservative (I mean, can you be a gay right and social welfare-supporting communist republican who's voted straight down the D line post-2K?), but you'd have to be blind not to see it any time conservative members of this forum open their mouths.

I'm sorry, but I think that has more to do with the fact that a lot of conservative people on here post a lot of really stupid things. I see threads that conflate Obama with being a muslim, a socialist, all of which are absolutely ridiculous assertions. I think I remember a thread wondering if McCain was crazy from his imprisonment, but other than that I can't really remember nearly as many similarly stupid things coming from the left.

Add on top of that the evolution deniers, the anti global warming crusaders coming over from Dailytech, Butterbean, and things like the big bang doubters and you have a lot of room for bashing people.

EDIT: Not 'any', but 'nearly as many'

the big-bang topic going on right now is a great example of how right-wing folks (at least on this board) fail at effectively debating; they lack a fundamental willingness for critical thinking (such as scientific theory being analogous to religion since "it's really only guessing anyhow." <slaps forehead> doh!)

 

[brandonb]

Most conservatives don't bother posting on tech websites (this is my opinion) because when the left go parading about things like gay rights. If a conservative comes in and says anything, they get jumped on as a "bigot" or many other witty phrases, so they just don't bother. When logic fails the left, they resort to name calling, or just ignore the person. I suppose conservatives aren't much better in this regard. In fact, I think its just human nature.

As far as a few discussions go, theres really no point. I won't bother with "gay right" posts because thats what it's going to be, so I don't bother to click it. Same with religion threads. So I guess what usually ends up happening is you get a few liberal topics and liberals cheer leading waving pom poms about a topic, so it looks very liberal. The conservatives are there too, but they are just hidden in the woodwork and don't bother to pipe up.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: Pliablemoose

Originally posted by: jpeyton

Originally posted by: astralvoid
Why are technical message boards overwhelmingly liberal?

For the same reason that a Toby Keith fan forum is full of conservatives who still have W '04 stickers on their F-250s.

<---Wears Birkenstocks while driving my F250

LOL, gotta love how the liberals rationalize this shit.

If you look at the demographics of who posts on AT, it answers all questions.

<---Independent, 20 years, never registered as anything else.

Text

 

[Mxylplyx]

Liberals are idealists, and tend to be young. Their vision of the world is noble, but they try to push it on society faster than society is willing to accept it. They propose many great sounding solutions to problems, and turn a blind eye to the lazy, corrupt people charged with carrying out their proposals. One day, if crime, poverty, and ignorance are eliminated, the liberal vision of society might come to be, and I think it would be great. Kind of like Star Trek I guess, but liberals need to understand that the world is too full of greedy, lazy, stupid, imperfect people at the moment, and they need to approach their vision with a slow, measured approach that takes the current reality into account.

 

[Arkaign]

butterbean

 

[brandonb]

Originally posted by: jjzelinski

the big-bang topic going on right now is a great example of how right-wing folks (at least on this board) fail at effectively debating; they lack a fundamental willingness for critical thinking (such as scientific theory being analogous to religion since "it's really only guessing anyhow." <slaps forehead> doh!)

Those on the other end of the spectrum. The right wing guys probably think the exact same thing about the liberals. The left's critical thinking is just "Science is real to some degree we can prove that! God is just flying spaghetii monster. So you lose! Science FTW." I could post in that topic and have considered it, but ... Whats the point?

 

[fskimospy]

Originally posted by: brandonb
Most conservatives don't bother posting on tech websites (this is my opinion) because when the left go parading about things like gay rights. If a conservative comes in and says anything, they get jumped on as a "bigot" or many other witty phrases, so they just don't bother. When logic fails the left, they resort to name calling, or just ignore the person. I suppose conservatives aren't much better in this regard. In fact, I think its just human nature.

As far as a few discussions go, theres really no point. I won't bother with "gay right" posts because thats what it's going to be, so I don't bother to click it. Same with religion threads. So I guess what usually ends up happening is you get a few liberal topics and liberals cheer leading waving pom poms about a topic, so it looks very liberal. The conservatives are there too, but they are just hidden in the woodwork and don't bother to pipe up.

People jump on people trying to restrict gay rights as 'bigots' because what they say in those threads is frequently 'bigoted'. It's strange to reference a lack of logic in the same paragraph as one restricting gay rights, because the logical reasons to restrict gay rights are very thinly spaced indeed.

 

[fskimospy]

Originally posted by: brandonb

Originally posted by: jjzelinski

the big-bang topic going on right now is a great example of how right-wing folks (at least on this board) fail at effectively debating; they lack a fundamental willingness for critical thinking (such as scientific theory being analogous to religion since "it's really only guessing anyhow." <slaps forehead> doh!)

