JR, ignore the mongers. They are not worth wasting time on. They are fishing to divert us and every time we respond directly they succeed. Ignore them and they go away. Once in a while one is so blatant someone calls them out. And sometimes it turns out they are wrong. (A newbie called me a troll once in a nasty post when I returned after an absence of a few weeks. That didn't last long. She learned both the etiquette and the community. Now we are friends.)
Enjoy the HCR community for what it is: voices of people who are seeking to understand what is going on and how they can best respond. We don't always agree, but by and large we get along, and, more importantly, we listen to each other and sort out the places where we have different approaches. In the process, we learn from one another, and I suspect, teach those invisible readers who come by (journalists, legislators or their staff, historians, and just other people like us who are trying to learn and are not so inclined to post here as others).
Like others, I take a break from time to time, but I always come back because, dang, I just plain like the people here. And today already I learned a whole new way of thinking about something that I want to explore more. That's the point. Not to win an argument or posture, but to learn and grow.
If I didn't value the HCR community so highly, I would just ignore the conspiracy mongers.
JR, ignore the mongers. They are not worth wasting time on. They are fishing to divert us and every time we respond directly they succeed. Ignore them and they go away. Once in a while one is so blatant someone calls them out. And sometimes it turns out they are wrong. (A newbie called me a troll once in a nasty post when I returned after an absence of a few weeks. That didn't last long. She learned both the etiquette and the community. Now we are friends.)
Enjoy the HCR community for what it is: voices of people who are seeking to understand what is going on and how they can best respond. We don't always agree, but by and large we get along, and, more importantly, we listen to each other and sort out the places where we have different approaches. In the process, we learn from one another, and I suspect, teach those invisible readers who come by (journalists, legislators or their staff, historians, and just other people like us who are trying to learn and are not so inclined to post here as others).
Like others, I take a break from time to time, but I always come back because, dang, I just plain like the people here. And today already I learned a whole new way of thinking about something that I want to explore more. That's the point. Not to win an argument or posture, but to learn and grow.