Freepers here?

[CreekDog]

I noticed some posts that were anti-Gore, which doesn't prove anything, but I noticed Republican talking points used to trash him from two different users. Further, what was odd was that the user in a previous thread a few weeks ago, supported Gore getting into the race, and suddenly thinks he is like Carter.

I can't name names, I'll follow the rules, but they were on the Gore items in Late Breaking News (one regarding Carter and the other a day older saying that Gore won an oscar). Both posters had low postings.

What do other people notice about this? It's kind of sneaky if you ask me, because they don't say they're conservative, they just don't like candidate X, so candidate Y is better.

Some fishy stuff, but I haven't really noticed this until now.

[htuttle]

1. Sure, all the time

This place really crawls with 'em some nights, especially around primary season. Too bad so many so often take their bait.

[Sal Minella]

28. I got a kick out of the "Oh why BOTHER to vote" posts before the election.....

[CrazyOrangeCat]

2. yep.

there are some here.

strange hobby . . . but I suppose life in ma's basement gets pretty strange . . .

[TomInTib]

6. What I do in my Mother's basement is my own business.

Why are you Socialists trying to control my life?

I just came to this site to try to find my buddy Bob Boudelang.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

9. !

:spray:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

37. ...

:9 :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Little Wing]

3. CreekDog is a flip-flopper. He was for Freepers before he was against them.

:hide:

[CreekDog]

8. Little Wing is right, I was conservative before I was against conservatism

In 1988, I volunteered for Bush 41 (wasn't old enough to vote for him). It didn't take much of his presidency to turn me into a Democrat by the time I registered to vote for the first time.

[hlthe2b]

4. We are constantly being "visited."

and not just from outerspace... Often it is from "out of their minds" land... LOL

[patrice]

5. Definitely . . .

Some threads are just bait, so they can feedback to other RW blogs and Limbaugh.

There are other double agents of various types too (here and elsewhere) and some plane old Anarchists.

[CreekDog]

7. the truth all comes out

I'm just slow to notice!

ps-I don't get the "flip flopper" quip above. Did LittleWing make a funny?

[patrice]

13. That was not I.

It was Little Wing. It may have been a joke.

I pretty much expect people to change their minds some. The questions have to do with whether they are changing their minds in good faith, i.e. in order to get closer to a shared Truth, or for some other motive. The only one can tell who's doing what is to watch, address the changes, talk it out without personal insults, and then make up one's mind about what's going on.

[CreekDog]

15. Patrice: i know it wasn't you

[CreekDog]

12. Wouldn't surprise me if they got paid by think tanks to do this

Seems like you can get a paying job doing what we do for free if you do it for the 'right'groups.

[EFerrari]

10. Sure they are. I guess their own site is too damn lame.

:rofl:

[patrice]

25. It IS a POS!

Unpleasant to look at and to use. I'd come here too if I were one of them.

[Catherine Vincent]

11. Of course there are.

We just can't call them that.

[MADem]

14. That is what the alert button at the lower left hand corner of the post is for.

don't feed or engage them, just hit the button, call out 'bullshit' and leave it at that.

If warranted, the moderators will give the jerks a brand new stone avatar.

[CreekDog]

17. I was reluctant to 'alert' because I couldn't prove it

To me the tip off was making contradictory statements, for Gore, then vehemently against him just weeks later.

But I guess it's the moderators job to figure out if something is up.

[MADem]

19. That's it, precisely.

That's what they are there for. If it bugs you, hit the button, and say why.

If they hold an opinion different from yours, that's one thing, but if they're crapping on Democrats and upping the GOP, well, they'll be out of here toute suite...

[uppityperson]

23. HIt alert, ok to type your suspicions in the alert page.

Actually it is a good idea unless the reason is so obvious.

[blm]

49. Hit alert, give a heads up to watch the inconsistent statements the poster is making

Inconsistent statementsregarding Democrats is usually a telltale sign.

And it's easy to recognize the difference between RW attacks on Democrats and the Democratic intraparty soulsearching.

[patrice]

16. P.S. I am glad they come here.

Many of us can learn something from them.

[Midlodemocrat]

18. I Prefer to think that they can learn something from us.

Not the other way around.

[CreekDog]

21. I'm waiting for one of them to type

"It was the best of times it was the worst of times"

It's only a matter of time.

[patrice]

22. That's a given. I was alluding to opposition research.

They're not going to just go away, no matter how wrong they are, nor how right we are.

Know thy "enemy", so you stand half a chance of 1. changing them - or - 2. defeating them.

[Midlodemocrat]

32. I don't consider freepers worthy of knowing, frankly.

It's pretty hard to get a grasp on the world when you are sitting in mom's basement scratching yourself watching Fox.

[patrice]

34. I don't have the luxury of writing any other group of persons off.

That's what is wrong with Us.

IF we're going to be better, we have to BE better.

[Midlodemocrat]

38. Well, I AM better.

I'm not a bigot and I'm a big believer in social justice. Some of the shit you see posted on their site about their 'charitable contributions' would make you puke.

[patrice]

43. I bet it would. Your feelings are probably based on more experience than mine.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you are a bigot.

We probably just have different approaches to conflict. I don't want "blood", but I DO want them close enough to learn how to get ahead of them. What's that old Mid-East proverb, "Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer" ?

:hi:

[Midlodemocrat]

50. You didn't imply that at all.

And, that is a good saying.

