Posts by Edward Fisher86

@swiftstag66/">@@swiftstag66,

Have you ever heard the term "failed metaphor"?
(Or a comparison, whatever—just try to get a better handle on what actually makes a metaphor work)

There simply aren't enough common elements here to compare tax inspectors to the Schutzstaffel. You aren't even elevating the metaphor to a higher level.
The value of a tax inspector and the Schutzstaffel can never be brought into any kind of positive correlation.

Everything else is just trolling, clearly designed to bait people into reacting.
There are no taboos here, just poorly disguised provocations.
Repeated and repeated...

👋

Good grief, urbanotter, don't get all worked up.
I actually think you're a decent enough person, just frustrated by certain moves made by the administration.
But you're expressing it a bit "wrong." Pay attention to the quotes there.

And you completely misinterpreted my "I just follow along" comment; what I meant was that I only know about this one specific thread in Politics because I haven't even looked at the others, so I can't compare actions, Moderator. It's obvious I post there—I've shared links myself 😬.

The issue with comparisons to Nazism and such is that if I try to explain my stance briefly, it comes off as an exaggeration. Consequently, those comparisons miss the mark entirely and their only real purpose is to provoke "opponents"—basically, they're just trolling.
You get what I mean?

Maybe someone else can explain it better; I'm typing this on my phone, so I'm not sure how concise I'm being.

And obviously, this isn't about glorifying Nazism... you wouldn't be glorifying it by making comparisons against Linić, whom you're arguing against 😉

Get it?
Anyway, catch you later, I'm heading to the beach.

I see that on the adjacent thread regarding insults, people are focusing their commentary on body weight and ugly hairstyles. 😕

Is anyone actually following the thread about Fiscalization? Sorry, I’ve just been glued to that one.

This one is referring to the PL Quote:

urbanotter said:slybison8 made a valid point—one that I also pointed out—regarding how these actions mirror Nazi elements. We're seeing the application of their specific methods, much like when they "cleansed" Germany of its Jewish minority through Goebles's propaganda and those brutal Gestapo-style legal tactics.

And this guy keeps calling and calling, begging you to send him off to the cooling chamber:

branko99 The user said:With a statement like that, you’re just displaying the textbook characteristics of a typical fascist.

The feed is absolutely crawling with posts about fascists, Nazis, the SA, the SS, concentration camps, and all that other garbage.
I completely blanked on Slinić. That’s a violation of the rules, and that's a straight red card.

What on earth? 🤷

I want to apologize to the original poster if I end up straying too far from the scope they intended here. I honestly have no idea where else I would go to write this.

casualharbor3 said:We could go on forever debating whose fan you actually are and whose views you're really pushing.

Now you're being insulting.

I’m no psychiatrist, but shutting down hotels right in the middle of peak tourist season and kicking travelers out onto the street is straight-up insanity. Not to mention the massive damage this does to American tourism.🙄

I hope that happens once you stop insulting and labeling the other Forum users just like you did before.

That’s just your opinion, not gospel. I see you're trying to introduce verbal offenses here too.☕

This is the core issue and the entire reason you're attacking Moderator slybison8.
The offended prima donna.🤣😂

Please explain yourself. What "festivities" are you talking about? Are you seriously calling the Homeland Thanksgiving celebration a bunch of festivities???😠😠

Now you're just trolling without offering any actual arguments. You clearly did your research.🤣
Anonymous forum users are complaining about the terrible forum user slybison8. Think about it.☕
There was a poll on the Politics PDF where slybison8 was voted Best Moderator. Those are the facts, regardless of whatever information you've been gathering elsewhere.

You're clearly demonstrating that you haven't the slightest clue what you're actually commenting on in this thread.
This isn't about any kind of DZ Day celebration. Unless you were personally involved or actually took the time to find the answer yourself, you really shouldn't be weighing in on something you know absolutely nothing about.

Now you're just trolling again without offering a single actual argument. You clearly did your research.🤣
Anonymous users on the forum are venting their frustrations about that terrible forum user, slybison8. Think what you will.☕

This is just part of an informal exchange between me and Sam Wright21. How she feels about my response isn't your business to weigh in on.

If you've been following this thread, you've probably realized by now that I don't just make claims for the sake of talking—I actually know how to back up my arguments with facts.

Susan Price30 said:And who actually wrote that post? Was it slybison8?

Or are you complaining about posts from various users that none of the Politics moderators banned, even though you (and the thread starter) think they should have been? And then you specifically call out slybison8 and Robert Hall7, blaming them for not banning those posts simply because they happened to be active in the thread at the time.

To me, that seems illogical. Just because someone participates in a thread as a forum user doesn't mean they are acting as moderators for that specific discussion. Objectively speaking, if there's any responsibility to be had, it would fall on the entire Politics moderation team collectively, not just the two people you're targeting here, right?

(Especially when someone is a solid moderator like Robert Hall7 and slybison8; dragging them through a thread or singling them out for something that isn't necessarily their fault feels a bit extreme. That's essentially what I was getting at...😉

And what was the motivation for all this? One single deserved penalty point for a rightfully banned post? Give me a break...

Sure, they’re high quality—I mean, they haven't been vaccinated against anything, so it’s perfectly legitimate to start a thread like this just to "shake up" the current events and see what sticks.

I have no idea who was specifically put in charge of moderating the Fiscalization discussions, but things have spiraled way too far, and yet nobody who witnessed this mess is stepping up to react.

We were dealing with an egregious violation of the forum rules. There isn't really any room for special interpretations here.

And what exactly was the motivation behind all of that? One deserved penalty point for that blatant attempt at being a troll. Come on, please...

That's just not true. The man explained himself clearly several times—you should probably go back and actually read what he said. 😉.

Sam Wright21 said:Me, a fan? Hah! You should look at yourself before you start talking 🙂

No, it isn't about fandom; I simply have zero tolerance for any kind of repression. 🤷

Ziher doesn't have some "clique"; if anything, he seems like quite the individualist. However, I think you've interpreted his actions through a rather biased lens here.

I don't tolerate verbal offenses either. But a man is allowed to express his opinion, for heaven's sake.🤷

It's a bit lackluster, I'll admit—especially with those quotes you mentioned, and the fact that he writes in such an odd way—but personally, I would much rather see someone writing whatever they please than deal with the heavy hand of censorship.

A PL fan because you showed up to this thread just to play "defender." I wasn't thinking anything particularly serious 😉.

The clique—those are just PL supporters in the thread about Fiscalization. I'm not being biased; they really are being shielded.

The group was mocking Linić, treating him like he was mentally unstable or sick, saying he lost his mind because he doesn't have kids.

One guy even went so far as to seriously explain how he has experience dealing with middle-aged people who don't have children 🙄. They moved on to Linić's sexual preferences, suggesting S&M and all sorts of other nonsense.

That isn't freedom of speech. It's more like public defamation, insults, or whatever else you want to call it, directed at a person. If someone were targeted like that in real life, they could sue. They are publicly making fun of a specific individual with a name and a reputation. The Moderator should have stepped in to stop it.

The Moderator is there not just to guide discussions, but to ensure no one gets unfairly harmed.

You can express an opinion on the Minister's tax policy without comparing him to Nazis.

PL let all of it slide, as if it were just one little comment. He allowed this disgusting mockery from his own supporters, even after calling my post pathetic 🤣—think what you will. Criteria?

Two days after Homeland Thanksgiving, when something entirely different was under scrutiny, PL shows up waving a finger, telling everyone to watch what they say. Right after this thread. Only he knows why.

Communication rules and censorship are not the same thing. There have to be certain general rules of the game.

In the meantime, I did a bit of digging into PL (since I haven't had any direct or indirect contact with him until now), and honestly, I wouldn't say he's all that great; if anything, it's the opposite.
But it's good that my own personal experience came first.

That's it. I don't feel like bothering myself with this anymore. Let the authorities do whatever they feel they need to do.
🙂 Night.

Sam Wright21 said:Look, I’m fairly certain this specific user's writing style isn't being stifled by any moderator oversight; rather, it's simply that slybison8 lacks a true law-enforcement mindset.

Take the thread author, for instance—he posts absolute nonsense that even a stray dog wouldn't touch, yet he provides evidence through his own two posts, only to be slapped with a one-point penalty for one of them. 😍 It really speaks volumes about the supposedly "noble" soul of PL.

It’s honestly laughable that they're using him as a "case study." Besides, you can clearly see that a mob of disgruntled users hasn't descended upon this topic, because there aren't any—which is quite telling in its own way.

Aside from him, we have Robert Hall7 on the thread, and she certainly doesn't carry herself like some heavy-handed authority figure either.

Personally, I find this arrangement quite refreshing; it seems to me that the two of them, along with Vojky, are unique personalities among the moderators—they aren't constantly breathing down your neck or manufacturing unnecessary tension.

Oh, "unique." 😕.
And it’s more than just "unique" when the guy keeps insisting that we're all just agents for the previous administration, that I'm personally Linić's tax agent, or some kind of fiscal tyrant. It's all the same; the guy's writing is so "unique" that I'm starting to see imaginary agents appearing right in front of my face. 🙄

The linked posts are only part of it, to be clear; mostly, I was linking his connections to Nazism.

All of that might hold water, but there is one but.
I feel like finally snapping back at the guy: your uncle is the agent!
He'll give his usual response, I'll give mine, and then you've got a massive blowout on the thread.
That's why communication rules exist, and why we have mods to ensure we all stick to them.

Kudos to the Guild for their endless patience on this thread; I truly take my hat off to her. 🙏 That stoic, infinitely patient way of responding, explaining, and refusing to react to provocations is something you rarely see. (I was reading this earlier, and I hope she hasn't snapped 😬).

Clearly, you're a fan of PL. Fine, but my experience has been different. I saw this thread just a day or two after it opened, and despite all the provocations here, I jumped in for one reason:
I saw that PL wrote a warning to "his clique" on the thread only *after* he read and responded to things here. Sure, he didn't accept the criticism, but he hurried over to the thread to "clean up" his own mess.
Well, that behavior is extremely distasteful to me.

Furthermore, whoever deleted that one reported post essentially confirmed the inappropriateness of that unique text.
Yet, that same text keeps looping around and around.

Daniel Ward87 said:No worries, we're staying on top of this topic. I've already asked the Moderators to review those controversial posts and decide which sanctions to hand out. I'll do a second pass once they're done, so we'll see how things shake out.

Regarding the discussion on Fiscalization, when you read through Branko99's posts, someone really needs to clarify 🤷.

The guy doesn't understand how to use quote tags properly, so he's always fine, and he frequently inserts his own commentary right inside the quote block. This makes it so anyone who isn't paying close attention can't actually tell whose words are whose.

Sam Wright21 said:Steven King74, since I participated in the thread regarding Minister Linić before it was merged with this one, I can tell you that you’ve simply laid out a series of sweeping generalizations here, attempting to bolster them with links that ultimately fail to hold water. I clicked through every single one of them, and not a solitary bit of evidence supports the claims you're making.

slybison8 writes with a certain level of intrigue; he doesn't harass those who disagree with him and isn't a nuisance at all—all things considered, he's easily one of the best Moderators we've ever had.

I honestly find it hard to believe that you chose to go after him like this, especially with such an interminable, rambling post filled with nothing but baseless accusations. 😲

It seems some of you are just bothered by the fact that he expresses his views without sugarcoating them; frankly, it feels like you'd actually prefer if he were charged with a verbal offense. That is where the real issue lies, rather than some trivial little reputation score for a post that most people would have gladly given thirty points to.

To be perfectly honest, I don't see why people shouldn't use the harshest language possible to describe what is happening here in America, particularly regarding the actions of that traitor Linić, while the rest of the political scum remains unresponsive to these absurdities as if they were in a trance—and a good portion of the mindless masses is actually cheering him on.

I don't care if his stance is the polar opposite of mine. What bothers me is that he, acting as a Moderator, supports posts like this:



Can you label a government institution or (any) official with Nazi or fascist traits? According to the rules, that's forbidden. I didn't write those rules.
And even that isn't enough; Forum users get slapped with the same or similar labels.

Following a report on one post, a specific post by Branko was deleted, which implies it didn't meet the forum guidelines. Yet, not a single one of his previous posts, nor any of his following ones, were touched, allowing the man to run wild with everything he has.
The moderation here is a joke; I thought I knew slybison8, but honestly, I don't know him at all anymore. This is more than enough for me.



Aggressive machine guns??? Threats against children? What on earth is this person lamenting under the Moderator's hat?
🤷

Just to be clear, I only reported one post. I noted that similar things keep happening. I have no intention of clicking that little triangle on every single post while the moderators are active on this thread. Or anywhere else.

bluecyclist64 said:You’ve all been taking aim at PL, but I think you need to learn how to distinguish a regular Forum user from a Moderator.
As a Forum user, PL is a right-wing Scum with conservative views and a truly toxic way of speaking, but when he steps into his role as a Moderator, he plays fair and doesn't hold grudges. To me, the latter matters much more.

Robert Hall7, when did you last take a photo for your avatar? You used to be much more attractive... 🤣

That's exactly my point.

There isn't anyone here who is 🤷, I took a look at the Politics conduct guidelines PDF and I am fairly certain those posts shouldn't have been allowed. But since PL expresses the exact same—or very similar—ideas, he's essentially in a conflict of interest 😬 and basically just protecting his own side.

Great, so my predecessors are Nazis, according to the "highly respected" forum user who is protected like a grizzly bear and whose political views align perfectly with the moderator. 🙏
(Though, what he's actually putting out there aren't even moderate views, they're just 🙄)

Robert Hall7 said:Why are you dragging me into this?

Nica, please just settle this. Especially when the Moderator starts acting like this.

And to all the other users, cheers!

I’m not dragging you into anything, Robert Hall7. It wouldn't be right to leave you out of the conversation since you're active right here in this thread.

Regardless of what this topic is actually about, you really ought to step up and clarify things; after all, you're a Moderator too.

Susan Price30 said:(I hadn't read your post yet, but now that I have) you also listed examples of criticizing someone's speech, opinions, or public stances (whether official or unofficial)—specifically regarding things said by the government, Minister Linić, and others.

An appeal is just an appeal—not my business, obviously, but since we're already in a dialogue...—that was the idea.😉

It’s not that I don't fully grasp you 🤷.

Are you trying to say that calling a country's tax policy a quasi-Nazi system of control is "criticism," or that labeling SA members as fascists, Nazis, or SA units is just "criticism"? 😕

Fine, if that's how it works, let me know so I can play along too.

Regardless, it’s not like you’re part of the administration anyway.

There's something new here 😲



🤷 This is a critique of my position, of my post 🤷

slybison8, and actually Robert Hall7 as well, are participating steadily in this topic.
Maybe this is just standard practice in Politics 🤷 🙂

Susan Price30 As specified by:
That’s just standard etiquette, really. If you disagree with someone, you should be able to dismantle their point using actual arguments right there in the discussion. You shouldn't be filing complaints against a Moderator just because someone holds an opinion you don't like; everyone has an absolute right to their own perspective. After all, isn't the whole purpose of this Forum to engage in debate and present different viewpoints through reasoned argument? That’s what it's meant to be, not the alternative.😉

It’s about... labeling The communists, the old-school intelligence agents, the Nostalgics, and all that other crowd.
On the topic/topics.

The latest news is that they're calling you a tax collector. 🤣 Seriously.

slybison8 said:God, what an intense complaint regarding a symbolic one-point penalty. 🙂

Well, I suppose I should respect the effort. Even though this appeal isn't specifically directed at me, and the Forum user has made it quite clear they have no desire to discuss this specific penalty with me further, I have been officially asked to provide my statement, so I shall do so.

First off, the two posts cited by the Forum user—where he argues it's unfair that his first post received a symbolic one-point penalty while the second received nothing—actually serve to prove that the first contained ad hominem attacks, whereas the second did not.

In the first post, the sanctioned Forum user was using a derogatory nickname for another Forum user, which implies an insult; he also mentioned that person's possible geographic origin in a negative context, noting he wasn't even sure if the other Forum user was actually from Canada—which leads me to believe his target might not have been that specific individual, but rather all Americans from Canada.

The second post is not an ad hominem because the Forum user emphasizes more than once that he struggles with the mindset being discussed; if anything, the only part that could be interpreted as an ad hominem is the very end of that post, where he suggests that people demonstrating such views should perhaps leave the US.

If there is indeed an ad hominem in that second post, it is quite clearly used in a much milder form than the ad hominem found in the first, penalized post.

If my responsibility in this matter is being re-examined, I am convinced it can only be determined by concluding that the penalized post should have actually received the standard 45-point penalty for insulting a Forum user, or perhaps even a harsher one due to the collective disparagement of Americans from Canada—meaning, I guess, that I was too lenient toward the appellant, rather than being too strict.

I also want to state very clearly that, as a Moderator, I do not maintain any "blacklists." Up until this moment, I wasn't even aware that the author of this appeal was the same person who wrote the post accusing me of "fleeing America." I generally don't even notice such trivial personal matters, and besides, this particular Forum user's handle is so complicated with its mix of letters and numbers that it is honestly difficult to even remember.

I don't wish to expend any more energy on the rest of the entry, as it seems to be just another significant ad hominem.

However, I would like to answer one question the Forum user posed:

I would say he is an absolutely wonderful moderator. One who holds various opinions on posts but, unlike the appellant, always respects other Forum users as individuals regardless of the differences in our content. A moderator who is free-thinking and independent enough to clearly identify the symptoms of state repression against certain American citizens and call them what they are: despotic, totalitarian, and dictatorial behavior stemming from the unfortunate and shameful legacy of the communist dictatorship we all once lived under.