Those on the other end of the spectrum. The right wing guys probably think the exact same thing about the liberals. The left's critical thinking is just "Science is real to some degree we can prove that! God is just flying spaghetii monster. So you lose! Science FTW." I could post in that topic and have considered it, but ... Whats the point?

That reply made no sense. The two sides in that argument are not two ends of the spectrum. One is reasonable conjecture based on the available evidence, the other is "god did it". Those two points of view are not equally valid.

The only purpose to posting in that thread is to educate Duwelon and a few other people on the basic terminology and fundamental premise of the big bang theory. They can continue to plug their ears and disbelieve it all they want, but if they are going to argue against it they should at least have the facts right.

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: loki8481
I don't really think of myself as conservative (I mean, can you be a gay right and social welfare-supporting communist republican who's voted straight down the D line post-2K?), but you'd have to be blind not to see it any time conservative members of this forum open their mouths.

Many of the 'conservatives' on this forum are GWB apologists and deserve to be smacked down when they attempt to excuse or defend the worst administration in history.

Further reading I see eskimospy's post. He said it better.

 

[Butterbean]

In this forum there is a cadre of people with same lib politics who will answer posts 24/7. The same people quickly chime in at 2 in the morning or 2 in the afternoon. This pretty much testifies to the quality of life they are living. Such patterns are more characteristic of a liberal mindset where daydreaming comes easier than working - or even having normal sleep patterns. These internet heros think they are doing something "important" by espousing their views and take tremendous offense if people disagree with them. Hence they quickly degenerate into put-down artists and retreat into the psychotic denial of their conditioned thinking. Its just snotty nonsense really and the perps arent that bad of people or they would be off doing bad things instead of locked to their puter. Hardforum is better place for original thinkers and balance.

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: eskimospy

I'm sorry, but I think that has more to do with the fact that a lot of conservative people on here post a lot of really stupid things. I see threads that conflate Obama with being a muslim, a socialist, all of which are absolutely ridiculous assertions. I think I remember a thread wondering if McCain was crazy from his imprisonment, but other than that I can't really remember nearly as many similarly stupid things coming from the left.

maybe I really am a closet conservative but there are certain posters coming from the left where nearly every single post of theirs reads about as stupid as the muslim/etc posts to me.

but we're all seeing everything through our own prisms of bias.

 

[ch33kym0use]

I dugg for furniture porn.

http://www.furnitureporn.com/furnporn1.html

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: eskimospy

Originally posted by: brandonb
Most conservatives don't bother posting on tech websites (this is my opinion) because when the left go parading about things like gay rights. If a conservative comes in and says anything, they get jumped on as a "bigot" or many other witty phrases, so they just don't bother. When logic fails the left, they resort to name calling, or just ignore the person. I suppose conservatives aren't much better in this regard. In fact, I think its just human nature.

As far as a few discussions go, theres really no point. I won't bother with "gay right" posts because thats what it's going to be, so I don't bother to click it. Same with religion threads. So I guess what usually ends up happening is you get a few liberal topics and liberals cheer leading waving pom poms about a topic, so it looks very liberal. The conservatives are there too, but they are just hidden in the woodwork and don't bother to pipe up.

People jump on people trying to restrict gay rights as 'bigots' because what they say in those threads is frequently 'bigoted'. It's strange to reference a lack of logic in the same paragraph as one restricting gay rights, because the logical reasons to restrict gay rights are very thinly spaced indeed.

It's funny how liberals see being against a law that favors gays is somehow bigoted. Just like being against affirmative action is bigoted.

 

[fskimospy]

Originally posted by: loki8481

Originally posted by: eskimospy

I'm sorry, but I think that has more to do with the fact that a lot of conservative people on here post a lot of really stupid things. I see threads that conflate Obama with being a muslim, a socialist, all of which are absolutely ridiculous assertions. I think I remember a thread wondering if McCain was crazy from his imprisonment, but other than that I can't really remember nearly as many similarly stupid things coming from the left.

maybe I really am a closet conservative but there are certain posters coming from the left where nearly every single post of theirs reads about as stupid as the muslim/etc posts to me.

but we're all seeing everything through our own prisms of bias.

No, I can think of several leftist posters who say really dumb things all the time too. I honestly think if you check the volume of threads between Obama/McCain and their relative stupidity you'll see a fairly large imbalance.

