ANTHOLOGY of Direct Personal Insults, from Clinton threads.
Doug, you note (correctly) that the Clinton threads are extremely contentious, and then say that you see a difference in style between the two basic camps (which I will call the Keep Him In crowd, and the Throw Him Out crowd).
There are many ways of making oneself disagreeable, of course, and I am not sure who should take the over-all honors. In the Direct Personal Insult category, however, a cursory examination of the two main Clinton threads indicates that the Throw Him Out crowd wins hands down. Only one poster in the Keep Him In crowd used personal insults extensively. Ahem -- 'twas you, doug, but you did so in a single missive to a single person (lost your cool, tsk, tsk),and so your insults are all grouped together.
The following is a list of such insults from messages posted within the last week. Note that some -- like the term "liberal," for example -- would normally not be considered insults, but are considered to be such by the person using them.
To qualify, the Direct Personal Insult must be aimed specifically at the person being posted to, not at Clinton/Starr/Gingrich/Democrats/Republicans/the religious right/anyone else with whom the person being posted to may sympathize. A ten-paragraph post that IMPLIES that the recipient is an idiot, or an evil-doer, or a whatever, does not qualify either, if it does not say so SPECIFICALLY.
The lists begin with adjectives; nouns follow, and then whole sentences or phrases.
What I found interesting -- and encouraging -- was the fact that a very small minority of posters actually use the Direct Personal Insult. (As a matter of fact, a single individual was responsible for 50% of the total insults collected below.) There are so few of them that perhaps they will agree to tone things down a bit.
Here goes. (The lists begin with adjectives; nouns follow, and then whole sentences or phrases.)
Here goes.
KEEP HIM IN CROWD.
pompous
self-righteous
mean-spirited & nasty (my contribution, I'll admit it)
dense
moralizing
small-minded/fundamentalist bigot/pea-brained low-earning jerko/ill-educated fly/religious bigoted bore/silly uneducated ideas
bitbrain
loving and understanding Christian contingent
a common right-wing wacko slur
"you are greatly disturbed..."
"America is no longer fertile soil for your bigoted fundamentalist poison."
THROW HIM OUT CROWD.
delusional
self-righteous
bigoted
pompous
idiotic (many entries)
hypocritical (many entries)
pathetic..and liberal
obviously and hopelessly liberal and left-wing
invincibly ignorant
sanctimonious
your idiocy..
pompous idiot
moral relativist
spineless relativist
hate monger
religion hater
blind zealot
rabid socialist
mean woman
rank hypocrite
shallow, dishonest person
cretin/piece of excrement
"You're a liberal!!! You're also a nut!!!"
"You follow orders well."
"Your intellect is underwhelming."
"You are a very clear example...of those who believe in nothing."
"You sound confused about ethics...You could have had a rousing career in the peak years of the Roman Empire."
"You're suffering from delusions. Are you on acid?"
"...all the nonsensical fluff you try to pass off as reasonable discourse.."
"When it comes to intelligent argument, he's bankrupt."
"You lack the basic building blocks of intelligent discourse.."
Comment. That's really not such a long list, after all. I guess the point is that the effect of Direct Personal Insults is out of all proportion to their actual quantity. They are real thread polluters.
jbe
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