daswig

I think you're spot on. There are people that I like to refer to as "Kool-aid drinkers" who are, IMHO, completely, totally insane. They cross the political spectrum. They're the ones who, if they are lefties, immediately assume that anything positive that comes out about or relating in any way to Bush is the result of fraudulent reporting, EvilGenious Karl Rove and the Jewish Neocon Conspiracy, or "grey aliens". On the right, they're the folks who blame carbombings in Baghdad or intellegence failures relating to Pearl Harbor on the "Clenis". There are lots of things that can be plausibly blamed on the Clenis, but carbombings in Iraq and WWII ain't amongst them. Because of the presence of the "Tittie Boards", I think we get more of the former than the latter on these boards, since the rabid Righties tend to be "700 Club" members.

Then, of course, you have the whole ignorance factor at work...some people talk about stuff which they are not particularly well read upon, while claiming to be an authority. For a hypothetical example, if there was a thread on "Batson challenges" (which is a pretty esoteric legal topic), and a 17 year old kid started claiming to be an expert because he's taking "US Government courses in his special ed classes", well, odds are good that the conversation stemming from his posts wouldn't be terribly intelligent.

Then, of course, you've got the situations that fall into the "just silly in an interesting manner for exposing the inherent hypocracy" category. For example, in one thread, one person basically said to another poster that "you have no room to speak on this issue relating to Y because X, so STFU", to which I basically replied "If that's true, what basis do you have to speak on this issue, since not only are you not X, but you're not even Y?". Care to wager who got slapped down for basically violating free speech? hint: It wasn't the first person, who made up the criteria for being able to speak on a subject in the first place...

Sometimes I wonder why I bother...then, I smile, because I realize that it's highly unlikely that anybody who posts on this board lives near me, and that suits all parties involved just fine. (before anybody freaks out, that's a joke)