Just to make it official regarding the "witch hunt" nonsense

[quote]80

The term "witch hunt" as I understand it refers to a campaign to do damage a person or group of people in the absence of justifiable reasons to do so.

The people perpetrating the original witch hunts in Massachusetts and elsewhere for the most part didn't know that their suspicions were badly off base. They didn't know about the effect of ergot alkaloids on the brain's serotonin system, yada yada yo-mama yoo-ha ding-a-dong BOO. (Sorry. That was a little tardescent.)

But we know TODAY that this was a TOTAL clustermug! The only true-life witches who ever lived were described by E. Frank Baum in his documentary "The Wizard of Oz." And I think many of those witches are now deceased.

The amount of evidence leveled against the coach of the Nike Oregon Project reached a point weeks ago at which attempting to gather more information was anything BUT a "witch hunt." In fact, given how many ex-NOPers have come forward to tell similar stories, simply dropping the chase at that point would have constituted bogus journalism.

The original witch-burners -- which should be the name of a grunge band or symphony orchestra, by the way -- were not operating on good evidence at all. They were in a collective panic, and as time went on, they continued executing people despite having no more reason to believe that they were dealing with real witches than they had at the outset.

No matter what the investigation of the NOP eventually brings to light, there will never be a time when we sit back and decide that pointing fingers at Mr. Salazar and yelling, "That guy is a shady mo-fo!" was over the top.

I don't know what the big deal is with this, though; it's not as if people on this retard-soaked message board don't routinely misuse all sorts of terms every day and at a furious rate.

Extended Metatard wrote:

The term "witch hunt" as I understand it refers to a campaign to do damage a person or group of people in the absence of justifiable reasons to do so.

i think that's basically consistent with the definition advanced by the original poster. but, as has been pointed out, it's probably wrong, at least as far as the standard definition goes. those persecutions back in the day didn't happen in the "absence" of reasons, did they? (and let's leave for another time the question of the appropriate timing of the "justification" determination--surely some portion of the mob at the time thought the campaign was justifiable, no?) wasn't it more likely we just didn't know back then what the weird beliefs/practices/behaviors signified? seems you're conceding there might have been something "off" about the folks persecuted when you make reference to the neurochemistry. i think that's why the standard definition is concerned less with reasonableness and more with orthodoxy/lack thereof. and it seems to me we might paint the situation today in much the same way.

as for the more foundational question of the "correctness" of any definition, maybe it's another "community decides" issue--sort of like the NOP issue itself. and if its community decides, maybe yours is fine, because many folks seem to be making, and be okay with making, the mistake you're making.

Keith Stone wrote:

jay walter weatherman wrote:

So from skimming your useless rant, it seems that you don't understand the meaning of at least the following terms:

1) witch hunt

2) official

3) absolve

4) has/had/have

After reading and understanding your useless response it seems you don't have even basic reading comprehension skills, or you're simply another witch-hunter trying to justify the fact that you indeed are one.

So WITCH-HUNT! WITCH-HUNT! WITCH-HUNT!

( just wanted you to start foaming at the mouth and ruin your keyboard because I think that's fun, just like you and the BroJo's think witch-hunting is fun )

I think it is obvious which one of us is foaming at the mouth, haha.

[quote]80

I love it when people throw out a historical reference when they have no concept of history. The parallels between this and Salem are actually quite legitimate.

The first one accused - Tituba - actually practiced what could certainly be construed as witchcraft. So we'll make Tituba and Salazar on par.

Sarah Osborne - next in line - quite possibly killed her husband, or conspired to do so with her younger lover, She was not ever officially brought up on charges for this though as there was no real evidence so a group of witnesses claimed they had seen her doing other "witchy" things, which she was jailed for. So Galen is Sarah Osborne. (Probably guilty of something but since no one has anything concrete, a preponderance of bizarre allegations will do.)

The nuclear circle then went to people no one really liked and definitely had their faults (Giles Corey for example). Once again there is no physical evidence of an actual crime but a group of people all making allegations of random wrongdoing is sufficient to jail, stone (pressing actually), etc. (Centro = Corey?)

Throughout the whole thing, no one who was beloved in town (oh let's call them Lernard Bagat) or seemed to confess to doing things but only because they were compelled to by the witches (Gara Coucher) ever went down for witchcraft. You could also confess to witchcraft (doping) but so long as you named people who were higher on the hitlist than yourself, you got off scot-free. (What are we at, 14 or so people who have pretty much admitted to something but no one cares about them because it was all Alberto's fault.)

