X-post from the Lounge: Most contentious topic on DU?

Just curious to see what we all think of each other. (And yes, I skipped a few obviously contentious subjects--like most of the economic ones--but I wanted to limit my choices to things I have personally seen cause quite a few flamewars...feel free to remind me of the ones I missed if you can't vote for any of my options.)

I thought "9/11" was the safest thing to post to represent the (don't flame me!) MIHOP/LIHOP vs. Um, er...the other viewpoints discussions. (I'm MIHOP myself, so I never know what term to attach to the others.)

#1: 911 - hidden from "latest threads", can't recommend
#2: i/p - can't recommend, but not hidden

forum tend to go there by choice and consequently not many posts concerning I/P issues make it to GD or GD-Politics.

OCT = Official Conspiracy Theory -- ie the one propogated by the 9/11 Commission and the mainstream media

OCTer = adherent to the OCT

OCTabot = mindlessly and automatically adheres to the OCT, like a robot

Got that?

within seconds, especially if you at all question the standard version.

but because most people are kind of bored with the topic, and they don't want threads of other topics to get buried under 9-11 threads. It's not really a topic of huge, whopping, general interest anymore, sorry. At least, that's my opinion.

Most of the other flamewars come and go depending on current news, and others are relegated to dungeons.

But the candidate wars are shaping up very nicely as the ultimate flame-war.

We are eating ourselves with this one.

That's the topic I continue to see turn so many otherwise polite people here into raving lunatics.

i went with immigration.

particularly after last Summer, when I was told vigorously and repeatedly by one member that I didn't know anything of what I was speaking, despite having what I thought (but apparently not) a good background in history and military history. I did learn much more about how the ignore feature works and to avoid the I/P topic completely. Not worth my time to get worked up over their tin ears.

Kind of entertaining to read the "discussions" about it here, though.

Anyone that wants gun control is automatically branded a fascist, and anyone that wants to own 1000's of guns is labeled a mass murderer.

Or just one gun, if it has a black plastic stock...

I'm surprised that "Guns" wasn't a poll choice, but the OP limited it to things she/he had personally participated in, I think.

Or the one that we see as most likely to be contentious among other DUers? The one that bothers me most is immigration, the one most likely to turn into a flame war are the I/P threads.

But the Naderites now hide in shame.......

Thanks.

mercilessly attack those who even question their point of view. I never go there (I learned not to last summer when I was given an undeserved epithet for posting an anti-DU web site) and I almost quit DU altogether because of it.

comments like yours have absolutely nothing to do with its contentiousness.


:eyes:

It's interesting to see what people think in the two forums.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x6276409

The most contentious issue there is LGBT issues. Is that because there are more LGBT people who regularly participate in the Lounge? Or is it because the Lounge people focus more on identity and lifestyle issues than the hard core news junkies of GD?

Short.
Fat.
Ugly.
Man (ie: Coulter)
Pussy (which is sexist, but curiously, not "dick")
etc.

.

If the option would have been "DLC/Blue Dogs in charge of party" instead of the wimpy "state of the democratic party" I believe that option would be one of the biggest contenders.

of the Party as possible.

They're all contentious and some people have more vested in certain issues than others.

Maybe the lack of a sense of humour by many parties concerned with any of these issues would be a good topic for discussion, but I see it devolving into a flame war. The problem becomes that when one is deeply invested in a particular topic, it becomes impossible to step back, take a breath and sometimes see what COULD be the "funny side". I'm sure that there is some gallows humour that occurs under almost any situation. As in the "More trouble joke" -

I found an essay on "Gallows Humor" here:http://www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskilld/Gallows.htm

The author expresses it far better than I am able to, hence the quote - I found the last paragraph particulary telling.

Snip
Is there ever good reason to object to gallows jokes? Certainly; depending on the joke, and the context, it might be quite inappropriate, even outrageous. But it is beyond the scope of this paper to characterize the conditions under which telling gallows jokes is appropriate. I’ll just make two quick points in this connection. One: Placing a high value on free expression, as our society does--and rightly so--is not compatible with the idea that one is obligated to refrain from making a statement or telling a joke simply because one can predict that others will be angered, shocked or otherwise offended by it. Were this not the case, then we should all be prohibited from making any controversial statements at all, such as those that promote the theory of evolution.
Two: there are contexts in which potential listeners have a justified set of expectations that a statement or jokes would violate. For example, it would be inappropriate for the President of the United States to tell 9-11 jokes in public. He has, in effect, a tacit contract with his audience that he isn’t going to do that. It’s like an unstated part of his job description. On the other hand, there is nothing inappropriate about posting 9-11 jokes on use.net, or telling them as part of a stand-up comedy routine at a night club.
One concern about gallows humor is that it might de-sensitize people to evil, thereby making them callous. The obvious response is that the evil itself would do this long before making jokes about it ever would. When you consider the forces at work that can conspire to create a bad character, it should be evident that humor ranks pretty low on the list of influences. Then again, maybe this isn’t evident. But until there’s some hard evidence that joking makes people callous, I’ll be skeptical.

Gotta go with 9/11.

There are two sides -- the good guys (us) and the evil doers (them) -- and we hate each other!

You get the nastiest responses when that topic comes up. The poor Israelis are never allowed to defend themselves. :sarcasm: When they bombed the Lebanese last summer, it was really a hot topic.

Those are the types of topics that cause the most problems. By group think I mean the atmosphere of being on one team or the other as opposed to many little grey areas that change per person. For example, partisan politics is the most apparent, such as Left vs Right. In terms of here, the most contentious topics are ones where the majority of participants subscribe to a team rather than their own dynamic deduction.

You have:
Smokers vs Non Smokers
Israel vs Palestine
Women vs Men
9/11 Mihop vs Sane People
Condone guns vs Don't condone guns
Vegetarians vs Meat Eaters
Self Righteous Extremists vs Normal People (Such as you MUST change EVERY lightbulb and only WALK to work etc)
Candidate vs Candidate
etc...

Any topic that lends itself to a "I'm on this team, you're not" type mentality tends to become contentious.

I guess we know where you stand on that issue.

but it's my impression that vaccines are pretty high up on the list; as is religion; and I'm surprised that smoking/anti-smoking isn't on the list (such threads tend to go up in SMOKE!)

Also anything to do with 'libertarianism' vs 'nanny state regulations'.

that it neither made the list, nor was mentioned as a contentious topic.
:woohoo: Now THAT'S PROGRESS!!

Because that's mostly what I see in the "debates" about immigration. And in some of the I/P flamewars, too. I guess I didn't put "racisim/ethnicity and cultural bias" mainly because I've kinda blocked out some of DU's more recent discussions of those problems (like pretty much all the threads having to do with the Duke rape case--threads that are still giving me bad flashbacks).

I may have to make another poll.

:rofl: