Falcon Codes
I have found these useful in dealing with the I-P discussions, considerably reducing typing. I have applied an Air Force method of efficiently expressing displeasure and comments, called the Falcon Code, at least to I-P threads. If you are a Naval Aviator, Falcon Codes are equivalent to Echo Charlie. Continual adjustment is typical.
1. the person named is an [anti-semite] [hater of Arabs]
2. you aren't complaining about Lower South Slobovia doing this; why are you picking on [Israel][Palestine]?
3. designated politician is defying [AIPAC] [CAIR] and will pay the US domestic penalty thereof.
4. There will never be peace with [Arabs][Israelis].
5. The weapons being used offer an immediate threat of [war crimes] [genocide].
6. What [person] said is garbage and irrelevant.
7. Country X presents an immediate threat to the existence of [Israel] [Palestine] and must be dealt with harshly
8. That was a silly comment.
9. Somewhere, a village is missing its idiot
10. [Person] diverted by asking a superfluous question, rather than addressing the substance of what was posted. If, for example, someone had a plan, would they not have posted it, or just waited shyly to be asked
11. Criticism of the nation-state of Israel represents bias against Jews of any citizenship. That there are Jews of other citizenship that have no special loyalty to Israel, as they find their religion and culture respected where they live, is irrelevant to the argument. Perhaps they are self-hating.
12. I don't care if you are making a relevant comment about the general topic of the thread; my purpose here is to attack the guest poster/member of the proletariat that I hate.
Radio Operator's offerings:
Delta Foxtrot Tango=DFT=Don't Feed Troll
Delta November Romeo=DNR=Do Not Respond (or Do Not Resuscitate this thread).
October 21, 2007 5:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm. The newly preferred medical terminology is DNAR: Do Not Attempt Resuscitation, as an attempt to give laymen the dismal probability of resuscitation, especially in severe disease.
As far as radio procedure, it may be worth considering the BEADWINDOW, now a NATO and UKUSA standard. The link has a few of my observations.
--
Howard
*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]
October 21, 2007 6:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
You missed one. There needs to be an entry for the Distracting Misdirected Complaint about Ad Hominems (DIMCAH).
This isn't to be confused with Falcon Codes 6 or 12, but instead is a sort of bait and switch move more akin to Falcon Code 10. In this manouever, Operator A completely ignores the ad hominem attack initially offered by Commenter A, but instead whines loudly about the ad hominems directed at Commenter A him/herself by later Commenter B. Operator A declares this to be evidence of a Falcon Code 1 by Commenter B (this charge is generally thinly veiled), and further states that this happens all the time at TPM Cafe. Then Commenter C chimes in, confirming Operator A's assessment.
Sometimes there will be a Commenter D and E also supporting Operator A's statement that poor, poor entirely reasonable Commenter A is indeed being horribly and unfairly beaten up upon, all the while ignoring that it was Commenter A who first injected the personal attacks into the thread. I've seen this manouever put into play several times now, in multiple threads, and to someone who isn't really paying attention it is likely to be quite convincing.
The ratings system isn't very effective in dealing with this. If the first ad hominem is downrated, someone will come along and claim that it's the content that's being downrated, again apparently oblivious to the glaring ad hominem that's the obvious reason for the downrating. Any attempts to point out the workings of the strategy generally result in comments like, "Oh yeah, well why don't you ever complain about Commenter X, Y or Z" (none of whom are participating in the current thread - and as if one's downrating history of other posters is relevant to the issue anyway), which is in itself perhaps a variant of Falcon Code 2, as well as 6, 8 and 10, and maybe 1.
Perhaps you can come up with a better description, eh? The problem I see with your Falcon Codes is that if people were really to apply them consistently, in some threads there'd be little else said (although maybe that would be nice in that the amount of detritus one needs to scroll through to in order to get to any substantial discussion would be considerably reduced).
Thanks for the comic relief, Howard. :-)
"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." ~~ Abraham Maslow
October 22, 2007 12:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Let us not forget, under the rubric "ad hominimenia", the ad hominem defense, namely,
R(eciprocally) U(pgraded) B(ack) S(cratching).
Who among us, having eagerly tracked back the identity of that sagacious soul who recently gave a "5" to one of our jewels, has not found him/herself suddenly struck anew, as it were, by the pithy qualities of a previously enjoyed, if perhaps not fully admired, comment by our new BFF?
Although the furtive and fleet entry of a five for a five is not exactly worthy of a Falcon Code, it is perhaps nonetheless a forensic device.
October 22, 2007 7:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Are you sure you haven't mistaken for a RUBS what is really an ISHYSH (pronounced "ish-yish"), which refers to points given by a poster in a thread that's been overwhelmed by a very one-sided "debater," to someone finally posting a different view.
It stands for I'm So Happy You Showed (Up) Here. Although not really kosher (nor halal) per TPM Cafe ratings rules, I must admit I've been guilty of that one on occasion.
"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." ~~ Abraham Maslow
October 22, 2007 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
In the obsolete IBM Token Ring protocol, there is a message, called the token, that rotates around a logical network ring. Occasionally, I'd stir up my networking classes by inquiring if it rotated in the other direction, when in the Southern Hemisphere. The largest IBM network in the world, probably excluding IBM itself, happened to be in Australia.
When they were pondering that, I'd assume a puzzled expression and inquire, in honor of the Rita Rudner "glue" routine, "if so, does that mean that no token ring network would operate if placed on the Equator?"
My sense is that in this discussion, it would be extremely difficult to come up with a non sequitur.
--
Howard
*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]
October 22, 2007 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
You'd better get busy and develop a Falcon Code for the non sequitur as well then, Howard. My sense is that it may be sorely needed in the Israel-Palestine threads. :-)
"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." ~~ Abraham Maslow
October 22, 2007 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink