I don't find him the most articulate person and he stumbles in his responses but I still don't see where the offense lies. I'm not saying you don't have the right to be offended, but I understand his premise and I don't find it problematic. But I'm also not a woman either. So there's that.
Step 1: steveo asks for "proof" of an un-provable thing that no one else was even talking about
Step 2: A few people offer evidence and explain their opinions rationally
Step 3: He responds "you're so irrational and illogical that it's hilarious, this proves I am right" without really getting into the details
Step 4: Some posters continue to try and be rational while others stoop to his level and the conversation is derailed
Mods may not be 100% balanced in calling out each infraction but when someone has a history in other threads I think it's unreasonable to expect mods to ignore their history and look at each comment in a vacuum. Not to mention, mods often only see comments which get flagged. If you really want someone to get a warning for personal attacks you need to flag the comment. If you do so, you also need to keep in mind that they may have received a warning and you'll never know about it.
I haven't seen enough of his posts to develop any pattern recognition. However, in his defense, I did see at least one illogical argument in that one particular thread.
I have respect for the responsibility of a moderator. And it is very obvious when it is done well and when it is done poorly. Personally, I don't like to flag anything ( I haven't flagged anything here, not even Toque) partly because very few things truly bother me and also because I think that function gets abused. People have others do their dirty work when they should just toughen up a little.
I have. Have you been reading my posts explaining to him why people think he's trolling?
I have read your explanations. I just don't understand why you guys just can't agree to disagree. If you don't like him, just don't read his posts. But no, I don't think he's trolling. He just disagrees with you. That's just something that happens on anonymous message boards. You may disagree with what I just said and that's o.k.
I have seen the work of trolls take down good message boards. It is very disheartening, and it shows the need for good moderators. However, I have not seen anything that has remotely resembled trolling in this thread (either that or I am that gullible). What I do see is a refusal to understand that people have differing opinions and worldviews, people can vote for someone for different reasons, and that characterizing all of these people under the same umbrella is extremely counterproductive (as Hillary learned firsthand with her "basket of deplorables" comment (which, in her exact phrasing minus the "half", I actually agree with), which to Trump's Machiavellian credit he took off running with).
What I have seen here is even worse than just characterizing a whole class of people as "dumbass" or worse. The moderators have jumped in, preventing productive discussion in a "forum", where one can hope that people with dissenting opinions can become enlightened (or, God forbid, YOU might become enlightened). Listen, I disagree with a lot of what the multiple-banned poster was stating. For example, I think Trump's racism (or Machiavellianism, which isn't any better) was on display from Day 1 when he referred to Mexican immigrants as follows: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” Because really there's no evidence that any of these characteristics are more prevalent in that population than our general population. However, I know several people of Mexican heritage who voted for Trump, specifically because he's promised to do something about illegal immigration. Are these Mexican-Americans racist (or, for that matter, dumbasses), just because I disagree with who they are voting for?
It's funny that a lot of people swear they wouldn't have voted for Trump if he ran as a Democrat. What they don't realize is the Trumpian version of a Democrat is one who riles up their base about the overwhelming racism and sexism in the world, the gross inequality, the slaughter of our innocents by guns, the tyranny of the pro-life, etc., etc. These "Friends of Freedom and Equality" will ensure suppression of the "enemies of the people".
ETA: p.s. My final quote was intended as a reference to the original left (and, of course, the Reign of Terror). It dawned on me several hours later that Trump is also fond of the term. Here's an interesting article on its history, which has previously been the domain of the left:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/26/world/europe/trump-enemy-of-the-people-stalin.html.