Are Sherdog political views representative?

Lowmanproblems said:
Don't tell @HomerThompson, but I went to college, lived and worked in Kansas for four years.
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I've driven through it a couple of times,

My feelings can be surmised in a wonderful song by the timeless Talking Heads.



From the first verse and chorus.

I see the shapes,
I remember from maps.
I see the shoreline.
I see the whitecaps.
A baseball diamond, nice weather down there.
I see the school and the houses where the kids are.
Places to park by the fac'tries and buildings.
Restaurants and bar for later in the evening.
Then we come to the farmlands, and the undeveloped areas.
And I have learned how these things work together.
I see the parkway that passes through them all.
And I have learned how to look at these things and I say,

I wouldn't live there if you paid me.
 
sniper said:
I believe it does. Not a lot of people (I'm guessing here) are able to dive deep on some of the topics posted here (in the real world) - who would you have these conversations with? It's almost frowned upon to have serious political talks in real life, imo. Which is probably why a lot of us (myself included) are so uninformed in regards to the goingson of the world.

Which is why I believe mass censorship is imminent. We arent supposed to be well informed.
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I think even some of the really "bad" posters or ignorant, bigoted, and even belligerent posters are almost a net positive, because they show the reality of peoples' thinking and not just what we would like to believe.

As well, I guarantee you that even the worst poster has something to learn, some granule of knowledge hidden away under their malice, bitterness, cynicism or what have you that we do not know.

By virtue of his parents, life, work, or experiences, he has to know something, even if too foolish or clumsy to express it.





Ironically, I also highly suggest not engaging these fools, or a pack of these fools, let their foolish antics play out, recognize, learn, and be away from such a crowd, those are my thoughts at least.
 
InternetHero said:
I think even some of the really "bad" posters or ignorant, bigoted, and even belligerent posters are almost a net positive, because they show the reality of peoples' thinking and not just what we would like to believe.

As well, I guarantee you that even the worst poster has something to learn, some granule of knowledge hidden away under their malice, bitterness, cynicism or what have you that we do not know.

By virtue of his parents, life, work, or experiences, he has to know something, even if too foolish or clumsy to express it.





Ironically, I also highly suggest not engaging these fools, or a pack of these fools, let their foolish antics play out, recognize, learn, and be away from such a crowd, those are my thoughts at least.
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Where is the fun in not engaging the idiots? My ego is fragile and it's a nice way to boost it..... Wait you are talking about me. Damn it......

I think most of us are pretty well set in our ways. When talking about politics, most people have a few issues that are really important to them. They will usually be willing to disregard information that contradicts their view points. Thats why we get in to the shit posting back and forth so often. I am definitely guilty of that myself.
 
Lowmanproblems said:
Where is the fun in not engaging the idiots? My ego is fragile and it's a nice way to boost it..... Wait you are talking about me. Damn it......

I think most of us are pretty well set in our ways. When talking about politics, most people have a few issues that are really important to them. They will usually be willing to disregard information that contradicts their view points. Thats why we get in to the shit posting back and forth so often. I am definitely guilty of that myself.
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Sure, we are all prone to cognitive dissonance, and have elaborate support columns for our view of the world.

When reality introduces, or a logic we dislike, we prefer to battle against the obvious as a first choice, me and you, anyone.

That said, the more we understand about something, the more complex the structure is, and the more it might humble us to admit we do not understand or can not see, then we have to examine... why did I care to begin with? Who are my people? Why am I in allegiance with them?

I need economics to live, culture to be happy, and neither of them give much satisfaction.

Why am I here? Nature's humorous mistakes, some kind of cosmic plan?

All the complications unravel into simplicity at the other ends of logic, but the answers, no matter how clear and present, will give offense and worry as we cling to the dissonance of our lives.

I need this car to be a big man, I need this wife to comfort me, I need these chains to be free, and if I free myself of the chains I am terrified because I have nothing, naked, exposed, and seen as a fraud, living a lie in pursuit of nothing.

As Buddhism might say, "It is better to travel well than to arrive."

Then we ask, "But where is home?" If we find that, we might find what it means to live.






Then, not care about what those men say, what our ego says, or about all the toys we got tired of playing with.

To grow up out of the shadow of ourselves, out of the shadow of our rulers, out of the shadow of life.

Is that glass half full or half empty, is it an endless darkness, do the cracks in our lives "let the light shine through," as Leonard Cohen said, or is there a real light, a real love waiting where those who stepped beyond us tread?

Inquiring minds may ask, curious thoughts may look, and the bold may just knock on the door... what is behind? I would tell you, but you would not believe me, as I am not wise enough to explain, language can not capture the beauty, and "faith" is but the first glimpse of the love of what is beyond our world.



But who would believe me, a simple poster, posting long-winded musings on the internet? We might be deceived, as in the last words of Kubla Khan,

Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Drunk on myself, or drunk on anything to hide in small escapes from life, petty hatreds made into giants, and a past bitter on the circles we weave, the stories we tell when we close our eyes, the dew we hungrily consume, and drunk we are on a ten thousands illusions of paradise.

Behind the door. An exhibition of human hate? Or a reason to love what we can see and not see?

As for me and my house, impossibly so, I choose that reality, to love in what I hope is not asking for love in return, because that love looked for me, found me, and warmed the hearth of my heart.

Have a great day/night, and may all your choices be the right choices!
 
Representative of a bunch of (mostly) male MMA fans, aged 20 - 50.

Representative of a bunch of people who are far better politically informed than the majority of the population.

Representative of a bunch of people from all over the globe interested in others opinions.


I think the above places us outside of any group that could be labelled mainstream.
 
Of Sherdog's demographic (i.e. MMA fans): generally speaking, yes.
 
franklinstower said:
Some people have told me that internet forums are when losers hang out and there is no way they are representative, and if that is true, sherdog would possibly be an even worse cesspool that the average forum. However there seem to be plenty of healthy people on this forum too so I am not sure.
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If we go back in time not so long ago I would have said yes, but internet has changed so dramatically and is a integral part of our life. We can´t live without it. And losers only hang around in places where a normal person would not visit. Like Sniper said, I find alot of topics in here I would not have had the pleasure to know more about in the real world. And Lowmanproblems is correct in the description of the male demographics and their leaning towards right. But I´m quite positive in the years to come, the older the posters get and with life experience, their harsh tone, clumsy remarks and
generalization will fade away and their latent humanity will shine. I hope.

The biggest mass belongs to the rightwings in here, but the delicate mind of the minority of class posters keep them at bay with ease. So I don´t see any problem scrolling around the threads and find some good info.
 
MicroBrew said:
I am bit confused here, cause it sounds like you are saying that rightwingers in real life keep their racial animus to themselves, but freely express it online?
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Well you don´t have to be a quantity physicist to know 1+1=2

Ofcourse people that are closet racist in real life, are dropping their damp on an online forum. Is this strange to you?
 
InternetHero said:
Sure, we are all prone to cognitive dissonance, and have elaborate support columns for our view of the world.

When reality introduces, or a logic we dislike, we prefer to battle against the obvious as a first choice, me and you, anyone.

That said, the more we understand about something, the more complex the structure is, and the more it might humble us to admit we do not understand or can not see, then we have to examine... why did I care to begin with? Who are my people? Why am I in allegiance with them?

I need economics to live, culture to be happy, and neither of them give much satisfaction.

Why am I here? Nature's humorous mistakes, some kind of cosmic plan?

All the complications unravel into simplicity at the other ends of logic, but the answers, no matter how clear and present, will give offense and worry as we cling to the dissonance of our lives.

I need this car to be a big man, I need this wife to comfort me, I need these chains to be free, and if I free myself of the chains I am terrified because I have nothing, naked, exposed, and seen as a fraud, living a lie in pursuit of nothing.

As Buddhism might say, "It is better to travel well than to arrive."

Then we ask, "But where is home?" If we find that, we might find what it means to live.






Then, not care about what those men say, what our ego says, or about all the toys we got tired of playing with.

To grow up out of the shadow of ourselves, out of the shadow of our rulers, out of the shadow of life.

Is that glass half full or half empty, is it an endless darkness, do the cracks in our lives "let the light shine through," as Leonard Cohen said, or is there a real light, a real love waiting where those who stepped beyond us tread?

Inquiring minds may ask, curious thoughts may look, and the bold may just knock on the door... what is behind? I would tell you, but you would not believe me, as I am not wise enough to explain, language can not capture the beauty, and "faith" is but the first glimpse of the love of what is beyond our world.



But who would believe me, a simple poster, posting long-winded musings on the internet? We might be deceived, as in the last words of Kubla Khan,

Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Drunk on myself, or drunk on anything to hide in small escapes from life, petty hatreds made into giants, and a past bitter on the circles we weave, the stories we tell when we close our eyes, the dew we hungrily consume, and drunk we are on a ten thousands illusions of paradise.

Behind the door. An exhibition of human hate? Or a reason to love what we can see and not see?

As for me and my house, impossibly so, I choose that reality, to love in what I hope is not asking for love in return, because that love looked for me, found me, and warmed the hearth of my heart.

