If you're not sure what we're all about, and want to know more before taking the next step and registering for a membership, we at Liberal-Pride.org hereby offer you the following guided tour.
Member Services & Non-Political Discussion - This is where you'll find things such as forum-wide news, a break from the daily grind of endless debate and bickering over politics, and your means to make your voice heard in the shaping and improvement of the forum. It has several forums and subforums to help you get situated. They are:
Member Services - This is where you can get started as a member of the forum. Here you will find Announcements, where you shall find news about forum updates; Introductions, where new members request their member groups and say hello; and Member Input, where members may constructively critique the forum and add ideas for how it may be improved upon.
Idle Conversation - This is where members may discuss anything non-political. Chat about music, sports, movies, general life stuff, tell jokes, or whatever.
Political Discussion Area - The main discussion area of the forum, the meat and potatoes of Liberal Pride, if you will. Here you will find:
Air America Radio - Listen Live! - Where you can tune in to the live 'net broadcast of Air America Radio.
Breaking News & Current Events - Members may post breaking news items and other events happening throughout the country and world.
General Political Discussion - This is the main forum for discussing general political, philosophical, and ideological issues.
Op-Eds & Other Reading Material - We love news as much as anyone else, but it mustn't be confused with opinion pieces, political books, magazines and theses. So here is where members may discuss op-eds, books, theses, magazine columns, and any other political opinions and material.
Gloves Off - We know arguments can and often do get heated from time to time, and sometimes people just need a place to vent their anger, frustration and general fuckery someplace where they won't necessarily be penalized for it. Bear in mind, though, that the rules pertaining to racist and homophobic remarks still apply here.
Progressive & Liberal Area - An area open to liberal and progressive members. Only members of the Liberal member group (as well as administrators and moderators) may post here, though others may read posts. It is comprised of the following subforums:
Activism Discussion - Where progressives and liberals may discuss, plan, coordinate, and organize political activism.
Progressive and Liberal Discussion - No group agrees entirely upon every issue, and the progressive-liberal ideology is no exception. Here is where we debate amongst ourselves.
Candidate and Political Web Sites - We here at Liberal-Pride.org believe in promoting progressive candidates and causes. This is where we have re-direct links to various candidate and political party web sites.
Conservative Discussion Area - While this web site caters primarily to Progressives and Liberals, we feel we would be remiss if we did not offer a small place where conservatives may debate and discuss topics amongst themselves. It contains the Conservative Debate and Discussion subforum. Only members of the Conservative member group (as well as administrators and moderators) may post here, though others may read posts.
Zombies of the Blogosphere! - The name of this forum is a pun on an old Republic Serial of the 1940s. It is where you may find RSS Feeds to various blog entries, and discuss the topics therein. It has three subforums:
Blogger Community Diarists - Here you will find RSS Feeds to members from such web sites as EENR, Docudharma, and Daily Kos.
Miscellaneous Bloggers - This is where we keep re-direct links to, and post/discuss entries from, various bloggers whose work catches our attention.
The Trash Bin - This is where we keep our forum refuse. Yeah, yeah, we know, sounds vulgar, doesn't it? But that's essentially what it is. Why call it something else? Anywhere, this section contains the following:
Troll Confinement Area - We here at Liberal-Pride.org do not generally ban disruptive members, unless circumstances are so extreme as to warrant such action. Instead, we prefer to restrict habitually disruptive members to this area, where they may be rehabilitated or else kept safely away from the rest of the membership (though regular members may post here in order to help trolls rehabilitate themselves).
Liberal Pride Archives - This is where we dump old threads, threads that have so violated forum rules as to warrant their removal from the general forum, and so forth. We also dump spam posts here.
This concludes the guided tour of the board itself. Now you know where things are located, what function they serve, and what have you.
You might be wondering, after reading the guidelines pertaining to honesty, how it might be possible to adhere to it. After all, one may ask, aren't honesty and dishonesty subjective terms? Isn't one person's truth another person's lie? The short answer is, "no, they are not subjective." The long answer is outlined below. By learning to differentiate fact from opinion, and truth from deception, it is possible to figure out which is which and when it is or isn't being applied to debate.
