Concentration of far-right extremists on PPR

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I have an eccentric habit of searching through old forums from WP and, while doing this, I once came across this thread:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt63192.html

The author alleges some "leftwing bend" on WP. He posted this forum a year before I came abroad, so perhaps things were different then. But when I came aboard I noticed their was a balance on PPR - a few leftwing extremists (communists and assorted Neo-Marxists), some leftists, some rightists, and some rightwing extremists (i.e. people who thought Obama was the antichrist, income tax abolitionists, and Alex Jones Paleoconservatives).

Now it seems that the WP far left is pretty much gone, there's a few vocal leftists (myself, Xenon13, and perhaps Skyfather), one radical centrist (Orwell), an anarcho-capitalist (AG), and a whole bunch of Neo-fascists, racists, conspiracy theorists, and people who forget that the Obama presidency was preceded by 8 years of a Republican executive.

A few of the more disgusting comments I have read here include the one-liner "aboreal Africans" and "NAACP=Nigerians Against All Caucasian People". This has occured while many complain about discrimination against WASPs on Wrong Planet, which is pretty laughable.

The seeming far right shift of WP may be just simply due to the fact that rightwing extremists are more outspoken then leftists. After all, the modern right is a bastion for anti-intellectualism and the less intellectual you are the more certain you are in your opinions hence the louder you speak. This possibility has motivated my own backlash against the WP hard right as I've lost faith in civility when drowned out in a chorous of righwing smear and hysteria.

Back to the question at hand, though, what is the bend of PPR?

Last edited by Master_Pedant on 17 Oct 2010, 2:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

It's still mostly liberals here. It's just seems more conservative because the conservatives here have to be the kind that will stand their ground and take on a forum full of liberals- alone if need be.

All those liberal posters seem pretty quiet or must be keeping their mouths shut as I see rightwing talking points and racist tirades that go on here daily with little to no leftwing debunking - and it the left does debunk the BS it's a lot more soft-spoken then the loudmouth hordes of conservatives spewing the garbage out.

Last edited by Master_Pedant on 17 Oct 2010, 2:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

Perhaps the liberals left because they got pwn3d?

Or perhaps the stench of the vomit that passes for Rightwing discourse turned them away?

Last edited by Master_Pedant on 17 Oct 2010, 2:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

It's just the political trend row. Obama is president, the Democrats control congress, naturally the more right wing people will speak out. Back when Bush was president and the political trends were moving left, you had the more left wing folks speak out.

There was still some rightwing lunacy on WP even when George W. Bush was president.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt59612.html

I'll admit, PPR may represent an amplified cross-section of American society in general. As we know, countless homes are being foreclosed and the double digit unemployment brough on by the bursting of a thirty year buble economy is bringing chaos to the political culture of America. There's real hatred and racial tension in the US with much demgaguery. There's a risk it could flame up.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MHEuudJ-o0&feature=fvw[/youtube]

Last edited by Master_Pedant on 17 Oct 2010, 1:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

I think most of us don't have the patience to debunk right-wing meme's, conspiracy theories, and irrational hyperbolic rants. It's like clearing a meme-jungle with a machete. Chop one meme down and once you're done they just ignore it and move on to other meme's, of which there's an endless supply.

Going on the offensive a few times can help. I know that when I go on the offensive against the WP Hard Right using rhetoric just half as potent as their mainstay it sends them into fits. Alan Grayson uses standard GOP tricks against TaliDAN Webster and it sends the right into hysteria. Going on the offensive is the best defense against vile far-right memes.

But is sending them into fits changing anything? The far-right are already in a constant state of throwing fits as far as I can tell.

At the heart of it all is a core conflict of values IMO. Therefore going after factual inaccuracies of right-wing rhetoric and conspiracy theories is pointless. Those things are just like the shoots a rotten tree sends out. The more you cut at them the more new ones will keep growing back. IMO, it's far better to take a swing at the trunk and show that it's rotten in the middle.

I'd like to say that many of my posts touch on the ugly combine of racial hatred, homophobia, religious bigotry, short-term corporate greed (as opposed to long-term rational self-interest), corporate welfare state, and desire to redistribute income upwards that forms the core of that ugly thing know as the modern American conservative coalition.

