Sunday, March 06, 2011

So, you want to talk about catnip? Talk. Do it here. Now.

Who's the latest target of the New But definitely Not Improved Troll Patrol over at dkos?

Me.

Take a look in the comments here.

The genesis of this shitstorm?

I had the audacity to state (back on Feb 24th) that I'd rather see an educated non-voter than an uneducated voter. [I made the same comment back in the 90s to a local, liberal radio talk show host and he used it in his promos for a week after that - not because it contained any shock value but because I was a regular caller he had interviewed in person once about human rights abuses. He respected my opinions and later became (and still is) an elected official*. Are votes important to him? Sure. But he understood exactly what I meant because we live in Conservative Hell.]

* Note to Deoliver47 whose new hobby is doing "research" about me using Google: the story I just shared will not be found online so that one's a dead end.

Anyway, here's how all of this then spiraled out of control. (You will note that I didn't say anything about anybody's race, creed, colour, religion, sexual identity or popcorn-flavour preference in the above comment).

I'd rather see neither. (6+ / 0-)

but at least the voter is standing up and contributing to the process.

this isn't professional sports. most people don't HAVE to be mere spectators.

by mallyroyal on Thu Feb 24, 2011 at 10:27:58 AM MST
____

you're implying... (2+ / 0-)

...that non-voters are merely spectators and that they don't contribute anything to democracy. That is not necessarily true.

by catnip on Thu Feb 24, 2011 at 10:33:52 AM MST
____


I don't know how else to put how I feel (5+ / 0-)

about the American nonvoter withought degenerating into insults. truly.

by mallyroyal on Thu Feb 24, 2011 at 10:35:46 AM MST

___

"feel" is the key word there (2+ / 0-)

Try thinking about why some people don't vote and how they still contribute to democracy.

by catnip on Thu Feb 24, 2011 at 10:43:07 AM MST

___
See anything about race there? Nope? That's because it wasn't the issue - until some people made it THE issue. If you follow the thread, you'll see that it diverged into 2 topics which both had the same result: accusing me of being a racist.

The first divergence was made by those who insisted that people who died in wars died for the right to vote. I disagreed. I said people died for freedom - including the right not to vote.

Let me insert the bleedingly obvious here: did the protesters in Egypt and elsewhere recently die "for the right to vote"? Seems to me those Egyptians already had that right even when Mu was still the dictator. No. They died for freedom. That's a pretty simple point, don't you think? But no, when I said to dkos yanks that people died for freedom, that became an affront to African-American soldiers somehow. I'm "culturally insenstive", apparently. (Just another phrase for "racist").

The second divergence from that conversation? I made the mistake of telling mallyroyal (an AA kossack) to "think" instead of "feel". I was immediately jumped on with this:

well you know.... (6+ / 0-)

I only voted for Obama because he's black.

I didn't think about his policy position just like most AA didn't. That's why he has such a high approval ratings from us unthinking AA.

I must try some of that THINKING catnip suggests, but then again being an unthinking AA is so much easier.

;-)

by sephius1 on Thu Feb 24, 2011 at 03:21:38 PM
Had I said anything about anybody's race? No.

Ironically, mallyroyal (the person I was accused of being racist against - along with all other AAs) posted this yesterday:

finally some common sense in these comments. (3+ / 0-)

any rational person would read this from a POTUS to a former governor whose brother and father were previously POTUS.

too many kossacks allow their emotionalism to reign supreme while calling it rationale.

by mallyroyal on Sat Mar 05, 2011 at 10:50:31 AM MST
Did the same people accuse him of saying that AAs don't think? Of course not.

Let's fast forward through this clusterfuck:

1. Today I was accused 3 times of outing several people over at mcat's and elsewhere. Of course, the accusers didn't provide any links and one of the people I was accused of outing - slinkerwink - actually outed herself on dkos.

2. Consider this for a moment:

When you stated Sephius called you a racist (5+ / 0-)

which you continued to assert, you were calling him a racist.

Please - stop with the game playing.

by Deoliver47 on Sun Mar 06, 2011 at 10:06:10 AM MST
Here is my response:

let's change the wording... (3+ / 0-)

...to take a look at your preposterous leap of logic:

When you stated Sephius called you a cat (0+ / 0-)

which you continued to assert, you were calling him a cat.

Sorry but your Ps & Qs don't add up.

by catnip on Sun Mar 06, 2011 at 10:47:48 AM MST
Get what's going on there now? Yes. It is that obvious.

I'm not the first person they've done this too. Will I be the last? Stay tuned.

SO, if any of your Troll Patrol keyboard warriors want to take me on: do it here. Now. Be warned: anything goes here and nobody's going to cry for you if your feelings get hurt. The only rule here is: there are no rules.

27 comments:

catnip said...

I'm fiddling around with the design template - just in case anyone's wondering why the colours keep changing.

catnip said...

And let me add one more thing: I'm anti-war. So when I say that soldiers died for "freedom", don't confuse that with the fact that soldiers die for numerous other things that have absolutely nothing to do with "freedom" or any other noble cause. No American soldier these days is dying for anybody's right to vote - not in America, Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan or in any other locations where there are US quasi-wars going on.

Voting means absolutely nothing if you're not free.

mobettameta said...

Good lord. What a mess. I'm not even sure where to begin. To make a leap of racism from that initial comment...wow. Just...wow. Personally, as someone surrounded by TP adherents (one of the joys of Southern living), I've probably had similar sentiments about preferring educated nonvoters over those who are uneducated about the candidates, their positions, the way government is supposed to work etc. The latter can do a great deal of damage.

The impression I get, correctly or incorrectly, is that there are some folks at DK with long-standing vendettas. That can motivate an awful lot of misinformation. Saw enough of it piled up to the brim on those DK threads.

mobettameta said...

And I suspect that if troops get committed to Libya etc., that "freedom" is the furthest thing from the agenda - especially the freedom of Libyans. Oh, and if Saudi Arabia blows up, we all know there will be plenty of boots on the ground posthaste. It's all about securing those Oil facilities. Nothing more, nothing less.

As an aside, I read somewhere (probably newshoggers) that the US government is now pursuing a policy of "regime adjustment" like at this late date a bunch of decrepit despots can be made over into something slightly more presentable. I don't think that's going to play well with the folks who want regime change - and any preference we Yanks might have for driving SUVs is simply not something they are going to care about and understandably so. Seems like the Pope of Hope and cronies are holed up in the West Wing going through the Bargaining stage of grief.

catnip said...

"regime alteration"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703580004576180522653787198.html

"Instead of pushing for immediate regime change—as it did to varying degrees in Egypt and now Libya—the U.S. is urging protesters from Bahrain to Morocco to work with existing rulers toward what some officials and diplomats are now calling "regime alteration."

The approach has emerged amid furious lobbying of the administration by Arab governments, who were alarmed that President Barack Obama had abandoned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and worried that, if the U.S. did the same to the beleaguered king of Bahrain, a chain of revolts could sweep them from power, too, and further upend the region's stability."

****

Screw what the people want. Support the dictators.

catnip said...

Your impression is correct. I'm an independent Canadian liberal who has been a member of dkos since 2004. Any one of those 3 identifiers creates problems over there at various times.

As to WHY this particular bunch is targetiing me so viciously now? I'm not sure what the kicker was. But when they pounce on someone, they go whole hog. The hive mind, echo chamber,  Orwellian, Lewis Carroll, Monty Pythonesquesness of it all is quite the spectacle. They have no idea, obvisouly, what fools they make of themselves as they trip all over each other trying to be the dullest bulb in the room.

ms_xeno said...

Well, well, well.  Everything old IS new again.  I wonder when the stalwarts like Boo-Boo will start showing up...

catnip said...

Well, according to taylormattd, since Boober called me a troll at MSOC's blog in 2007, that's proof positive that I am one!

8-)

Popcorn?

James said...

I've been noticing that a number of our hits the last couple days have come from Google searches - usually some combination of "catnip" and "troll" or "serial blog wrecker" or "blog wrecker". Mildly amusing.

catnip said...

<span>I know. I'm suddenly poopular, as Clouseau would say. </span> :*

ms_xeno said...

I'd forgotten all about MSOC.  Not to mention, Meatless Blahblah, until Mcat mentioned him.

So sad, at my age, to forget all those glory days gone by...

[munches popcorn, despite failing teeth]

catnip said...

Wherein Uberbah - another one of the Black Kos targets - utterly demolishes mahakali overdive's whining:

http://www.dailykos.com/comment/953407/40660151#c333

catnip said...

I left a couple of comments for you in the DTF thread.

catnip said...

I could soak that popcorn in some rum for you...if I actually drank...and had rum in the house. What? You expect me to go out in this fucking weather to get you some??

ms_xeno said...

Does rum have fluoride in it? :p

catnip said...

I'm sure that can be arranged! :-P

catnip said...

And I think it's quite blasphemous that you forgot about MSOC.

(Where's the Tinkerbell smiley?)

catnip said...

Speaking of hilarity, a kossack posted a comment in that Black Kos thread about the gang being on a McCarthyesue witch hunt (which was, of course, troll-rated into oblivion). I responded by posting the vid clip from Monty Python - How do you know she is witch?

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/951950/40641108

Now, of course, anybody with any reading comprehesion whatsoever would know that **I** was the target of this witch hunt. Ergo, the clip made fun of how the troll patrol could determine that about **me**.

Not rocket science, right?

Well, they've been trying to troll-rate that one into oblivion since Saturday. It's not working.

The lastest excuse for troll-rating it?

******
<span> </span><span>She's [Deoliver47] already been (inaccurately)</span> <span>(2+ / 0-)</span>

called a Voodoo (their spelling) Priestess and denied the "right" to invoke "Amazing Grace" by this crowd.  It was the "she's a witch" that I HR'd, given the history.

"Institutional racism doesn't require intent. It's more like inertia." --blindyone
by Yasuragi on Tue Mar 08, 2011 at 07:55:20 AM MST

******

I swear these people go out of their way to come up with the stupidest fucking comments on the intertubes. Maybe it's some sort of inside baseball competition (?) I wonder what the prize is.

James said...

Amazing. Some of these folks really twist themselves up over...nothing. I still love the bits about a bunch of us "serial wreckers of blogs" plotting. Apparently it doesn't seem to occur that this blog's masthead contains more than a healthy dose of snark.

catnip said...

Have you checked out the place the last couple of days? MB isn't moderating anymore so it's turned into a free-for-all cage match to the death. And people used to think this place was bad? 8-)

PrivilegeMaster said...

I am guessing Markos lets illiterate racist fruitcakes like A2U run amok just to keep the traffic high. Too bad it's turing the site into a sewer.

catnip said...

<span>His latest meltdown is quite the sight - as is the entire thread that followed it. No hypocrisy or unresolved anger issues on that site - nope!</span>

catnip said...

And this:

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/953417/40668106#c1368

;)

After railing against "white power" and the imaginary racists on the site, he goes and adds that... "Oy vey", as they say...

PrivilegeMaster said...

wow. "jew son in law", from Mr. Racial Awareness himself. lolz.

Keep fightin', catnip!

James said...

I noticed. We "serial blog wreckers" are a model of civility in comparison.Then again, we already were (but we'll keep that as our little secret).

catnip said...

Today's winner of "Things That Take the Cake on Dkos" is: Deep Texan.

Enjoy:

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/953914/40673806#c58

mobettameta said...

Jeez. And the dude just rationalizes it away.