Let the puppet show begin!

[Silent3]

The conspiratorial paranoia around this place is out of control.

Anything that could be the slightest bit suspect immediately IS a deliberate plot by Republicans, by rival Democrats, by the MSM, by the f*cking Illuminati.

Can't waste your time with reasonable doubts, with giving the benefit of the doubt, with cautious voicing of suspicions... no, that's how THEY dupe you, and nosiree, you aren't gonna let yourself be played for a fool! The moment you suspect something in the slightest, you must call it out, shout it out and sneer it from the rooftops as obvious TRVTH!

Shill!
Plant!
Liar!
Phoney!
Biased!
Rigged!

No one makes honest mistakes, no one simply has differences of opinion, no one has legitimately different priorities or unquoted contexts that make them emphasizing one thing over another a perfectly innocent thing.

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. I'll watch the puppet show so long as Spinal Tap opens.

[Silent3]

2. The conspiratorial paranoia around here...

...definitely goes to 11! :)

[Atman]

3. Not in defense of anyone in particular, but did you ever stop to think...

...that maybe the paranoia is your own? Not black-helicopter paranoia, rather a misappropriation of angst based upon nothing more than the opinions of a few select posters.

You can't ever forget that this place is nothing more than one big giant cocktail party; you don't know half the people, some of whom are shitfaced, some are lunatic uncles and cousins of the host's, some are cranky old farts, and some are just like yourself. They're the ones you hang with, even if you wander off and mingle every now and then.

If my point was a bit too subtle (like a brick, right?), all I'm saying is this: "Don't let the bastards get you down." Just because certain individual posters think out loud or bounce ideas off our collective heads, it doesn't mean the place is "out of control." The free exchange is what it's all about.

There are lots of drunken uncles and crazy bastard plants posting, to be sure. But it doesn't make it conspiratorial. It just means it's a good party that everyone wants to crash.

.

[Silent3]

4. Are people really drinking that much while posting?

That might explain it. :)

It just seems that a large portion of the verbiage here is very overwrought, much more than I see in casual "bouncing ideas around" drunken party conversation. In real-life conversation, alcohol-fueled or not, people usually don't "bounce" ideas with as much venom and undeserved conviction as they often do on the internet, and this place is even more internet-ty, if you know what I mean, than a lot of other forums I read and post in.