Is Boards.ie Extremely Right-Wing?

Saruhashi

Saw this on Twitter comparing Boards.ie to Stormfront.

*Takes a look at boards.ie to see if it's still stormfront-lite*
Ah, so they've just ditched the "lite"

https://twitter.com/CaseyExplosion/status/884753135893446656

Stormfront is basically an extreme right wing, white nationalist, white supremacist, neo Nazi website.

My feeling about Boards is that it is actually not Right Wing at all. In fact, many posters are strongly, and rightly, against any kind of Neo-Nazi or White Supermacist/Nationalist views.

Would anyone on here even admit to being in agreement with White Supremacy?

Where does this reputation come from?

Ubbquittious

You get all sorts on boards

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

Saruhashi

Ubbquittious wrote: »

You get all sorts on boards

Enough to compare the entire site to extreme Right Wing sites like Stormfront?

begbysback

I hope not, otherwise it's gonna fly around in circles

Saruhashi

draiochtanois wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I'd say they are marginalized views and not really all that common.

Most of the threads on here have nothing to do with race or politics at all.

So it's surely not justified to compare Boards to some NeoNazi site?

bodice ripper

While the number of right wing weirdos on boards is depressing, that number is small enough that you would need to be very delicate indeed to liken it to stormfront...

brevity

Boards is somewhere in the middle.

lazybones32

I'm a Wight-Supremacist and proud of it.
#gonightking

Effects

Racist posts crop up frequently enough. Sometimes supported by mods.

seamus

It's a little more right-wing than you would typically expect from online Ireland.

Largely down to quite a bit of sock-puppeting a multi-accounting designed to give the impression of support for particular viewpoints. People with strongly right-wing views have a tendency to engage in a kind of guerilla posting where they'll use account for a short while, then close it and reappear on another account. To the outside observer there appears to be a large number of right-wing posters engaging on a topic, when in reality there may be 2 or 3 individuals behind 10-20 accounts.

The extreme left engage in this too, but to a lesser degree.

You also have to remember that one of the rules of Twitter is that you must use as much hyperbole as possible. There is no middle ground on Twitter. Everyone is either a Nazi or a Communist. So view the quoted Tweet in the OP in that context.

The_Valeyard

I always thought of Boards as a hang out for the Far Left or Liberal brigades.




So..... Meh, no idea.

Blowfish

Boards has been called both 'extreme right wing' and 'extreme left wing' multiple times over the years, in other words you can't keep all the people happy all the time, the best you can do is have both sides complaining in roughly equal amounts.

Chips Lovell

Moral of the story? Don't believe everything you read on Twitter.

Jawgap

Saw this on Twitter comparing Boards.ie to Stormfront.

I read this as "Stormont......and assumed it was something to do with Shinnerbots......:D:D:D....

Saruhashi wrote: »

........

Would anyone on here even admit to being in agreement with Withe Supremacy?

Where does this reputation come from?

and yes, I believe in "Withe Supremacy" which I believe was at its peak in 1982......

Peter Withe (born 30 August 1951 in Liverpool) is a much-travelled English footballer who played as a striker between 1971 and 1990. He has also worked as a manager, predominantly in south-east Asia.

The highlights of his career came at Aston Villa, where he was a key player in the Football League title triumph of 1980–81 and scored his side's only goal in their 1982 European Cup Final victory.

judeboy101

From my experience, boards is mainly lefties and Joe reds.

The_Valeyard

Blowfish wrote: »

Boards has been called both 'extreme right wing' and 'extreme left wing' multiple times over the years, in other words you can't keep all the people happy all the time, the best you can do is have both sides complaining in roughly equal amounts.

So if both sides are unhappy, your doing something right.

BillyBobBS

Tbh it is one of the more liberal sites iv'e come across in my view.

enricoh

Meh, some left wing fella doesnt win his argument on boards and decides to calls it neo nazi, breitbart etc to his followers on twitter.
Hardly earth shattering stuff

Saruhashi

Jawgap wrote: »

and yes, I believe in "Withe Supremacy" which I believe was at its peak in 1982......

Hey, I am so against it I can't even spell it properly!

Get on my level!

branie2

I don't think so

Grayson

I guess it depends on your point of view. If you enter one of the "muslim" threads you'll see loads of right wing nutjobs advocating for everything from mass deportations to registering every muslim. You'll also see people arguing with them.

