What Happened When A Deluded Conservative Ventured Outside His Usual Echo Chambers & His Buddies Weren't There To Stick Up For Him?

We are more connected than ever before, more able to spread our ideas and beliefs, our anger and fears. As we exercise the right to advocate our views, and as we animate our supporters, we must all assume responsibility for our words and actions before they enter a vast echo chamber and reach those both serious and delirious, connected and unhinged ~ Bill Clinton (dob 8/19/1946) The 42nd President of the United States (1/20/1993 to 1/20/20011) who presided over a budget surplus between the years 1998 and 2000, the last three years of his administration.

What happened when a delirious and unhinged Conservative wandered away from his usual echo chambers and his buddies weren't there to stick up for him? He was so shocked he couldn't comment again. This is what happened to dmarks (real name Dennis Marks) when I encountered him recently on a blog where the proprietor did not agree with him when Dennis said I lied. The discussion that ended with Dennis running away was prompted by a post on the blog Progressive Soup titled Fox "News" Once Again Exhibits Common Nonsense.

Following is an excerpt from that discussion (I begin with a snippet from the original post by the author and proprietor of Progressive Soup, Malcolm).

Malcolm: Fox cited [The rapper] Common's spoken word poem from a few years ago ("A Letter to the Law") which includes the line, "Burn a Bush cuz for peace he no push no but-ton. Killing over oil and grease, no weapons of destruc-tion". Fox [has] devoted a lot of airtime to a fake controversy [inviting Common to the White House] in yet another effort to discredit President Obama. (Originally posted on 5/16/2011 & 6/3/2011*). dmarks: Common lied about then current events [concerning no WMD being found in Iraq]... As for Common bashing black people using the N-word, it is not even discussed here. Yes, Fox News [creates fake controversies]. And MSNBC creates fake controversies, and disagrees with Romney... Like the fake Romney bully controversy which MSNBC ran with... and it evaporated: no substance. (6/30/2013). Malcolm: ...simply using the N-word in lyrics is not bashing black people. also, do you believe that weapons of mass destruction were found?! (6/30/2013). Dervish Sanders: dmarks does [believe WMD was found in Iraq]. I have debated dmarks on this topic before and therefore know he is referring to old buried barrels of chemical weapons. But bush scared people by referring to "mushroom clouds". bush was talking about nuclear weapons or missiles or usable chemical weapons, not useless degraded chemicals in buried barrels. dmarks is wrong about Common lying. Common told the truth. bush lied about WMD. [Also, I agree with you that simply using the N-word in a song or rap is not bashing Black people], but don't try to tell dmarks that. He thinks the MSNBC personality (and African-American) Touré "bashed" Herman Cain for being Black. dmarks likes to imagine that Black people are bashing other Black people, or bashing White people. I can't think of even one instance when he complained about a White person bashing a Black person. (7/1/2013). Dervish Sanders: Romney bashed a fellow student because he was perceived to be gay. The story was TRUE. It was confirmed by multiple people, as I recall. Apparently this is a "bashing" dmarks is willing to excuse? Romney was a bully when he was young, and a bully as an adult... when he shut down companies and stole worker's pensions. An all-around bad guy. (7/1/2013). dmarks: [Dervish] is lying here on many things. The existing WMD in Iraq were prohibited by the cease fire agreements. The old weapons were usable, and were WMD and were outlawed. The accusers of Romney refused to come forward... if they ever existed. Toure did in fact bash Cain for being a typical black sexual predator. [Dervish] is also a troll who has gotten banned on many blogs. from mine for posting dozens of profanity-based comments per day in which he ranted about the length of his penis. "Common" did indeed lie. Bush told the truth. (7/1/2013). Malcolm: Dervish Sanders, thanks for stopping by. You called it correctly about dmarks referring to the old weapons as WMDs. I've gone back and forth with him on the Toure thing and as I see above, he's still at it. [He is] distorting Toure's comments about Herman Cain. What he was saying is that there are people who are still threatened by what they perceive to be predatory black sexuality. [dmarks, you have a] false narrative on Toure and you're sticking to it. dmarks, If this doesn't convince you there were no WMDs, nothing will [link to a FactCheck.org article titled "No WMDs in Iraq"]. As for the Romney incident, Phillip Maxwell (who took part in the bullying) confirmed that it happened around the time this story surfaced last year. The victim (John Lauber) has been dead for years and thus was unable to come forward. Romney's response to the accusation wasn't much of a denial. Considering the specifics given of the incident (holding someone down while you cut their hair), I don't believe Romney when he says he didn't recall it. (7/1/2013).

(The first link was inserted by me, it is to an article titled Friend: Romney "Was The Ring Leader" Of 1965 Bullying Incident. The second link is Malcolm's. It is to an article titled Bullying Story Spurs Apology From Romney.)

Dervish Sanders: I am not a troll. I posted no comments containing profanity to dmarks' blog. I never "ranted about the length of [my] penis". These are lies. Also, I have been banned from three Conservative/Libertarian blogs**, but these three people are all buddies who stick together, so it really only counts as one banning. See here for the truth regarding the first banning (from the blog of an individual named Will Hart), and here for the truth regarding why dmarks banned me from his blog. dmarks' narrative regarding Toure is indeed false. Also ridiculous. He says a Black man can "bash" another Black man for being Black. This makes no sense at all. Another false narrative that dmarks sticks to is that WMD was found in Iraq. According to the link Malcolm provided, "the ISG report was sufficient to convince the Bush administration that there were no WMDs to be found". bush should have been convinced when the IAEA told him Iraq had no WMD PRIOR to the invasion, but at least he admits he was "wrong" now, unlike dmarks. In regards to people like dmarks, FactCheck says, "we suggest ridicule". Indeed, that is all these claims warrant. (7/1/2013).

Mine is the last comment (as of the publishing of this blog post). Dennis (AKA dmarks) did not comment again. But two other things happened. First, Malcolm added me to his Google Plus Circles (click on my profile and check under "Have you in circles" to confirm).

The second thing that happened was that Dennis ran back to Willis Hart's blog to complain about his treatment at Progressive Soup. I know this because I found the following comment from him on that blog (Contra O'Reilly)...

dmarks: In fact, WD the Everlasting Blogstalker understood, it, Russ, and he whined about it in someone else's blog. So unfair. (7/1/2013 AT 3:24am).

Dennis is referring to another comment on Progressive Soup in which I called out Dennis for his overuse of the "Mom's basement" insult. Prior to me showing up Dennis had levied that particular insult (an insult wherein Dennis says whoever disagrees with him is a loser who is sitting in front of a computer located in his or her parent's basement). In response to Dennis using that insult I said, "...the mom's basement slander (when you have absolutely no way of knowing) is lame. At first I thought you were talking about me, which was weird because I hadn't commented".

Dennis did not comment again in that thread either. Instead he went running back to the Hartster's echo chamber and spun our encounter as ME whining. But, in reality, it was Dennis who was whining. Dennis was so stunned (concerning his treatment at Progressive Soup) that he couldn't comment again. He's used to Willis or rAtional nAtion sticking up for him.

So Dennis ran crying back to the open arms of Willis and complained about how I was mean to him. Then he, Willis and Rusty engaged in some "just friends spooning" and cuddled under the covers while Dennis cried it out and Willis comforted him by gently stroking his hair. At least that is how I (metaphorically) interpret Dennis' comment.

By the way, in case you're wondering WHY I chose to comment on a discussion on another blog... the reason is because Dennis is out there spreading lies about me on other blogs, and I (of course) don't like it. Commenting on the blogs of Conservatives (or Libertarians) does not make me a "troll" or an "everlasting blogstalker" (I bet Dennis thinks he is mighty clever in coming up with that). It makes me a person who is interested in what the other side is saying. A member of their own group does it. The fellow who ironically calls himself rAtional nAtion uSA posts on Shaw Kenawe's blog Progressive Eruptions.

rAtional banned me from his blog** (thanks to Dennis), but none of the mostly Left-leaning commenters on Shaw's have called rAtional a troll (to my knowledge), nor an "everlasting blogstalker". Perhaps it's because Liberals are more tolerant of differing points of view?

*Note 1: The comments from Progressive Soup are snippets (not the full comments); some of them are also the combination of 2 different comments. Although I have edited the comments, I did so only for the sake of brevity, and because I was choosing only the snippets that were pertinent to the point I was trying to make with this post... not to change the meaning of any of them. I have included a link to the original post so you can read the comment thread in full if there is any doubt. I don't want to be accused to lying by omission or of twisting anyone's words.

**Note 2: rAtional nAtion has retracted his ban, in that he usually publishes my comments (after telling me I was "banned forever"). Now and again he'll decide he does not like a comment I've submitted and decline to publish, but most of them get through.

SWTD #175, dDel #11.