Reply To: A Study in Trolls: Updated

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#1733517
Joseph
Participant

ubiq: You’re confused. You’re misunderstanding Poe’s Law. I’m not going to have a back and forth with you on this topic since you have a history of constantly spouting over and over again refuted points (using slightly different verbiage). But I’ll make this point once.

Poe’s Law does NOT apply to someone who sincerely believes in and expresses (online or wherever) an “extremist” point of view. Even in Poe’s case if the writer sincerely believed in Creationism and totally and completely believed that G-d literally created the universe in seven days, Poe admits that his law (Poe’s Law) does not apply in such a case. It only applies to posts parodying or sarcastically mocking an “extremist” view.

Note, again, that Poe believes that believing that the world was created in seven days literally is “extremist”. That demonstrates one person’s extremism is another person’s mainstream. Indeed, we Yidden here know that Poe is an extremist for considering Creationism to be extreme. But that’s all a side point.

Now back to me. Let me ask you, ubiq (or anyone else here), an honest to G-d question: suppose women’s suffrage came up for a vote as to whether to continue or discontinue, and it literally came down to my vote to decide its future. Either as a legislator making the deciding vote after everyone else voted or as a voter casting the tiebreaking vote or however else you imagine this hypothetical where I, Joseph, am casting the deciding vote on the future of woman’s suffrage. Do you ubiq (or anyone else here) seriously doubt how I’ll vote on the issue? I think you know in your heart, without much doubt, that I’ll vote against the continuance of such suffrage.

You might define such a position as “extreme” but I don’t think anyone really doubts that’s how I’d really vote. Now, of course, I’d very much dispute your characterization of that position as extreme in the first place. I’d bring as rayos the question of whether you’d consider the millions of people in the 40% of the voting population who opposed woman’s suffrage prior to its becoming the law of the land (in 1920) as all being millions of extremist people. [On January 12, 1915, a suffrage bill was brought before the House of Representatives and was defeated by a vote of 204 to 174.] I think you wouldn’t consider them all to be extremists. And I’d point out just as their position then wasn’t extreme, taking the same position now isn’t. But the question of whether its an extreme position is anyways all a side point. I think we agree that you know that I’d vote to discontinue that suffrage.

So my position is very much not in doubt. And, as stated, as long as my position expressed in the comments is sincere, there’s no applicability of Poe’s Law. And as Neville pointed out in the OP above, since the expressed position is sincere, it is also defined as not trolling.