Herschel Walker Debunks Evolution

[K Graham]

Herschel Walker Skeptical Of Evolution: 'Why Are There Still Apes? Think About It'

OMG does being ridiculously stupid something that naturally comes with being a Conservative these days?

[Res Ipsa]

Hey Kevin. Serious question. How does this thread differ from one of Mike’s progressive trolling threads?

[K Graham]

Hey Kevin. Serious question. How does this thread differ from one of Mike’s progressive trolling threads?

Well, for one I actually watch the videos and read the articles I post. This is also current, not something I dug up from 12 years ago. I was hoping this would spark a debate over evolution because some of my favorite debates have been on that subject, but haven't seen one in years. Walker is also running for Senate in my home state, so I have a vested interest in seeing this wife beating moron lose his bid to overtake Warnock.

ETA: I don't mind his threads like "Hannity is brilliant" or "cops are awesome." I see these things as a teachable moment. If he starts a thread discussing the glorious character of cops, cool. I'll address that subject directly with more evidence to the contrary.

My issue with AM was his refusal to engage in any meaningful discussion and the way he'd hyper-spam the main page with a dozen new threads for the sole purpose of pushing all the good threads down to page two.

[Res Ipsa]

Hey Kevin. Serious question. How does this thread differ from one of Mike’s progressive trolling threads?

Well, for one I actually watch the videos and read the articles I post. This is also current, not something I dug up from 12 years ago. I was hoping this would spark a debate over evolution because some of my favorite debates have been on that subject, but haven't seen one in years.

I certainly didn’t read it as an invitation to debate. I read it as “Look how dumb Republicans are.” Which is indistinguishable from “Look how stupid progressives are.” It looks intended to provoke an emotional response rather than start an actual conversation. Put another way, were I a conservative, I’d absolutely consider this trolling.

As one of the three people with the authority to address the trolling situation, I’m going to need to treat trolling in a consistent manner going forward. It’s a little difficult for me to think of a fair, principled definition of trolling that wouldn’t apply to your OP.

Just something to think about.

[K Graham]

Well, for one I actually watch the videos and read the articles I post. This is also current, not something I dug up from 12 years ago. I was hoping this would spark a debate over evolution because some of my favorite debates have been on that subject, but haven't seen one in years.

I certainly didn’t read it as an invitation to debate. I read it as “Look how dumb Republicans are.” Which is indistinguishable from “Look how stupid progressives are.” It looks intended to provoke an emotional response rather than start an actual conversation. Put another way, were I a conservative, I’d absolutely consider this trolling.

As one of the three people with the authority to address the trolling situation, I’m going to need to treat trolling in a consistent manner going forward. It’s a little difficult for me to think of a fair, principled definition of trolling that wouldn’t apply to your OP.

Just something to think about.

Dunno, I've posted things like this for years and have never been accused of trolling. I explained why its not trolling, but you can take it or leave it I guess.

[Res Ipsa]

We’ve never had a rule against trolling per se. I understand and appreciate the distinctions you pointed out, but I don’t think they get to the essence of trolling, which is posting to provoke a strong emotional response in others. I appreciate your feedback, as it helps me think about how best to go forward.

[honorentheos]

I appreciate the discussion on the topic in this thread. It strikes me that this is exactly the challenges that come from horizontal thinking, where similar behaviours are believed to be qualitatively different for subjective reasons. Does this style of spamming the board require a new rule? I don't know. Faqs was put on queue and limited to posting freely in a lower forum when he abused the free access to starting new topics in the main non-Mormon forum. And that took judgement, maybe longer for action to occur than most preferred, and had the moderator team been empowered to act then it would likely have been a much earlier decision.

[honorentheos]

To add to this, how does one make a rule that effectively encourages discussion while not also prohibiting the sharing of news where the board does benefit from someone bringing something to our collective attention? The behavior has nuance to it, and in many ways I think Res keyed in on why (how it reads to the target as largely ridicule of the party behind the topic more than the topic itself being presented in a way the engages whether or not the OP intends it that way explicitly or it just reflects their thinking on the subject). Maybe the moderators can codify that. I don't know. It seems to me that trying to legislate is very hard precisely for the same reasons writing robot code is difficult. There are so many things that have to be written into the code that get taken for granted when a person acts in order to translate it successfully into commands. A.I. helps precisely because it helps establish parameters through mechanisms other than direct command. Something to think about, I suppose.

[K Graham]

We’ve never had a rule against trolling per se. I understand and appreciate the distinctions you pointed out, but I don’t think they get to the essence of trolling, which is posting to provoke a strong emotional response in others. I appreciate your feedback, as it helps me think about how best to go forward.

I can see why you'd think that, but in all honesty this wasn't an attempt to provoke Mike. As he so often reminds us, this forum is made up of mostly Left leaning individuals, and I figured he'd moved on after recent moderation changes. Perhaps the only person here who would take issue with what I said is Mike, but I've made many such posts over the years that brought in commentary from folks who agree with my sentiments.

But as I was telling Tarski* last night, I really do miss the evolution debates. But its hard to have a debate on evolution if no one is willing to engage. In terms of "why are apes still around?" that was a question I asked many years ago when I was a Republican trying to be witty. I really didn't understand evolution at all, and learned so much from it by watching scientists like The Dude and Tarski expound on the subject.

[Res Ipsa]

It might just be habit, Kevin. But it’s worth thinking about. Could you have done the same thing without labeling all Republicans as morons?