a second gentle reminder

David_Snowball

Hi, guys.

I'm often reminded of the quip, attributed to Dorothy Parker. When she was told that Calvin Coolidge had died, she asked "how could they tell?"

Chip and I are out of town for the next week, visiting her family and providing post-operative supportive for a family member. I'll be working on this August issue, but mostly trying to stay in the here and now.

As others have noted, there's been a regrettable upsurge in churlishness lately. Please stop. If you can't stop yourself, please use some venue other than public postings to be churlish.

As a reminder, I am deeply appreciative of Ted's myriad posts. They are invaluable. That said, neither Ted nor any other member of the community moderates the board or has the power to get anyone banned. In four-plus years, I've banned precisely one person (the weird guy who created five identities so that he could post supportive comments about himself) and put two people (including a senior member of the board) into the moderation queue. The queue is a sort of time-out for the petulant, which requires post by post approval of anything that goes on the board. One of the two moderated members left.

As a second reminder, I lack both the time and inclination to be an active moderator here. Sorry, but that's the reality of it. Mostly I try to set a good example, encourage civility and stay out of the way. If folks believe that an active moderator would materially strengthen the health of the board, the community should pick someone and we'll give that person the power to edit / close / delete. We've made the offer in the past and it's not be widely supported, but it's always open.

We live in interesting times. I have no doubt that we've always had, in our local and national communities, a wealth of people with angry, pinched and bitter opinions. Technology now gives them a voice that they've not had, and a visibility that they may well not warrant. Please resist the temptation to emulate people who you wouldn't want to be.

Be safe and take great care,

David

johnN

Hi sir... Thx for everything
Have a great deserved break/ trip... Thx
When the cats are away the mouses mice come out and play

larryB

I was not sure if this was a closed thread since not one comment had appeared until now. But since I see it is open I would like to concur with John N. and thank David for providing this forum. I am sure it takes plenty of time and energy to sustain this endeavor. On the other hand if it weren't for folks sharing their knowledge, their links and their passion this website would be an empty shell. I hope some of you who know David can explain to me who are " people with angry, pinched and bitter opinions." And what the hell is a pinched opinion?

davidrmoran

I do not know the guy in any way other than many, but pinched here means strained, stressed, tense, with overlay of niggardly

As for your general question, re 'I have no doubt that we've always had, in our local and national communities, a wealth of people with angry, pinched and bitter opinions', seriously? These days?

Old_Joe

I found David's use of "pinched" to be interesting also, and interpreted it to suggest an opinion which is "narrow-minded, unable or unwilling to consider or appreciate other points of view which might be reasonably inferred from a given set of facts".

Crash

David KNOWS a LOTTA shit! A colleague of mine from Iowa just shared with me last week that he took his undergrad. degree from Augustana. I smile at the connexion.

hank

Old_Joe said:

I found David's use of "pinched" to be interesting also, and interpreted it to suggest an opinion which is "narrow-minded, unable or unwilling to consider or appreciate other points of view which might be reasonably inferred from a given set of facts".

Trying to unearth the meaning of “pinched” by means of a dictionary or thesaurus (as I attempted) will drive ya nuts. It can mean just about anything the writer intends, and is more often used in verb form rather than as an adjective. However, I agree with Old Joe’s interpretation. Most likely it references those with narrow and uncompromising points of view.

As an aside, it occurred to me that the idea of having an “ignore” button here might well shepard us into two opposing camps, much the way the cable networks have done, where each side listens only to the views it already agrees with.

FWIW.

Crash

Yes, your aside is correct, methinks.

LewisBraham

I remain against an active moderator with power to edit or delete posts. I doubt even Solomon could govern any modern discussion board wisely. It’s when the discourse becomes ad hominem that is a problem and I think people should just complain when it does as they already have been. I also think finance and economics impinge upon politics by their nature. So such discussions should be allowed provided they don’t turn into ad hominem attacks.

JoeD

Never have I seen our country so divided. It shows in the anger of many political posts, and the need to take sides and stick with them (no matter what outrageous moves the POTUS makes).

In some ways it is therapeutic to voice our individual concerns, but it is difficult to contain the frustration. I admit to feeling helpless to stop what I view as our country falling down a rabbit hole.

As for Mr. Snowball's comments on Ted:
"As a reminder, I am deeply appreciative of Ted's myriad posts. They are invaluable."

I am not sure all would agree, but hey, it's your website after all.

Crash

I don't condemn Ted's multiple posts, even if they're not about funds, explicitly. If we limited ourselves to funds ONLY, the board would be rather dead, most of the time, I think. As long as they're related to the economy, ok. And investing. And as has been noted before, political issues can almost always impinge upon investing, and our own investing decisions. I don't appreciate his high-handed assumptions and holier than thou remarks. @JoeD is quite correct. The USA is truly and seriously divided. Were we this divided prior to the Civil War?