:hi:

[PhilipShore]

20. How to spot a Free Republic Groupie (Freeper)

Study the writing style (Compare with Free Republic Babel).

Study the language: they always write short comments - under 100 letters as a pattern.

And generally the language is accusatory (masked flame bait) about a language or cause.

They generally promote hot button issues, causes, etc. - I will not name the issues or causes, so as to not start a flame war.

They seem to be even using anti-poetry but with a twist: which is they put on progressive negative news about a candidate, seeming to inform, but in reality - they put it there to lower progressive morale.

[patrice]

24. Add: Frequently begins with "I'm offended by your __________."

Also: Picks on anything but the main point of whatever someone is saying.
Loaded language.
Straw man.
False dichotomies.
Can't discuss Science.

others? anyone?

[PhilipShore]

41. Thanks

I never even thought of a the straw man theory; I in some ways see the straw man theory as one of the "main tactics" Republicans use not just here - but in most other areas, language, media, politics, law, health, etc.

[htuttle]

42. "I'm a lifelong Democrat, but..."

"Refute this freeper email I got..."
(although sometimes that one is in earnest)

[patrice]

44. Yes! You hear that one about being a Democrat on talk radio

ALL - OF - THE - TIME . . . You'd think they'd figure out that folk are on to them.

Haven't received andy "freeper" email from anyone but freepers.

Oh! . . . That reminds me of another one:

"Do this or you'll be cursed." And it's variant, "Do this and you'll be rewarded with the answer to your dreams".

[tsuki]

52. What do you make of this? Have you seen this? nt

[Quantess]

45. Also don't forget

Some freeps get a big chuckle out of being a parody of a liberal / Democrat.
But then they wind up contradicting themselves, because it's so apparent that they don't fully understand liberal / Democratic viewpoints.

Edited to add: freeps don't understand the complexity and nuances of Democratic viewpoints, and expose themselves quickly. They also fail to appreciate that liberals are often far different than the stereotype they are parodying.

[patrice]

46. Indeed: Add Stereotypes to the list. And Oh yes!! Here's a big one:

Everything anyone says is a put-down. "You libs think you're smarter than everyone" when we're really just more interested in trying to figure things out. Freeps don't think anything needs to be figure out, "Shit happens. End of story."

[MonkeyFunk]

26. not necessarily freepers

a lot of people will use ANY attack against a candidate they don't like, regardless of the source.

So the anti-Clinton people will repeat any smear against her, no matter its source. Same for all the other candidates.

[azurnoir]

27. Never really thought about Freepers here

Maybe with the candidates, I don't get all the bashing 2 years out. What I have noticed is a sort of closet racism with some posters, in the I/P forums well thats hot button but also in immigration issues and poverty issues. Certain professions are also sacred doublely true if they are union, personally I do not care if your union or not.
Also the ignore button it would seem to defeat the purpose of this kind of forum.

[Duncan Grant]

29. Low post counts? I find the opposite to be true.

Stick around, CreekDog. You won't believe your eyes...

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

30. If You Have Concerns About A Post, Alert On It. The Mods Will Determine The Rest.

That's also what they're going to tell you before they rightfully lock this thread.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

31. To me, "freeper" is a funny term

mostly because my daily paper's site is http://www.freep.com

:rofl:

Free Republic, I guess, is something else. I haven't visited that site yet. Maybe someday.

[CreekDog]

36. Well shucks, I'm gonna be on the mods u-know-what list

Anyway, the Demopedia has some entries on this including what to watch for.

[catmandu57]

33. There have been freepers here

Since inception or shortly thereafter. Think of DU as am atom, for every positive there is a negative, after a while you get good at spotting disruptive posts, either ignore it, or alert on it.
We have very good moderators, they'll take care of things, by the way a belated welcome home.

[bigtree]

35. folks here use republican talking points all of the time here

it doesn't make them republicans, it just points up the spreading effect of such propaganda.

We don't really need ANOTHER thread casting suspicions on DUers

[CreekDog]

40. Not casting aspersions on DU'ers

And arguing against a candidate was not an example of what I was noticing on the Gore threads yesterday.

I'm not expecting DU'ers to have an 11th commandment or walk in lockstep, but if someone has one position then changes it and is quoting RW talking points. I can't say for sure, but it sure made me wonder.

It's either a testament to DU or to my innattentiveness that it's taken me almost 4 years of membership here to notice this.

[The Straight Story]

39. I would rather see people discuss the merit of something than label it a talking point - cop out

Data is data - and it's source is not the main issue, the data is. If it is flawed show that, but simply dismissing something with a label seems like cut and run :rofl:

Al Gore is not perfect - neither is Obama, etc. And during the primaries using data to evaluate seems logical, even if the source is suspect if the information is true what difference does it make where it comes from (and the Gore stuff might have later been picked up by KOS, then discussed on AAR, and the would it be laundered enough that we can post it here and discuss?)

The RW blows off attacks all the time based on source and not substance, and I think they are wrong for that (and blind obviously).

[patrice]

48. That's why I say we should have freepers here. Let's address the information.

The truth is, by definition, inevitable. If we make it the highest priority, and not get side-tracked, it will reveal itself. This is one of the things that I think is unique about DU.

[sakabatou]

47. They come here

Unfortunately, they don't with much or anything at all.

[ScreamingMeemie]

51. Strap yourself in.

When the primaries heat up it will be even worse.