Have a great day/night, and may all your choices be the right choices!
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Are you some kind of a realistic, cynical philosopher? I really liked the post you made in the baboon thread. The one about humans are born with traits that that will roll back to status quo if we don´t have a larger power preventing us from doing so. A bit cynical but it was a great read.
 
It's representative of (mostly) male MMA fans. Interestingly, the same divide exists here as well as in the society at large. You get to hear from the right more freely here than other venues.
 
Yes, once you factor out the trolls and gimmicks and account for the fact that most of us came here from an interest in MMA. So, whatever way MMA's fan base leans politically, you should expect the WR to lean approximately the same, imo.

Yes, there are a lot of racists here. The gimmicky ones don't mean anything, the ones that are surprising are those who subscribe to racist ideologies but seem oblivious to it.
 
panamaican said:
Yes, once you factor out the trolls and gimmicks and account for the fact that most of us came here from an interest in MMA. So, whatever way MMA's fan base leans politically, you should expect the WR to lean approximately the same, imo.

Yes, there are a lot of racists here. The gimmicky ones don't mean anything, the ones that are surprising are those who subscribe to racist ideologies but seem oblivious to it.
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My dad, older brother and a few of my cousins are all racist but they don't know it. It is amazing to me. If you called them out on it there would be real outrage and yet they don't like how the mexicans act in restaurants, drive or speak, they are angry and afraid of black people too. My dad once told me when I was a young man that you could trust a black person one one one but if you ever got into a group with them they would try to hurt you.

They also all want blacks and mexicans to take on our culture but that really means act exactly like they do. They are racist to the core but do not believe that is the case.

Having grown up around it day in and day out it is easy to see how toxic and unhappy they are because of it but they would never know that having never been around people that truly are free from such things.
 
Caveat said:
Representative of the crazed minority that keep themselves hidden from the daylight maybe lol.
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I think there used to be a lot of tech workers here and on other forums (in front of the screen all day for work and goofing off occasionally). And they tended to be socially awkward libertarians. That's why Ron Paul was President of the Internet, and people in forums were genuinely shocked (and disbelieving in some cases) about how little support he actually had. The gamer numbers are probably up a bit now, which is where we get the "edgy" racism and stuff and Trump support (geezers are his real-world base so you'd expect him to be more unpopular in forums, but the large gamer contingent works against that).
 
New question.

What percentage of the right believes in one or more conspiracy theories ie, lizard people run the world, deep states conspiracy, Obama planning to take away our guns etc?

I wont pick on anyone for believing these things in this thread but have had some experience lately with a few otherwise intelligent people who I think have slipped into insanity on these levels AND it effects the way they vote.

I especially worry about the consiparies that seem to be growing that make a certain segment of the population not human or less than human as is the case with the lizard people and with the belief that one side is outright "Evil" with a capital E.

Some of the actions that are attributed to these groups are so horrific that were they truly believed we would and possibly will start to see blood spilled over them.
 
franklinstower said:
New question.

What percentage of the right believes in one or more conspiracy theories ie, lizard people run the world, deep states conspiracy, Obama planning to take away our guns etc?

I wont pick on anyone for believing these things in this thread but have had some experience lately with a few otherwise intelligent people who I think have slipped into insanity on these levels AND it effects the way they vote.

I especially worry about the consiparies that seem to be growing that make a certain segment of the population not human or less than human as is the case with the lizard people and with the belief that one side is outright "Evil" with a capital E.

Some of the actions that are attributed to these groups are so horrific that were they truly believed we would and possibly will start to see blood spilled over them.
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I'm not on the right, but I think its blatantly obvious where I stand on this question.
 
franklinstower said:
New question.

What percentage of the right believes in one or more conspiracy theories ie, lizard people run the world, deep states conspiracy, Obama planning to take away our guns etc?

I wont pick on anyone for believing these things in this thread but have had some experience lately with a few otherwise intelligent people who I think have slipped into insanity on these levels AND it effects the way they vote.

I especially worry about the consiparies that seem to be growing that make a certain segment of the population not human or less than human as is the case with the lizard people and with the belief that one side is outright "Evil" with a capital E.

Some of the actions that are attributed to these groups are so horrific that were they truly believed we would and possibly will start to see blood spilled over them.
Click to expand...
I believe that Obama would have loved to take at least some of the guns away from Americans. Just like in many European countries. I don't think you can carry a gun in the UK. Probably other European countries. And over there, you can't own certain guns that we can. Obama is very slick and careful not to say his true intentions in my opinion.

Obama misses the big issue, it's a person's character, not the gun.


 
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