Policy discussions are one thing. But (as I myself have said here before:) it leaves me breathless and horrified that so many voters chose the Trumpster despite his obvious and transparent childish bluster and moral vapidity.

larryB

@Crash."it leaves me breathless and horrified that so many voters chose the trumpster." Me too. But how do you feel about about them now after everything that has happened and the still support him? That is even scarier. And the fact that the repuglicans are unwilling to put the country first. It's amazing those folks think they own patriotism. Hardly a time to feel good about putting new capital to work.

Old_Joe

"It's amazing those folks think they own patriotism."

Not just amazing, actually extremely insulting.

davidrmoran

neverending Woodstock payback, I call it

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2018/07/21/feature/god-trump-and-the-meaning-of-morality/

larryB

@ davidrmoran. Read that link. Wanna puke. Those folks are racists first,,,,, second and third. If orange monster loved all the people he hates, those crackers would not support him for thirty seconds. Woodstock has nothing to do with why those "citizens" support him. Hatred does. They hate gays, blacks, imigrants, and anyone who is not like them; he gives them cover for their meanness and fear. But Woodstock and the sixties,,,,,not so much.

Crash

Can't find a source behind Wa-Po's pay-wall.

Crash

Woodstock.... HOW????

davidrmoran

Woodstock embodied the opposite of all this stuff today, which had its wider origins then, Silent Majority (later the Moral Majority), age divisions, Agnew and Buchanan, culture wars, all that. It is interesting to watch the movie today even skipping the music.

larryB

During the war(Vietnam) that was true. Watch easy rider. Todays culture wars are about race, xenophobia and homophobia. When was the last time you heard a maga talk about long hair?.hell,,,, plenty of magas in their pick ups with Confederate flags flying have long hair,love rock and roll and smoke dope. Your culture war analysis is WAY out dated.

Crash

I do see a connexion, though. Thanks for the notes, guys. The particulars change/evolve. But the right-wing reactionary behavior is still in evidence. While the forest gets missed for the trees. Ask me sometime about my analysis of "No Country For Old Men."

davidrmoran

Values and attitudes origins. I would suggest your view of that time is narrow and perhaps influenced by media stereotyping (Easy Rider is, simpleminded, feelgood).

Crash

davidrmoran said:

Values and attitudes origins. I would suggest your view of that time is narrow and perhaps influenced by media stereotyping (Easy Rider is, simpleminded, feelgood).

But this one will never die. The Band is the best band ever, since the start of the rock-and-roll era. It carries a certain symmetry for me, that Levon Helm is buried near Rick Danko, in the same graveyard in Woodstock. Just saw daughter Amy Helm perform. Great talent. And nobody's perfect: I hate and detest those infernal, damned two-wheeled noise machines.

larryB

David,,,, I lived in the sixties. Got clean for Gene,,, worked in a federal anti poverty program,, marched many times against the war. I know what motivated the other side back then,,,,I know what motivates magas today. IT IS NOT BALANCED BUDGET, STANDING UP TO RUSSIA OR PROTECTING OUR DEMOCRACY. Take a listen to the red meat he throws out to his base,,,, it's plain old hate and fear and it's not about long haired dope smokers.its roots go back to the southern strategy and Lee Atwater. Look it up.

Crash

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy

Crash

"Values and attitudes ORIGINS." What is the (common) matrix in this case?

larryB

Levon Helm is the best!

Crash

larryB said:

Levon Helm is the best!

+1.

Old_Joe

"As a reminder, I am deeply appreciative of Ted's myriad posts. They are invaluable."

For a more detailed history of this relationship, see my post A bit of MFO History

davidrmoran

@lB, you don't have to trot out your credentials to me or tell me to look anything up. I was fully there too, believe me. We disagree, deeply. You are certainly free not to see it as a long continuum of red meat and reaction then to red meat and reaction now.

@Crash, unclear on matrix, but the underlying issues center on change, and even more the feeling of being condescended to / looked down on / disapproved of / feeling told to change from 'wrongness' to wokeness.

There are lots of related matters, of course.

Interesting no one has yet mentioned sexism.

Amazing 'The Weight' was used in Easy Rider, I always thought, since that song is all about obligation and obligations.

LewisBraham

The Southern Baptist church has long been associated with the racial divide, even before Woodstock and the Civil rights movement, but LBJ’s policies cemented its political role: https://google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/chrisladd/2017/03/27/pastors-not-politicians-turned-dixie-republican/amp/

larryB

@Davidrmoran. I appreciate the concept of "the long continuum" more than you know. As such the arc of the story of racism and xenophobia is a very long one.

America's war on people of color and those new
here is very old. The current president uses it to fire up his base. The war on the Woodstock generation was just a blip in history.and that war was lost. Weed is legal,,, rock and roll is here to stay and even repuglicans like sex. So I stand by my point that Woodstock is no tool for firing up the fools in maga hats. Hatred is that tool.