So if you're right wing you'll see a load of lefties ganging up on some perfectional rational right wing people.

If you're left wing you'll see a load of right wing guys ganging up on some lefties.

Pixel Eater

Er, Boards.ie is a forum website covering a plethora of wide ranging subjects involving thousands of people with very different ideas and opinions. Equating it with another website that is about an extremely narrow, fringe political group is not comparing like with like; in fact it's downright idiotic.

And who is 'Casey Explosions' anyway?! Some gob****e on Twitter posting a constant stream of inane twaddle is hardly to be taken seriously.

kunst nugget

judeboy101 wrote: »

From my experience, boards is mainly lefties and Joe reds.

I think on boards.ie you see the enemy you want to see…

Saruhashi

Grayson wrote: »

I guess it depends on your point of view. If you enter one of the "muslim" threads you'll see loads of right wing nutjobs advocating for everything from mass deportations to registering every muslim. You'll also see people arguing with them.

So if you're right wing you'll see a load of lefties ganging up on some perfectional rational right wing people.

If you're left wing you'll see a load of right wing guys ganging up on some lefties.

OK but if you go to Stormfront (don't) I can guarantee you that you won't find people promoting left wing views.

You won't find people on Stormfront saying "this White Supremacy thing is garbage". They are ALL white supremacists.

That's the difference with Boards. You get to see the arguments taking place. You get to see both sides fighting it out and you can make up your own mind.

It's not one sided so it can't be described as being comparable to a white supremacy site. As far as I have seen, anyone posting Far Right views here will be openly challenged.

osarusan

Can't we agree that we're all just a bunch of lonely spoofers?

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

s3rtvdbwfj81ch

Amazing assertion, Boards is rabid left wing in both tone and editorial bent.

johnnyskeleton

Last time I checked, the only clear bias on boards.ie was a penchant for penis jokes.



They mostly lean left.

osarusan

osarusan wrote: »

Can't we agree that we're all just a bunch of lonely spoofers?

lonely spoofers would be a brilliant username for someone.

ChikiChiki

I'd say most people including myself are centre right leaning with all the goings on at the minute. Of course to anyone on the left that means your a neo-nazi.

The centre right is essentially the sane middleground.

keano_afc

The_Valeyard wrote: »

I always thought of Boards as a hang out for the Far Left or Liberal brigades.




So..... Meh, no idea.

This. Boards is far more left wing and liberal than it is conservative.

The average user is mild in their opinions, there are a couple of posters who only post in thread that are related to what every their hobby horse is, for example there is one poster who only posts in welfare thread and seem to be almost obsessed with welfare its the same with other hot button issue on here immigration etc. If you only read threads like that you could be convinced Boards was very right wing but its not.

Foxhound38

Boards is fairly centrist - with most users drifting between the centre left and the centre right. To compare it to stormfront is absurd.

Politics.ie on the other hand...

Victor

As mentioned, there are hot button items. I've noticed the discourse from certain users on these become distinctly more intolerant over the last year or so. Some are outright trolls, some are troll-lite, some are neo-nazis, some are just unthinking.

Wibbs

Boards has been accused of being full of "Lefties" and has been accused of being full of "Nazis". Always by a tiny minority. Which should really tell you that it's neither. Hell, I've been accused of both and once and farcically by the same poster a year apart.

seamus wrote: »

You also have to remember that one of the rules of Twitter is that you must use as much hyperbole as possible. There is no middle ground on Twitter. Everyone is either a Nazi or a Communist. So view the quoted Tweet in the OP in that context.

Exactly. Anyone who would say Boards is anything like Stromfront is IMHO an hysteric and/or someone with a particular axe to grind and/or an idiot.

Varik

The tweet came from a former Boards mod who ****ed off about a year ago.


I'd say there's fewer on the left of things than there used to be, take a look at any traditionally left/right thread you've only got a couple of posters usually the same ones arguing their side of things on the left.

Grayson

Saruhashi wrote: »

OK but if you go to Stormfront (don't) I can guarantee you that you won't find people promoting left wing views.

You won't find people on Stormfront saying "this White Supremacy thing is garbage". They are ALL white supremacists.

That's the difference with Boards. You get to see the arguments taking place. You get to see both sides fighting it out and you can make up your own mind.

It's not one sided so it can't be described as being comparable to a white supremacy site. As far as I have seen, anyone posting Far Right views here will be openly challenged.

