Opinion of James Monroe (poster)

[John Dule]

For what it is worth, I dislike polls about posters, particularly problematical posters. It is humiliating. I understand it is a long standing Atlas tradition and I have no potential power to ban it, other than perhaps lobbying Virginia.

I think the current policy is fair: the subject of the poll has the final word as to whether it stays or gets deleted.

But yes, it is remarkable that approval polls about posters have always been allowed, when you think about it. Most online forums would never tolerate them, but Atlas is a unique place.

It's also remarkable that at least 50% of them are made by one poster who claims to be a devout Christian, and yet who has turned casting the first stone into a compulsion.

[RINO Tom]

Haven't seen any of his recent work, but if even 10% of his extra-partisan babble is not trolling, he's genuinely one of the more demented actual human beings here.

[Christian Man]

For what it is worth, I dislike polls about posters, particularly problematical posters. It is humiliating. I understand it is a long standing Atlas tradition and I have no potential power to ban it, other than perhaps lobbying Virginia.

Dissenting opinion, but personally I think that they can be helpful and constructive if it's done right. Obviously if one is made to harass and/or duke on a particular poster that shouldn't be allowed, but in certain situations it could be enlightening if a poster isn't aware of how his/her actions impact other posters or uplifting if people say good things about them.

[Cokeland Saxton]

Unfunny troll

[Frodo]

For what it is worth, I dislike polls about posters, particularly problematical posters. It is humiliating. I understand it is a long standing Atlas tradition and I have no potential power to ban it, other than perhaps lobbying Virginia.

I think the current policy is fair: the subject of the poll has the final word as to whether it stays or gets deleted.

Really?  I did not know that.  I am sure many of us who have been subjects of these polls would have liked to have known that too.  

But yes, it is remarkable that approval polls about posters have always been allowed, when you think about it. Most online forums would never tolerate them, but Atlas is a unique place.

I never liked them personally myself, for it can easily become a form of bullying which on many occasions it has.  

[Fuzzy Bear]

I don't mind the polls.  They give me a sense of where I stand with the Forum.

I gave him an FF because he was willing to give deserved pushback for people who attacked him by suggesting he had mental health issues because he came back with a somewhat reinvented persona.  He explained it and it's a coherent explanation; people do come to massive shifts in their political outlook due to events. and due to the fact that political parties change over time, and that change can be fairly quick.

Attacking people by suggesting they have a mental health diagnosis that (A) they have no credentials to diagnose, and (B) often have no basis is something that should be addressed by the mods, far more than looking for Excessive Hyperbole in posters they disagree with.  If a poster is going through a rough spot there are ways to handle this without openly posting, and there are,  I'm sure, posters that may have a serious condition that are decompensating, and it shows in their posting.  If I'm worried about someone, I'll deal with this very privately.  I'll leave it at that.

[John Dule]

I don't mind the polls.  They give me a sense of where I stand with the Forum.

I gave him an FF because he was willing to give deserved pushback for people who attacked him by suggesting he had mental health issues because he came back with a somewhat reinvented persona.  He explained it and it's a coherent explanation; people do come to massive shifts in their political outlook due to events. and due to the fact that political parties change over time, and that change can be fairly quick.

Attacking people by suggesting they have a mental health diagnosis that (A) they have no credentials to diagnose, and (B) often have no basis is something that should be addressed by the mods, far more than looking for Excessive Hyperbole in posters they disagree with.  If a poster is going through a rough spot there are ways to handle this without openly posting, and there are,  I'm sure, posters that may have a serious condition that are decompensating, and it shows in their posting.  If I'm worried about someone, I'll deal with this very privately.  I'll leave it at that.

This poster is a 9/11 truther and actively supports Russian genocide of Ukrainian civilians, but that's ok because he pushes back against mental health stigma. So important.

[DaleCooper]

Letting mentally ill people have ongoing public meltdowns on the internet is an incredibly cruel thing to do. I'd argue that enabling is even worse than bullying. That Brazilian guy told the internet that he loves Saddam Hussein and wants to torture people, and that comment is out there forever now, no matter how obscure this website is.

[Freshly-touched grass]

This forum is literally where Update culture started with Bushie, and to this day that nonsense continues off-site well over a decade later. I'm not surprised that there's support for this kind of thing, including from the same people who have been insisting for months now that Biden has dementia, but that doesn't make it right.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

This forum is literally where Update culture started with Bushie, and to this day that nonsense continues off-site well over a decade later. I'm not surprised that there's support for this kind of thing, including from the same people who have been insisting for months now that Biden has dementia, but that doesn't make it right.

The thing about Update is that Bushie was kind of the main driver for it because all things considered he still enjoyed the attention. That doesn't make it right of course but really Bushie could've just shut up with the oversharing both here and Facebook and ended it there if he actually wanted to.

[Sir Mohamed]

Uncreative and low-effort troll.

[VBM]

Why has this guy become such a hot topic over the past few weeks?

[Fuzzy Bear]

I don't mind the polls.  They give me a sense of where I stand with the Forum.

I gave him an FF because he was willing to give deserved pushback for people who attacked him by suggesting he had mental health issues because he came back with a somewhat reinvented persona.  He explained it and it's a coherent explanation; people do come to massive shifts in their political outlook due to events. and due to the fact that political parties change over time, and that change can be fairly quick.

Attacking people by suggesting they have a mental health diagnosis that (A) they have no credentials to diagnose, and (B) often have no basis is something that should be addressed by the mods, far more than looking for Excessive Hyperbole in posters they disagree with.  If a poster is going through a rough spot there are ways to handle this without openly posting, and there are,  I'm sure, posters that may have a serious condition that are decompensating, and it shows in their posting.  If I'm worried about someone, I'll deal with this very privately.  I'll leave it at that.

This poster is a 9/11 truther and actively supports Russian genocide of Ukrainian civilians, but that's ok because he pushes back against mental health stigma. So important.

Whatever one thinks about views (and I am skeptical that what he supports in Ukraine is "genocide"), that is different from posting the view that another poster has a chronic mental illness.

[DaleCooper]

I don't mind the polls.  They give me a sense of where I stand with the Forum.

I gave him an FF because he was willing to give deserved pushback for people who attacked him by suggesting he had mental health issues because he came back with a somewhat reinvented persona.  He explained it and it's a coherent explanation; people do come to massive shifts in their political outlook due to events. and due to the fact that political parties change over time, and that change can be fairly quick.

Attacking people by suggesting they have a mental health diagnosis that (A) they have no credentials to diagnose, and (B) often have no basis is something that should be addressed by the mods, far more than looking for Excessive Hyperbole in posters they disagree with.  If a poster is going through a rough spot there are ways to handle this without openly posting, and there are,  I'm sure, posters that may have a serious condition that are decompensating, and it shows in their posting.  If I'm worried about someone, I'll deal with this very privately.  I'll leave it at that.

This poster is a 9/11 truther and actively supports Russian genocide of Ukrainian civilians, but that's ok because he pushes back against mental health stigma. So important.

Whatever one thinks about views (and I am skeptical that what he supports in Ukraine is "genocide"), that is different from posting the view that another poster has a chronic mental illness.

He's simply giving him the benefit of the doubt.

[Hindsight was 2020]

I don't mind the polls.  They give me a sense of where I stand with the Forum.

I gave him an FF because he was willing to give deserved pushback for people who attacked him by suggesting he had mental health issues because he came back with a somewhat reinvented persona.  He explained it and it's a coherent explanation; people do come to massive shifts in their political outlook due to events. and due to the fact that political parties change over time, and that change can be fairly quick.

Attacking people by suggesting they have a mental health diagnosis that (A) they have no credentials to diagnose, and (B) often have no basis is something that should be addressed by the mods, far more than looking for Excessive Hyperbole in posters they disagree with.  If a poster is going through a rough spot there are ways to handle this without openly posting, and there are,  I'm sure, posters that may have a serious condition that are decompensating, and it shows in their posting.  If I'm worried about someone, I'll deal with this very privately.  I'll leave it at that.

This poster is a 9/11 truther and actively supports Russian genocide of Ukrainian civilians, but that's ok because he pushes back against mental health stigma. So important.

Whatever one thinks about views (and I am skeptical that what he supports in Ukraine is "genocide"), that is different from posting the view that another poster has a chronic mental illness.

He's simply giving him the benefit of the doubt.

This. Honestly Dule saying James has mental issues actually makes him out better because the alternative is James being an objectively evil piece of sh*t