Merriam Webster's Dictionary defines Truth thusly:
Main Entry: truth
Pronunciation: 'trüth
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural truths /'trü[th]z, 'trüths/
Etymology: Middle English trewthe, from Old English trEowth fidelity; akin to Old English trEowe faithful
1 a archaic : FIDELITY, CONSTANCY b : sincerity in action, character, and utterance
2 a (1) : the state of being the case : FACT (2) : the body of real things, events, and facts : ACTUALITY (3) often capitalized : a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality b : a judgment, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted as true c : the body of true statements and propositions
3 a : the property (as of a statement) of being in accord with fact or reality b chiefly British : TRUE 2 c : fidelity to an original or to a standard
4 capitalized, Christian Science : GOD
- in truth : in accordance with fact : ACTUALLY
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English lEogan; akin to Old High German liogan to lie, Old Church Slavic lugati
intransitive verb
1 : to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive
2 : to create a false or misleading impression
transitive verb : to bring about by telling lies [lied his way out of trouble]
synonyms LIE, PREVARICATE, EQUIVOCATE, PALTER, FIB mean to tell an untruth. LIE is the blunt term, imputing dishonesty [lied about where he had been]. PREVARICATE softens the bluntness of LIE by implying quibbling or confusing the issue [during the hearings the witness did his best to prevaricate]. EQUIVOCATE implies using words having more than one sense so as to seem to say one thing but intend another [equivocated endlessly in an attempt to mislead her inquisitors]. PALTER implies making unreliable statements of fact or intention or insincere promises [a swindler paltering with his investors]. FIB applies to a telling of a trivial untruth [fibbed about the price of the new suit].
So how does one tell, especially on an Internet discussion forum, if someone is lying or telling the truth? For that matter, how does one differentiate fact from opinion? And why is this important? Well, these questions are about to be answered.
1.) Separating Truth from lies.
Distinguishing Truth from lies really isn't as difficult as it might at first appear. With a little research, and some deductive reasoning, it becomes easier to find out if someone is telling the truth or if he is lying. We can do this by examining the different kinds of lies. They are:
Lies of Omission - Leaving out facts that contradict or weaken one's argument. If someone omits facts that contradict or weaken an argument but cannot or will not give a reasonable answer as to why the information was omitted, chances are they're not being honest.
Lies of Exaggeration - Puffing up actual facts in such a way as to distort them, to the point they are no longer facts.
Lies of Distortion - Twisting existing facts, statements or arguments in such a way as to obtain a false conclusion.
Lies of Fabrication - Manufacturing "facts" out of thin air.
Intentional - Deliberate dishonesty. This is when the liar knows the truth yet chooses to deceive anyway.
Unintentional - When someone makes an honest error, but out of sheer stubbornness refuses to correct himself. The mistake, then, becomes a lie borne of pride.
2.) Spotting dishonest tactics in arguments.
This, again, is pretty easy once you know how liars present their arguments. Their tactics are:
The Straw Man - A straw man argument is a logical fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position. To "set up a straw man" or "set up a straw-man argument" is to create a position that is easy to refute, then attribute that position to the opponent. A straw-man argument can be a successful rhetorical technique (that is, it may succeed in persuading people) but it is in fact misleading, because the opponent's actual argument has not been refuted.
Its name is derived from the practice of using straw men in combat training. In such training, a scarecrow is made in the image of the enemy with the single intent of attacking it. It is occasionally called a straw dog fallacy or a scarecrow argument.
Here's a good example of a straw man argument.
Assume that there was a very credible intelligence report that a hidden nuclear device or some other mass killing device would be set off sometime in the next few hours in some city in some country. Assume further that the authorities had in custody a person who definitely had knowledge of the bomb's location. Now here's the tough question. Should every possible option, including torture, be utilized to extract the information from the person? Or do the authorities do nothing and have many thousands, possibly millions, of people die?
The straw man argument is in presenting a false set of options. It's arguing that if someone is for or against a thing, then that person therefore must be for or against another thing. Obviously in a 'ticking time bomb' scenario, there is never an option to 'do nothing'. That's where the straw man tactic is revealed, in that false option. The tactic assumes that if you are against torture, therefore you must be against preventing terrorism. That's false and dishonest.
The Ad Hominem - An ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem (Latin, literally argument against the person), involves replying to an argument or assertion by attacking the person presenting the argument or assertion rather than the argument itself. It is a logical fallacy. Some examples of it include include the personal attack, when a personal attack is used to discredit a specific claim or assertion, and the you-too argument.
It includes ad hominem abusive (argumentum ad personam), ad hominem circumstantial (ad hominem circumstantiae), ad hominem tu quoque...
A good example of this is in replying to a set of statistics, "well, you can't trust this because it's written by a well-known liberal." The ad hominem here is in arguing as though the source's bias, real or perceived, and not any actual flaws in logic or methodology, is reason enough to dismiss an argument. Another example of an ad hominem is in responding to a statement by replying with something along the lines of, "well, that's what I would expect from liberals; they're all for legalized murder." Or, "you're [fill in the blank with your own insult-use your imagination]." In this fashion, someone who is dishonest can avoid having to respond to an argument by attacking the source. A prime example was the episode over the Texas Air National Guard memos CBS used in its 2004 60 Minutes segment about George W. Bush going AWOL for over a year. Because the shrub could not directly address his desertion, his campaign had to resort to attacking Dan Rather and CBS over a copy of the memos in question. Never mind that the memos were never conclusively proven to be fakes, never mind that the shrub couldn't account for his whereabouts in the 1970s - when he was supposed to be serving in the Texas Air National Guard. Because the message was unassailable, the messenger had to be discredited (by any and all means necessary).
The Dodge - Also known as The Evasion. This is when a person avoids answering questions or presenting facts with which to support his argument. It can be done a variety of ways, including (but not limited to): changing the subject; openly refusing to answer a particular question, challenge or charge; or refusing to answer questions, challenges or charges by denying that the other person has answered them. This last can also fall under the category Ad Hominem category, since it attacks a person rather than his argument.
When someone dodges you in a debate, in an attempt to avoid answering a direct question or challenge, he is displaying his intellectual cowardice. It's because he knows he cannot give an effective rebuttal. Bear in mind, however, that on an Internet discussion board there is no time limit on answering a post, and sometimes people miss things or get bored and quit a discussion. Give people time to answer. If after a few days you think someone is avoiding giving a response, feel free to raise the issue or send a private message reminding him. Just don't go overboard and use this as an excuse to harass someone; that's a sure-fire way to get yourself in hot water.
3. Distinguishing fact from opinion.
Webster's Dictionary defines 'fact' thusly:
Main Entry: fact
Pronunciation: 'fakt
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin factum, from neuter of factus, past participle of facere
1 : a thing done: as a obsolete : FEAT b : CRIME [accessory after the fact] c archaic : ACTION
2 archaic : PERFORMANCE, DOING
3 : the quality of being actual : ACTUALITY [a question of fact hinges on evidence]
4 a : something that has actual existence [space exploration is now a fact] b : an actual occurrence [prove the fact of damage]
5 : a piece of information presented as having objective reality
- in fact : in truth
Webster's Dictionary defines 'opinion' thusly:
Main Entry: opin·ion
Pronunciation: o-'pin-yun
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin opinion-, opinio, from opinari
1 a : a view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter b : APPROVAL, ESTEEM
2 a : belief stronger than impression and less strong than positive knowledge b : a generally held view
3 a : a formal expression of judgment or advice by an expert b : the formal expression (as by a judge, court, or referee) of the legal reasons and principles upon which a legal decision is based
An opinion may be based upon facts, other opinions, and yes, even lies. But it is not to be confused with a fact. A fact is raw information, a statistic or set of numbers, a quote or set of quotes accurately depicting what someone has stated, and so forth. If someone tries to pass opinion off as fact, or vice versa, he is not being honest.
By understanding how people may use dishonest tactics in a debate, you can better argue the truth, and call deception what it is. Why is this important? When you cut right to the chase it has to do with finding the Truth, whatever that may be. It's also a matter of courtesy to debate honestly, and it is insulting to lie to someone. As we here at Liberal-Pride.org want an elevated tone of discussion, dishonesty is frowned upon. It won't necessarily get someone sent to Troll Confinement if he or she is caught lying, but it does erode that person's credibility.
These are the main Member Groups: Progressive, Liberal, Socialist, Communist, Anarchist, Libertarian, Conservative, and Unassigned. Each group is designed to cater to the ideological beliefs of those requesting a political affiliation.
'Unassigned' is the default member group, the one everyone who registers initially falls under. The Progressive and Liberal, and the Conservative areas of the forum allow only members of those groups and their ideological counterparts to post in their respective forums (other than administrators and moderators, of course).
