Author Topic: What ever happened to member Artiste ?  (Read 42779 times)

Offline delalluvia

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Re: What ever happened to member Artiste ?
« Reply #30 on: May 26, 2012, 08:10:04 pm »
Artiste as far as I know is doing well.  I got an invitation to his latest art thing a few months ago and was happy to see it.

I'm SO glad to hear Jess is doing well.  Her health was so threatened at one point and I was very afraid for her.

I tried to contact her twice - once directly and once through another person, but never heard back, so I assumed the worst.

I am glad I was wrong.

I go look around the Retreat from time to time, but not often anymore.  Just don't have much time these days.  I miss some of my buds who are over there though.

Offline oilgun

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Re: What ever happened to member Artiste ?
« Reply #31 on: May 26, 2012, 08:48:16 pm »
I stopped visiting the Retreat because I always felt I had to shower afterwards.  ::)

Offline Katie77

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Re: What ever happened to member Artiste ?
« Reply #32 on: May 26, 2012, 10:20:00 pm »
I stopped visiting the Retreat because I always felt I had to shower afterwards.  ::)

Its getting a bit that way here too, just like it did in the last Presidential campaign.
Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect.

It means you've decided to see beyond the imperfection

Offline Luvlylittlewing

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Re: What ever happened to member Artiste ?
« Reply #33 on: May 26, 2012, 10:26:30 pm »
Its getting a bit that way here too, just like it did in the last Presidential campaign.

Which is why people shouldn't discuss religion or politics. Discussing both will divide people faster than just about anything.  I learned that the hard way.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: What ever happened to member Artiste ?
« Reply #34 on: May 26, 2012, 10:57:02 pm »
Good God I just took a look over at the Retreat site. They should change the name to "The Old South Tea Party"


 :laugh:

On one level, that name sounds so hospitable and genteel. I picture ladies sitting on the veranda, sipping Earl Grey from fine china. On another level, it's a double whammy of scary politics.




You know, I kinda miss the conservatives.  My blood hasn't boiled much since they left.  :-\

Word.  :)




But yes, the political and social commentary here continues to provide lots of laughs over there.

This is exactly what I liked about the Retreat. I enjoyed going there in the days when they'd go on huge rants about some little thing someone from BetterMost posted and how ridiculous or evil or stupid it was. I was often the subject of those rants, and -- what can I say? I'm narcissistic enough to be interested in posts even by people who are trashing me. The ones on the Retreat were so wildly mis- and underinformed, so seething with contempt and outrage at a figure that hardly even resembled me, that they didn't hurt my feelings. They just seem odd and funny.

I think at one point I finally did ask Brokeplex to please post something correcting a rant about how, um, this particular poster was sick of writing checks to pay for my house. Hunh?? I pay for my own house! I bought it just the regular way from the woman who owned it, not with some special federal program or anything. I put half its value down when I bought it, and have never missed a mortgage payment, let alone somehow got the government to cover it for me (which I guess is what's implied by the check-writing thing). Anyway, I believe Bill did post something quite sensible in response.

At one point I even signed up for a Retreat membership! Bill had alerted me to a particularly virulent thread about something I had written that was available only to members. I signed up under a new name (can't even remember what it was, now). Jess, understandably, immediately spotted that this new member was from Minnesota, of course suspected (she was the people on the pavement!) and sent a politely worded welcoming message asking what brought me there. Unlike Ennis, I immediately told her who I was. I really wasn't into sneaking around or anything, I just wanted to access that stuff. But apparently, according to Bill, she then deleted the thread about me so I never did get to see it. I think I maybe posted there once or twice -- Bill kept encouraging me to jump right into the political arguments, because I think he likes the challenge of a debate, too. Say what you will about Brokeplex; he's not interested in enveloping himself in some kind of conservative-only cocoon.

But I had no interest in stirring up trouble there, or even getting in any big arguments. The Retreat members had very clearly indicated that they were not interested in posting here, in an environment where their views are an anathema to many other people, and where they were almost always in the minority. I am sorry about their decision, but I can understand it. So why should I invade their turf? Besides, the other site was run by a popular, charismatic, interesting and often charming leader to whom people felt a lot of affection and loyalty, and I can understand why they flocked to her.

I do have to hand it to Milo, though. Milo, you're one of the few if not the only BetterMost conservative who has hung in here. I believe it's partly because you also genuinely relish the challenge of presenting contradictory ideas, and I fully understand that impulse.

Eventually, I forgot my Retreat username and password, lost interest, didn't see as many of those anti-BetterMost posts that had held my interest. I'm not super interested in what the far right thinks about Obama. And last time I went there, like maybe four or five months ago, the Retreat seemed to consist of a lot of threads in which just one person would post every single post. So, say, Artiste would post 24 times in a row or something. I lost the URL to the site.

Brokeplex himself left, he told me, in order to spend more time on some other political site. He and I had a friendly correspondence going on for a while, and he strongly urged me to sign up at this new site. But frankly, I'm not really interested in arguing politics with strangers. If I'm going to argue politics, I want to do it with people with whom I share six years of history and a transformative-verging-on-mystical movie-going experience.





Offline oilgun

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Re: What ever happened to member Artiste ?
« Reply #35 on: May 26, 2012, 11:47:58 pm »
Actually, huntinbuddy"s dog has been our primary source of entertainment for some time now. But yes, the political and social commentary here continues to provide lots of laughs over there.

I think it's telling that they still monitor this site for content to ridicule. How pathetic can you get...And by the way, Obama will get a second term!
« Last Edit: May 27, 2012, 09:13:31 am by Sason »

Offline Monika

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Re: What ever happened to member Artiste ?
« Reply #36 on: May 26, 2012, 11:59:17 pm »
I believe the number of people quitting Bettermost over the conservatives (or as someone put it "stormed out in a huff" ::)) outnumber the conservatives who left.


Jess...I mostly remember her for the private  "welcome message" I received after only having posted here a few times.  ::)

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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Re: What ever happened to member Artiste ?
« Reply #37 on: May 27, 2012, 12:25:13 am »



I believe the number of people quitting Bettermost over the conservatives (or as someone put it "stormed out in a huff" ::)) outnumber the conservatives who left.


I believe I remember that too.


 :) ;)


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Offline Luvlylittlewing

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Re: What ever happened to member Artiste ?
« Reply #38 on: May 27, 2012, 12:46:10 am »



I believe I remember that too.


 :) ;)




Yes, I remember that, as well!

Offline magicmountain

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Re: What ever happened to member Artiste ?
« Reply #39 on: May 27, 2012, 04:59:31 am »

a transformative-verging-on-mystical movie-going experience.

Yes - amazingly that's something we all shared and mutually understood - before the evil genie of politics intervened.

That will always be true despite everything.
Remember upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all. - Alexander the Great