kentuck (70,566 posts) http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024991522
In what ways has DU changed over the years?
I can recall when DU was the 10% that disagreed with Democratic and Republican Parties on the war in Iraq and the majority support for President George W Bush. That was an eternity ago.
Over the years, it seems to me that DU has become more partisan and less ideological. A few issues have become untouchable over the years, as DU has evolved into its present state. The Party is much more important now than in the early years and less open to criticism, in my opinion.
What changes have you noticed?
I believe we may need to help them.
sabrina 1 (43,875 posts)
139. Our policies now affect the whole world. In fact many people from around the world
feel they should have a say in any policies anywhere, that directly affect their countries and people.
Eg, we are spying on the whole world. We are waging wars all over the planet.
We have military bases in every corner of the world.
Our economic policies if you can call them that, crashed the economies of the world.
I doubt anyone would care what we were doing if they were not feeling the results of our policies.
If we decide to stop being an Empire and go back to minding our own business, maybe then we can tell people from other places to mind THEIR own business, but so long as were are all over the globe, in most cases adversely affecting other sovereign nations, they DO have a right to have their say.
I got no clue what she is on about.
1StrongBlackMan (10,931 posts)
2. The site is far more Libertarian ...
the anti-republican site that I originally joined.
KoKo (76,038 posts)
32. You joined DU in July, 2011...unless you were here under another name?
So what would you know of the history unless you'd been here before?
From your profile:
Member since: Tue Jul 5, 2011, 10:42 PM
Bunch of bitchy women, I swear.
1StrongBlackMan (10,931 posts)
48. Actually I was here shortly after you ..
Though under another name. I made a mistake of arguing something that I won't even touch on again.
U4ikLefty (3,198 posts)
49. prove it
Do they really thing the black guy is a mole? Isn't that racist or something?
Liberal_Stalwart71 (16,196 posts)
190. Prove what? To you? You don't get to demand anything of anyone unless you're a moderator!
For your information, it is not uncommon for people to lurk for awhile--in fact for months, even years--before joining a website. I lurked for several years before finally joining.
Keep your demands to yourself.
1StrongBlackMan has every right to be here and/or lurk if he wants to.
Good God are they paranoid or what?
MannyGoldstein (26,947 posts)
151. Can you give examples of Libertarian issues that are popular here?
Thanks.
1StrongBlackMan (10,931 posts)
172. I would point to ...
the general elevation of "individual liberties", as issues of paramount concern over any/everything else ... gun control opposition and snowden/greenwald support versus combatting racist/sexist inequities comes immediately to mind.
Maeve (28,679 posts)
10. A higher percentage of male posters
In the early days, many women came here to post because we could do so without getting jumped on or patronized...I swear, back in the DU1 days it seemed like 60%+ female. That was what made me comfortable posting here.
And since it was smaller, it felt more like family. We could celebrate milestone posts and greet every new member. We weren't as splintered into groups, true...we didn't have enough people dedicated to single issues to split into the topics we have now. Then came the I/P forum and the Gungeon, and all the individual forums (fora ? Nah, stick with the English plural!) And with more people, more groups, more partisan bickering (although that has grown in the society as a whole these past years, too)
Nah, you were all just bitchy and whiny. You just thought you were all fems...
YvonneCa (9,207 posts)
11. DUers used to cite sources...
...more often during issue/policy discussions. A few still do, but not as often.
Le Taz Hot (17,610 posts)
12. Less REALLY GOOD, professional posters.
There used to be posters on DU that could easily have been journalists (perhaps some were) and/or professional writers.
There were many more intellectual debates as opposed to Democrats Good. Everything Else Bad. <grunt>
There were FAR fewer blind partisans (which explains more intellectual debate).
I think The Lounge has actually changed for the better. The Lounge used to be one big clique and, for that reason, I didn't go there for probably 10 years. Used to be if you weren't one of The Lounge Lizards, you posted a thread and it would just sink. Literally, people wouldn't respond to a thread or even a post. They'd obsess with GD and look down their nose at anyone who wasn't a Lounge Lizard. I've actually been posting in the Lounge lately which I haven't done in a LONG time.
Just a few of my observations.
Liberal_Stalwart71 (16,196 posts)
13. Latent racism in Liberal America has come to the surface and slapped many
of us squarely in the face!
People used to be far more nuanced and intelligent in their arguments. Now it's straw men, circular reasoning, red herrings, and ad hominem attacks.
Finally, I am baffled by how many simply do not know how our political system or government works. I'm frankly shocked by this. And it's getting worse, not better.
kentuck (70,566 posts)
14. Very true.
A black President has awakened the latent racism.
Hekate (25,001 posts)
15. What changes have I seen? Amnesia about the long-term impact of the Bush/Cheney years.
Willingness to throw good members of the Administration under the bus as soon as they are targeted by the Congressional GOP or FOX. Amnesia regarding the established history of those two entities.
To point any of this out here as either a defense or mitigating factor in Obama's record is to be derided as an authority-worshipping, cult-of-personality, BOGger.
Anything else you'd like to ask?
I would say blindness for anything this administration does, which if Bush had even thought about it DU would have been screaming from the rafters for someone's head on a pike.
2banon (3,119 posts)
16. It's not the site, but the evolution of conscientiousness or a growing awareness....
of vital issues concerning all manner of humanity along with a keener awareness of Class oppression vis a vis the Korporate State controlling, or controlled by both parties (a very mixed bag of evil putrid dog shite of the 1%), enforced by a Police State Security apparatus resembling the Stasi regime in significant ways. During dumbya's regime, the rank and file activists had their hair on fire about our civil liberties among all of the issues we're still very concerned about. Everyone was a "libertarian" then.
To a person the Patriot Act was EVIL: and must be stopped.
Many of us had already self identified as Socialist Libertarians, we hoped that with a new Constitutional Lawyer as President, most if not all of these draconian policies imposed by the Bush administration would be repealed but we quickly learned most of these wouldn't even be addressed.
For some here, it seems that if the one in office has a D beside their name, whatever policy that was ****ed up during Bush's regime, is okay now. And anyone that has a problem with that, must be an evil "libertarian".
The kind of dishonesty is really perplexing to say the least.
What did I just say?
slipslidingaway (18,631 posts)
42. More conservative, less open minded and slanted more towards the Party line ...
frankly it is kind of sad.
Algernon Moncrieff (109 posts)
43. Time was this site was run from a log cabin that Skinner and EarlG built with their own two hands
Elad programmed all of the original code by the light of a kerosene lantern.
Back in those early days, discussions about how Ralph Nader impacted Al Gore's Presidential bid were occasionally colored by remembrances of those who lived in the heady days when Robert Lafollette ran as a Progressive, and de-railed the Democratic candidacy of John W. Davis in the re-election of Calvin Coolidge.
True story, bro.
Cali_Democrat (20,320 posts)
69. "The Party is much more important now than in the early years and less open to criticism"
So ****ing true, kentuck.
Barack Obama and other leaders of the Democratic Party like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi rarely get criticized here.
It's nearly impossible to criticize people like Hillary. She gets a virtual pass here while people like Sanders and Warren are attacked relentlessly.
It's a damn shame.