 

[fskimospy]

Originally posted by: Butterbean

In this forum there is a cadre of people with same lib politics who will answer posts 24/7. The same people quickly chime in at 2 in the morning or 2 in the afternoon. This pretty much testifies to the quality of life they are living. Such patterns are more characteristic of a liberal mindset where daydreaming comes easier than working - or even having normal sleep patterns. These internet heros think they are doing something "important" by espousing their views and take tremendous offense if people disagree with them. Hence they quickly degenerate into put-down artists and retreat into the psychotic denial of their conditioned thinking. Its just snotty nonsense really and the perps arent that bad of people or they would be off doing bad things instead of locked to their puter. Hardforum is better place for original thinkers and balance.

See what I mean loki?

 

[fskimospy]

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: eskimospy

Originally posted by: brandonb
Most conservatives don't bother posting on tech websites (this is my opinion) because when the left go parading about things like gay rights. If a conservative comes in and says anything, they get jumped on as a "bigot" or many other witty phrases, so they just don't bother. When logic fails the left, they resort to name calling, or just ignore the person. I suppose conservatives aren't much better in this regard. In fact, I think its just human nature.

As far as a few discussions go, theres really no point. I won't bother with "gay right" posts because thats what it's going to be, so I don't bother to click it. Same with religion threads. So I guess what usually ends up happening is you get a few liberal topics and liberals cheer leading waving pom poms about a topic, so it looks very liberal. The conservatives are there too, but they are just hidden in the woodwork and don't bother to pipe up.

People jump on people trying to restrict gay rights as 'bigots' because what they say in those threads is frequently 'bigoted'. It's strange to reference a lack of logic in the same paragraph as one restricting gay rights, because the logical reasons to restrict gay rights are very thinly spaced indeed.

It's funny how liberals see being against a law that favors gays is somehow bigoted. Just like being against affirmative action is bigoted.

Interesting that you would view laws that give everyone the same rights as 'favoring' someone. You could almost call seeing equal rights as special rights when referenced to a specific group as 'bigoted'.

 

[Atreus21]

I think that people who spend alot of time on the internet in general are liberal-minded, probably because they have white-collar day jobs, like I do. White-collar jobs are more frequent in big cities, and big cities tend to be more liberal-minded, with a few exceptions. I would assume most citizens of the rural states that always vote red have neither the time nor inclination to post on online political forums.

 

[umbrella39]

I don't know if being technical has anything to do with the views here. From reading the posts in P&N about what people do for a living, many have no tech-type jobs whatsoever. Hell we have surgeons, professors, corn shuckers, lawyers, nurses, soldiers, etc. This place used to be more centered, but I think you can blame Iraq and Bush for the shift, not the liberals. It will be interesting to see where the forum goes from here once Bush is out of office and/or we leave Iraq. Folks will need new things to get pissed off about.

 

[KIRBYEE]

.

 

[halik]

technical people tend to be more educated and more-educated people tend to vote left.

 

[Atreus21]

Originally posted by: eskimospy

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: eskimospy

Originally posted by: brandonb
Most conservatives don't bother posting on tech websites (this is my opinion) because when the left go parading about things like gay rights. If a conservative comes in and says anything, they get jumped on as a "bigot" or many other witty phrases, so they just don't bother. When logic fails the left, they resort to name calling, or just ignore the person. I suppose conservatives aren't much better in this regard. In fact, I think its just human nature.

As far as a few discussions go, theres really no point. I won't bother with "gay right" posts because thats what it's going to be, so I don't bother to click it. Same with religion threads. So I guess what usually ends up happening is you get a few liberal topics and liberals cheer leading waving pom poms about a topic, so it looks very liberal. The conservatives are there too, but they are just hidden in the woodwork and don't bother to pipe up.

People jump on people trying to restrict gay rights as 'bigots' because what they say in those threads is frequently 'bigoted'. It's strange to reference a lack of logic in the same paragraph as one restricting gay rights, because the logical reasons to restrict gay rights are very thinly spaced indeed.

It's funny how liberals see being against a law that favors gays is somehow bigoted. Just like being against affirmative action is bigoted.

Interesting that you would view laws that give everyone the same rights as 'favoring' someone. You could almost call seeing equal rights as special rights when referenced to a specific group as 'bigoted'.

Well, affirmative action is certainly not a law that gives everyone the same rights. It's blatantly racist.

 

[jonks]

Originally posted by: PokerGuy
Techno-savy people tend to be younger as they've grown up with the technology. Younger people tend to be more idealistic as well as liberal, thus the more left-leaning crowds on technology oriented boards.

Ding Ding!

Originally posted by: JS80
It's funny how liberals see being against a law that favors gays is somehow bigoted.

Please cite one law that gives gays more rights than straights?

Originally posted by: Pliablemoose
You know how to turn a liberal into a conservative?
Make them earn & save $100K.
Worked for me

Didn't work for me. I've come right on some issues and left on others through discussion but my wallet doesn't dictate my moral compass.