The lefty on Stormfront is the one saying they should be deported. The right wing one makes Himmler look rational

RayM

The posters with Stormfronty views are usually odious in every possible way, and too thick to hide it, so they (mostly) tend to get themselves banned fairly quickly. It's full of people who call themselves centrists, but are way more likely to call someone out for expressing left-wing views than right-wing ones.

So I can see why someone might think it looks extremely right-wing.

The_Valeyard

RayM wrote: »

The posters with Stormfronty views are usually odious in every possible way, and too thick to hide it, so they (mostly) tend to get themselves banned fairly quickly. It's full of people who call themselves centrists, but are way more likely to call someone out for expressing left-wing views than right-wing ones.

So I can see why someone might think it looks extremely right-wing.

You are a communist, everything else is right wing to you

tritium

RayM wrote: »

The posters with Stormfronty views are usually odious in every possible way, and too thick to hide it, so they (mostly) tend to get themselves banned fairly quickly. It's full of people who call themselves centrists, but are way more likely to call someone out for expressing left-wing views than right-wing ones.

So I can see why someone might think it looks extremely right-wing.

Tbh I think you're taking that position as someone who themselves has very left wing views.

More generally Id say boards has a moderate centre with a number of very right or left wing posters. The most depressing thing I find with boards is how unreceptive some of those are to any view that doesnt align with their worldview.

Arghus

ChikiChiki wrote: »

The centre right is essentially the sane middleground.

Everyone thinks that their political position represents the sane middleground.

Boards is slightly to the right on certain issues: look into any thread about political hot topic issues, particularly in After Hours. But I don't think that it's a conservatively inclined site in general - I think moderation is probably left leaning, which is fine by me.

Ulysses Gaze

Saruhashi wrote: »

Saw this on Twitter comparing Boards.ie to Stormfront.

*Takes a look at boards.ie to see if it's still stormfront-lite*
Ah, so they've just ditched the "lite"

https://twitter.com/CaseyExplosion/status/884753135893446656

Stormfront is basically an extreme right wing, white nationalist, white supremacist, neo Nazi website.

My feeling about Boards is that it is actually not Right Wing at all. In fact, many posters are strongly, and rightly, against any kind of Neo-Nazi or White Supermacist/Nationalist views.

Would anyone on here even admit to being in agreement with White Supremacy?

Where does this reputation come from?

He thinks Boards is like Stormfront? I guarantee he's never even been on Stormfront then.

In summation, CaseyExplosion is a clown.

RayM

tritium wrote: »

Tbh I think you're taking that position as someone who themselves has very left wing views.

I think that accusation could be thrown at anyone who has expressed any opinion on this thread.

branie2

Looks like Kerri-Ann and Kevin could be having an affair

branie2

Sorry, wrong thread!

Mr. CooL ICE

I fcuking hate left/right wing opinion arguments. Drains the bloody life out of this forum.

Why can't we talk about boobs or something?

GLaDOS

Nicolas Cage wrote: »

I fcuking hate left/right wing opinion arguments. Drains the bloody life out of this forum.

Why can't we talk about boobs or something?

Right boobs or left boobs?

branie2

With or without bra/bikini top?

Ulysses Gaze

Nicolas Cage wrote: »

I fcuking hate left/right wing opinion arguments. Drains the bloody life out of this forum.

Why can't we talk about boobs or something?

Real Boobs or Fake Boobs?

ligerdub

The moderators strike me as being quite lefty, although I guess that lefty views tend to be less controversial these days. Not wishing to be controversial but trying to silence people is more of a lefty tactic these days IMO whereas perhaps it was more of a conservative angle in the past.

By and large I'd say there is a reasonable mix of those with leftist tendencies and those with a conservative slant on boards. In both cases I think there is more a moderate slant.

To those who think this is a far right heavy site (admiteddly I didn't see any who claimed this), I'd invite them to give an example of who they are and any posts of this ilk, and of which the general consensus was agreement. Finally then there would need to be quite a few examples.

Unless that can be shown then the claim is entirely bogus.

The extremes of both left and right are both obviously drastic and potentially dangerous views, but they represent a tiny percentage of people.

Moving a step back from that what is so wrong with someone with conservative or lefty views? So long as they arrived on those views by using their brain, giving it the due consideration and rationale, and don't call out for vigilante violence then I don't see the problem.

My biggest issue is that a lot of people tend to form opinions due to herd mentality and light touch efforts to understand an issue.