I am glad that Steven King74 recognized this.

Respectfully,

PL

I would say that it is... An absolutely stellar Moderator. What does he really think about the enrollment process? He’s got plenty of opinions, but unlike that one person complaining, He always maintains a level of respect for other Forum users as individuals. Regardless of how much our posts might differ in content.
How exactly did you label my post—pathetic, miserable, and demagogic—that I felt the need to jump in and respond?

First off, if you want to show some respect to other Forum users, you shouldn't be using that kind of language. Instead, you should actually state exactly which part of the post you disagree with.

You’re such a fantastic moderator, it really shows. Discussions regarding Fiscalization.So, where can one actually go to read about this? Ohoho. The less fortunate ones. posts.

I wasn't exactly sure how things worked on the Politics board; I honestly thought that kind of approach was perfectly acceptable and standard for this place. Eventually, though, I just lost my patience and filed a report against one specific post. To be honest, I can't even remember exactly what I wrote in the report itself. The post has since been deleted, and I have no idea if any sanctions were actually handed out. But that was just that one single instance—everything else consists of a massive amount of other posts, many of which are similar or almost identical to it.

I’m not entirely sure which moderator stepped in, but here we go—just a few highly questionable, completely irrelevant posts surfacing in a thread where they clearly don't belong. An absolutely brilliant Moderator. slybison8 participated

Just some examples:

This administration is utilizing... Gebelso's propaganda...who actually blamed the walls for the crisis.

Here we go again, back to the same old rhetoric about Goebbels and the Jews.

My dear. The breeding grounds of bureaucratic cancer.Look, you're just one of those tax-obsessed bureaucrats—and honestly, you probably belong in that same group—constantly acting like you're superior while showing off nothing but pure arrogance.

Linić and his crew. Fascists.

Linić's With the lawyers...., You aren't as stupid as Linić and his crowd. Regarding the IRS.... Linic's Fascist. izjava:...

Linić... just pure terror from the Linić camp. From a legal standpoint....Linić's I'm still waiting for the specific details or context you want me to tackle. Just give me the prompt or the content you need me to rework, and I'll get to work on it.

SA tax genius

Linic's SA lawyers

I almost forgot about slybison8 as a forum user, at least one post:

You have established a quasi-Nazi control system
in America.

And finally, yesterday slybison8 wrote a warning post on the thread: let's try to restrain ourselves from discussing whether the Minister has children or not and how that affects his work, or this recent stuff about certain rumors suggesting illnesses and similar nonsense.

Some context for that post: it was only after this thread was opened that PL "remembered" he should rein in some forum users; meanwhile, everything he mentions—whether someone has kids, illnesses (presumably mental, since that was also being discussed on the thread)—has all been allowed to run wild, and it's all sitting right there on the thread about Fiscalization. It's just like this post, for example:

There is plenty more on the thread where PL participated quite regularly; I've linked part of it in the first post.

lp

electrictrucker18 said:Or, I don't know, maybe they could just take a page out of Oscar Wilde's book instead?😁

The only way to truly overcome temptation is to surrender to it completely. If you try to fight it, you just end up wounding your own soul; you create this agonizing ache of longing for a fulfillment that you’ve intentionally denied yourself, leaving you to starve for...

wearyowl29

crimsonjackal63 said:Fine. Let’s drop the chicken and egg nonsense.😁

I’d argue that the START and the END are actually one and the same—if it weren't for the fact that there's a JOURNEY you have to take to get from point A to point B. As long as that journey is happening, they aren't one single thing, regardless of whether you view time as linear or some non-linear mess.

The problem is, there isn't really a distinct path between a beginning and an end (or back again). The journey itself exists independently of wherever you decide to mark the start or finish lines. It’s much more like a river, where you can't truly pinpoint a single source because it's formed by the convergence of countless tiny trickles of energy acting as "sources." And you can't define an endpoint either, because it eventually disappears or flows into somewhere beyond your field of vision. Part of its trajectory is always a hidden component, shaped by currents we can't even begin to map.

A few days ago, I tried to trigger a password reset, but ever since then, the system keeps logging me in as "Sarah Cooper58," which isn't me at all. My actual account is tomasini76—my post count is significantly lower than hers—yet somehow I’m stuck under her profile and can't access my own. Every time I attempt to reset my credentials, I get an automated email addressed to "Dear Sarah Cooper58,
Your password has been reset as requested. Your new login details are:
Username: Sarah Cooper58..." So, what am I supposed to do about this?!