If you haven't noticed, this is more than a political site. For many of the people who come here, it's a community and an extended family and like all communities, we're going to have our share of arguing and fighting. Now I don't really give a shit where on the left your views fall. Slightly left, extreme left, or even left-curious, it's all good with me.
On the other hand, right-wing trolls get a nice imprint of my boot on their butts and hopefully a bunch of donuts as a cushion when they go flying out the door. Unfortunately, lately, I'm seeing a lot of nasty labels being bandied about in the comments and diaries. The Obamabots and Purity Trolls are flying and someone, someone on our side, someone in our community, is gonna get their eye poked out eventually.
We need to have some boundaries of respect here. I know, I know, as much of a family we can sometimes be, it's still the damned internet, where you can flip someone off and cuss them out, without having to face any real consequences for it. But, this is a community too. We are neighbors in cyberspace, supposedly for the purpose of making realityspace better for all of us.
I want you to ask yourself, if you're thinking about calling someone an Obamabot or a purity troll or an asshole or a jerk or something equivalent in the comments here, if you'd call your real, living, breathing neighbor any of those things and if you did do that, exactly what it would get you. Where I come from, those are fighting words and that's the only damn thing you'd get.
So, if you still think it's a great idea, I invite you to say any of those things to my face. Or hell, just stick to the comments. After all, it's so much easier when you don't have to deal with watching your neighbor cry or worrying about getting a kick in the nuts.
Be warned though, there may be consequences this time. If I have any donuts and I see you calling my neighbor a nasty name, you will be eating one. Unlike most of the internet, this community has teeth. If enough of us decide that your name calling has no place here, you may find you have no place here anymore either. Eventually, the people not name calling, may get tired of it like I have.
The FAQ says about hide ratings...
You're saying that the comment is so bad -- so disruptive or damaging to the community -- that it isn't worth even a debate, but should be deleted from the discussion as being simply inflammatory, simply off-topic, or simply a lie.
...and namecalling, especially now when it's in so many comments, meets that threshold of being disruptive to our community. If you'd like evidence of that, read any of the pie fight diaries inhabiting the rec list all day.