There seems to be a trend of being overly polite and promoting stupidity on ATS

I will do my best to present my case with relevant information and facts without bashing ATS or sounding like I am whining.

I see a real problem on ATS where the motto, "deny ignorance" cannot be met. The problem is that we do not have the ability to do so, because as you know, if you belittle someone, you are breaking the rules.


When someone says something particularly stupid, that person should be laughed at and shunned, yet lately I have seen cases where moderators have gone so far as to hand out warnings to people that were simply debunking ignorant posts. Thus, ATS is allowing dumb people to spew garbage unopposed.


In a thread about the ISS and debris hitting it, I watched a real gem along the lines of this.

I don't know why everyone is so worried about that rocket hitting the ISS, there's no gravity in space, means no damage, it just bumps off

The word retard was used and a warning was issued. My jaw hit the floor when I read that thread, the ignorance the...sheer stupidity of that poster. Yet the rules protected that dumb guy.

I think the problem is that everyone thinks their debunking is the right kind of debunking. Also, seeing as how I read an earlier post where people were complaining that they got kicked off of ATS chat for using the words Shih Tzu and Cocktail, I guess ATS wants to censor bad words. It's not ATS, it's our entire politically correct society. I can say that someone's post is unintelligent and illogically based, but I can not call them a 'name.' I suppose it's polite, we should attack the arguments and not use words like 'retard' since that does not really get us anywhere. Whatever, just a slick way of restricting our freedom of speech, which is supposed to protect unpopular speech as well. It starts off small, where it's not polite to call someone a racial stereotype, then you can't insult someone's intelligence, pretty soon you can't state historical facts because someone might get offended. If ATS wants to be fair, they should punish people who call others 'kooks' or 'toofers' or 'anti-semites' as severely as they do for people who use idiot, retard, etc. I guess that is bad news for the government sponsored debunkers.

[edit on 3-7-2010 by filosophia]

I believe the problem may be able to be relieved somewhat by relaxing the rules for people that can clearly debunk a dumb post, allowing for stronger wording.


Allow me to illustrate how this might work



A guy posts a thread titled "Gravity is not real, we are just magnetic and the earth is a giant electromagnet"

Under the current rules I would be pushing the rules by replying, "That's dumb!"
I would be breaking the rules by saying, "You are dumb!" If the rules were reworded a bit, we could much more effectively shut down dumb threads full of dumb people.

Under revised rules one could say,

Your thread is dumb, your theory is stupid, you lack a basic understanding of physics and gravity.

Those are fantastic claims and should still be against the rules as it is name calling, but, if the claim was expanded upon

Your thread is dumb, your theory is stupid, you lack a basic understanding of physics and gravity.
Matter contains mass, the earth contains enough mass to keep you down.
see en.wikipedia.org...
and
here link to second source

Thus the crazy guy got exposed and his credibility shattered, his days of posting stupidity are over. in this way, we can allow for a bit of bashing when it can be proven conclusively that someone is spouting garbage.


What are your thoughts?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

happy feet the thread I have posted above is the first time I ever remember meeting you, I believe your the third post down, and although I thought it was a dumb post and because that is the only time I have ever encountered you i'm not a big fan of you, I agree with you 100% on this thread! So S&F for you, you hit the nail on the head.

The attitude you are trying to promote does nothing but make you look more the fool.

If you see an ignorant or ill-informed post or notice a member does not have all the facts or basic knowledge about a subject,the least you could do is help educate them without destroying there confidence.

Call ME stupid, but if you are wishing you could have the freedom to engage in name calling, I'm sure there is a playground somewhere near where you live.
It IS possible to refute ideas you think are stupid maturely and with sting.
Calling someone a "retard" (sic) reveals more about you than who the name is being thrown at.

For those of you who say that one should not stoop to namecalling, you must understand that the term "retard" was simple an example I was using.

If you called someone:
Ignorant
Racist
Communist
Foolish
Drunk

you are breaking the rules, even if someone is any of those things.

if you said someone's post is:
Ignorant
Racist
Foolish
Dumb
Stupid
Retarded
Dumbest thing I ever read.
Lacks basic punctuation.
Lacks a basic understanding.

You may be breaking the rules.(depending on the attitude of the moderators that is based directly off of how much coffee they have had.)

Instead, I am suggesting that you can call someone ignorant, provided you prove your point and back up your claim.

Well,I know what you mean.

I read a post where the person was adamant that the melting ice in the north and south poles would dilute the salt water in the ocean.

It does not take a genius to know that all rivers that flow in to the worlds oceans add BILLIONS of gallons of FRESH water per hour.

I believe that the owners put Deny Ignorance as their motto as a joke.

I did not respond to their assertion,I was really afraid I would get warned or banned,if I expressed my true thoughts.

[edit on 4-7-2010 by Oneolddude]

reply to post by Oneolddude


I like it, the motto is a joke.