Why You Come To The USMB

[PoliticalChic]

What is it that brings this poly-faceted multitude to the USMB?

Apparent ill and then camaraderie will give way to attacks and applause…

Unusual? Schopenhauer described same in this way:
On a cold winter's day, a group of porcupines huddled together to stay warm and keep from freezing. But soon they felt one another's quills and moved apart. When the need for warmth brought them closer together again, their quills again forced them apart. They were driven back and forth, at the mercy of their discomforts until they found the distance from one another that provided both a maximum of warmth and a minimum of pain.

In human beings, the emptiness and monotony of the isolated self produces a need for society. This brings people together, but their many offensive qualities and intolerable faults drive them apart again. The optimum distance that they finally find and that permits them to coexist is embodied in politeness and good manners. Because of this distance between us, we can only partially satisfy our need for warmth, but at the same time, we are spared the stab of one another's quills. --Arthur Schopenhauer


The unusual aspect here is that so many of us seem to thrive, not on the warmth of human contact, but on the pain of the ‘quills.’

 

[manu1959]

as my wife says....i love crowds....except for all the people...

 

[Oddball]

It's the cyber equivalent of hanging out at the corner bar, except the food is better, the drinks are cheaper, and I can have whatever music or program on the teevee that suits me.

 

[007]

Got banned from another board and was referred here.... long ago. "Celiberal" was the other board, and it's still there.

 

[Truthmatters]

It helps making staying informed more entertaining.

 

[Oddball]

Then there's the comic relief......

 

[Truthmatters]

Yeah thanks for that one "dude"

 

[Shogun]

I think it's more like the barbershop scene in Coming to America.


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdjblkRkoPU&feature=related]YouTube - Joe Louis was 137 yrs old[/ame]

 

[Mr Natural]

I like to see what's on people's minds, for the occasional chuckle, and because I got ejected from the Hannity Forum a some time ago.

 

[DiamondDave]

In the hopes that I can maybe, just maybe, show one ignorant winger the errors in their thinking... consider it my need to do a good deed, left over from my scout days

Plus.. it helps with passing the time occasionally

 

[Zoom-boing]

Don't know . . . it's like a giant magnet . . . . can't resist, can't stop.

Thoroughly enjoy reading different points of view, even though some of the views leave me equally flabber and equally gasted.

 

[Foxfyre]

Don't know . . . it's like a giant magnet . . . . can't resist, can't stop.

Thoroughly enjoy reading different points of view, even though some of the views leave me equally flabber and equally gasted.

It's like smelling the soured milk in the carton, but none of us just smell once. You always go back for one more whiff before dumping it down the drain.

Seriously, for me it is trying to find a good balance of different opinions. God, I wish there wasn't so much school yard taunting, contests to see who can use the most crude language, etc., but I can scroll past that stuff. I want a chance to spar with people who are at least somewhat informed and who actually think--on both sides of the aisles. That way I find out if my opinions or conclusions will hold up under close scrutiny, especailly when there are some who very much want to discredit them.

I found that blend here on USMB and stayed.

Masochistic? Maybe a little. But it is also recreation in a way. When it isn't fun any more, I'll leave.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

It helps making staying informed more entertaining.

When do you plan to begin getting informed?

 

[Truthmatters]

When will you stop refusing facts?

 

[Midnight Marauder]

When will you stop refusing facts?

When you begin to understand the definition of the word.

 

[LuckyDan]

It's the cyber equivalent of hanging out at the corner bar, except the food is better, the drinks are cheaper, and I can have whatever music or program on the teevee that suits me.

What Dude said. Plus you don't need a designated driver, and you don't have to deal with being cornered by a drunk. (BTW - next time that happens to you, just ask them, "Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?" Works everytime.)

I like a board where you can talk about a variety of topics. Members on non-political boards always get nervous when somebody says something political.

 

[RodISHI]

Passes time, sometimes entertaining, I like seeing the different views of people as they fire off the keyboards. Sometimes you really have to wonder if the posters are for real, then you look at happenings around you and say yeah some of them are really like that.

 

[Truthmatters]

Its great fro honing your beliefs and hearing arguments you had not heard of no matter how lame they are.

 

[uscitizen]

I just like to educate MM on imported gasoline and such.

actually I can't do much else so I like to hang out with other losers.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

I just like to educate MM on imported gasoline and such.

Like truthmattersnot and other sycophants, you cling to your argument even long after it's been completely shredded, then pretend the shredding never happened.