I just made this up, i'm taking a chemestry class, which isn't really relevent, but i think this is good stuff:

Alright, it works like this:

To start. You have a bunch of people you believe strongly enough in their beliefs that they are willing to search out the web in order to bring to light other people. In general. They don't care what those people are saying of course.

There are some moderates. you'd think they'd be a factor, but they arn't, because of an effect that i call the "radical selective ignorance" effect.

This effect, and it's rather dramatic, is based on the simple princible that there are many different degrees of people, but the radicals on either side, who generally start the posts, would rather respond to the most radical or simply the dumbest of their opponents.

This has the combined effect of tossing the middle out of the crowd, because the middle is to a sense ignored by either side. The moderates go home because there is nothing to talk about for them.


So, it's either this or JP5 is a board troll. I can't decide.

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"The belief that nothing exists outside your own mind--surely there must be some way of demonstrating that it was false" - 1984