I find that the majority of posts here seem to be from the right wing.
However I don't think this is because they are the majority but because they are a very vocal and obnoxious minority.

There are some people who feel the need to start new threads on the most ridiculous subjects and of the most moronic tone, they post again and again and are often far from the forums subject criteria [Politics, Philosophy and Religion] leaving this forum looking pointless, perhaps this is why serious minded debaters just can't be bothered with anything more than a shot from the hip?

Just look at the number of posts by that moron who claims not to be a parakeet yet does little more than squawk endlessly pointless posts or 'poor me' posts which push what little worthwhile content there is off the bottom, it is little more than spam.

Several others make obviously inflammatory posts that do nothing to enrich debate as they invariably lack substance or are beyond discussion being mere statements.

Then of course there are the christian loonies which I ignore yet am completely tired of.

Another problem is that for those of us not within the USA to question or critique US foreign policy or culture draws an ugly response and usually by several at once. This makes serious discussion impossible because US right wing bible bangers quickly stifle serious global debate.

Discussion requires two parties, it requires both parties to maintain an openness to the ideas of the other and usually involves exchanges of both statement and question, I see little of that here.

Here is a little story,

It is a long hot west Auckland summer and two 9y/o girls have been playing at one of the girls homes when, hot and sweaty they decide to take a dip in the inflatable paddling pool.
The pool is occupied by the girls younger brother and two of his friends, as the girls approach the boys announce that 'there are no girls allowed in the pool'.
The girl whose home it also is tells her brother and his friends to stop being silly.
The brother announces that there are definitely no girls allowed and if they try to get into the pool he will take a pee in it.
The girls laugh and tell him not to be silly, then his sister goes to step into the pool at which he stands up, pulls down his trunks and pees in the pool, very quickly one of his friends does the same.
The girls are incredulous and quickly abandon the idea of having a dip.

When my sister told me this true story I was five y/o and it quickly became apparent to me that some people would rather sit in a pool of their own pee than share.

peace j

Last edited by RedHanrahan on 17 Oct 2010, 3:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm thinking it might be just that - the rapid rightists never shut their traps whereas more informed people don't spout as many opinions as loudly as they're less certain. It's pretty funny that whenever you use the Right's tricks against them they suddenly erupt into fits or accuse you of linguistic trickery.

There's really only a couple of people here who one can have a decent debate with. My cynical amusement at the reaction of the WP Hard Right to any criticism of their inane ideas makes up for it, though.

I don't like your description of PPR. It doesn't leave any room for me, for example, and I'm sure you've left out a bunch of other posters with your sweeping generalization. I hope you don't really think that only AG, Orwell, yourself and a handful of vocally liberal people are the only posters who are not fascist, racist, and/or conspiracy theorists.


Did you report this to the mods, or did you just let it slide?

More on-topic, why do you think that 2 posters (or one if the same person said both) are a representative sample of PPR?


Maybe I haven't been reading the right threads, but I don't remember anyone complaining about discrimination against WASPs.

In answer to the question in the poll: I think you're asking the wrong question. I don't think which side has a numerical advantage is particularly important. It's better to argue what you think is right all alone, than it would be to either join the loudest group just because they're loud, or to not say anything because you're afraid that people would disagree with you.

I concur, peace j

There's a ton of less vocal posters, but they don't stick in my memory (namely because of their soft-spokeness and infrequency of posts).




Since I generally believe the light of day is better then censorship when dealing with racists, I didn't report them - I condemned the comments directly.



Those are the two WORST examples I could think of (both by seperate posters). One from today, the other from a month ago. They were meant to illustrate the point.



My poll's question isn't about what group is best or most moral, it's about the ideological bend of WP. I think the question is very interesting and the poll was really just a fun add-on. I was pretty exhaustive and did include an option for "extremism" in any direction given the preception that Aspies tend to be more extremist then the norm.

Last edited by Master_Pedant on 17 Oct 2010, 9:02 am, edited 1 time in total.