Unassigned members may read threads in those areas, but may not post messages in them. If you want to be able to post in either of the group-specific areas, you'll want to sign in. You can do this by going to the Introductions forum and posting an introductory thread requesting a change in your member group status.
If you don't want to be counted as a member of an ideological group, there's no need to request a member group change; the default user group is for those who don't fall neatly into either of the other ideological categories, or who want to avoid being labeled. It doesn't hurt to introduce yourself anyway, though, since as the forum grows people might want to know a little bit about you as a new member. There's no requirement for requesting a designated member group.
If you've checked out the Juke Box thread in Idle Conversation, you'll have noticed a lot of embedded YouTube videos. And you're probably wondering how to repeat this. It's easy. Say you have a YouTube video you want to embed. You simply take the URL of the video you want to add:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1a_ikfUico
And select the portion of the URL that comes after the = sign, like so: Y1a_ikfUico
Then you can add that to the following code tag:
[YouTube]Y1a_ikfUico[/YouTube]
And if you want to center it, you can simply add the align center tag, like so:
[center][YouTube]Y1a_ikfUico[/YouTube][/center]
The result should look like this:
Pretty cool, huh? If you use dial-up, though, you may want to just settle for linking to a YouTube video as loading videos can take forever on your browser.
Reform School is where consistently disruptive members are sent to be rehabilitated. In order to be restricted to this part of the forum, you have to really work at it. The process works like this: if a member violates a rule of the forum, a written warning or reminder is issued. This may be done in private, or in the forums, by an administrator or moderator. This resolves most issues, since most members do not go out of their way to break board rules. If, however, a member engages in repeated violations his warning level may be raised. If this fails to end the disruptive behavior, the member's group is changed to Reform School Student, and is restricted to the Reform School forum.
Once restricted, detainees no longer enjoy the same posting privileges as regular members. They cannot view any other part of the board when logged in, use the private messaging feature, or communicate on the board in any other way with other members save through posting in the designated forum (this does not stop people from communicating via off-site e-mail, or from viewing parts of the board viewable to guests). Regular members may post in Reform School, in order to help rehabilitate the detainees to become productive members of the board community. Regulars should be mindful that the purpose of being able to post in this area is not to taunt or otherwise mistreat the "prisoners," but to help them realize the error of their ways and to learn to post according to forum guidelines and rules. If detainees prove themselves willing to abide by forum rules, and avoid breaking them, they will be released.
There are three confinement periods during which trolls are restricted: one month for the first stint, two for the second, and for strike three, a 'life sentence.' Usually a single term in the Reform School is enough to break trolls of their habits, though some are unlikely to change their ways. The point of Reform School is to prevent and control disruption of discussion in the other areas of the board, simultaneously trying to salvage the offending members so that they may become contributing members of the community.
We're glad you asked! Hosting services of the sort used by this web site are not free, and the owner has to pay bills just like everyone else. We accept donations via PayPal, and a link may be located in the left-hand column. Another way is to go into your user control panel (UCP) if you're a member, click the link that says 'Purchase Paid Subscriptions', pick a subscription option, and then proceed to the payment options. Currently the only online method of paying for a subscription is through the PayPal option. In rare instances, such as when the member is known and trusted, that person may send the owner a check or money order.
Simply put, the owner doesn't believe there is a fixed political center; political demographics move from left to right and back again, and the supposed center is wherever the pendulum's disc happens to be at a given time. For example, single-payer health care might be viewed as extreme and undesirable in 2004, but by 2008 it doesn't look to a lot of people like such a bad idea after all. This means, too, that the extremes—or what is perceived to be extreme—of the opposite end of the political spectrum become more pronounced. Right now the far right is losing ground as the political pendulum swings back to the left, and it is seen for the extreme ideology it is.
It's fair in the sense that the same rules for conduct are applied to everyone. The board is not "balanced," however, nor should it be. Besides this being a political board that wants to encourage substantive debate with conservatives, it's ALSO a board that's supposed to be a sort of "port in the storm" for progressives and liberals where they don't have to put up with the lies and spin in the mainstream media (MSM) or on general political boards. Therefore, there will be times where we may decide that we've just simply reached our limit of tolerating conservative baloney. Remember: the name of the board is "LIBERAL Pride," not "wishy-washy, milquetoasty, kind of liberal but not really pride." So while we do try to maintain openness and availability of discussion to those on the political right, and shall do our utmost to ensure that conservative members are not ganged up on, there are limits to what we put up with from them.