The point of witch hunts is not that they only target innocent people, it's that they use "ends justify the means" mentality. They will and always have nabbed some guilty people, as well as some innocent, as well as many not so innocent but no more guilty than their accusers.

So this is a witch hunt. Like Salem, however, the masses have decided that it is a witch hunt worth having as it could hang (not literally in this case) some people that we are pretty sure are guilty and whom we never really liked anyway.

(I can't decide if Goucher gets to be Mary Sibley or not; it kind of fits.)

I agree that "witch hunt" misses the mark as a descriptor, it is more like McCarthyism. "Are you now or have you ever been on thyroid meds? Hmmmmm?"

I don't think anyone thinks that Epstein's article in itself represents any sort of witch hunt. It's the guilt-by-association that has followed from it. Mo Farah - who is not accused of any wrongdoing by the mysterious "17"- being the most prominent example, but the accusatory tone of questions directed to Levins, Rowbury and others.

Keep American sport pure and safe from the scourge of the evil NOPers!

Man Overboard wrote:

It's the guilt-by-association that has followed from it. Mo Farah - who is not accused of any wrongdoing by the mysterious "17"- being the most prominent example, but the accusatory tone of questions directed to Levins, Rowbury and others.

LOL ... you PR Firm "fix it" boys need some knowledgeable people on the staf.. Farah doesn't train with the NOP group except on rare occasions. You can't see what is hidden away in other places far away.

Isn't Shalane Flanagan from Salem, MA? She is bewitching.

City of Salem (not Oregon) wrote:

Anyone who uses the term "witch hunt" to describe the Salazar/NOP situation might as well have made a signed statement affirming one of the following:

1. His or her IQ is somewhere in the mid-80s at the highest;

2. He or she is lying;

3. He or she is feigning having one or more of the above qualities;

So I'm going to guess that Steve Cram is a 1.

Keith Stone wrote:

The fact that your back is all up about witch-hunts being called what they are pretty much proves that they are truly witch-hunts. The official policy of Letsrun.com is everyone except the BroJos is on drugs, has been for over a decade.

9/10 for taking an extreme point of view and sticking with it.

The problem you fail to acknowledge is the long history of doping and corruption at the sports federation, Al Sal's own history of doping, the fact that 17 different people have specific allegations of Al Sal/NOP exploiting anti-doping loopholes so large a freight train can roll right through them.

So, yeah, drugs everywhere in elite IOC sports. Why? Because the IOC and sports federations are okay with doping.

But, don't let that stop you from posting a good rant.

[quote]80

City of Salem (not Oregon) wrote:

keep this website going in the face of countless trolls, sexist pigs, racists, spread-legged sluts, and worse

80 < your IQ < 90

You call people "sexist pigs" while you are actually a misogynist ("spread-leg sluts")?

The fact that he referred to "sexist pigs" and "spread-legged sluts" in close juxtaposition immediately after referring to "countless trolls" should have been a tip-off to you. In fact, even without this clue, it would have been plain to me that the poster was engaging in a bit of playful intentional irony, i.e, trolling. Yes indeed; trolling-trolling-trolling, keep those RETARDS bowling. Or something like that.

Anyway, you were saying something about metrics of human intelligence?

Salem Historian wrote:

The parallels between this and Salem are actually quite legitimate.

No, they are not. Indeed, they are bullshit, which in my dictionary is the diametric opposite of legitimate.

There would be meaningful parallels if all of the crap you said about people wanting to "hang" Rupp and Centro and Levins and others just as badly as they want to "hang" Salazar wasn't crap. But it IS crap, because so far, the truly accusatory news stories have focused to an overwhelming extent on Salazar.

The articles in the UK press about Farah have all noted that he has been accused of no wrongdoing (even though he's missed a couple of drug tests) and been slanted toward the belief that if Salazar is dirty, Mo had certainly better distance himself from Salazar. (They haven't called him a retard, even though he's been known to speak and behave like one.) An indictment of Salazar by extension, if you will. Or even if you won't; makes no diff to me, my balling brother.

Now if there were a general consensus here that every NOP athlete is guilty of breaking drug rules until proven otherwise, and I haven't seen such a consensus, then I could agree with you. But I am talking solely about the large number of people here complaining that Salazar himself is the target of a witch hunt; of rabid and unjustified accusations. Such people have probably wandered through their whole lives in a state of terrible confusion if they can believe this, and at times may require a caregiver to exchange their soiled adult diapers for clean ones.

Now, it's time for all of us agree that Salazar needs to be uprooted from the sport if not burned alive, so we can move forward and begin talking more about fun things like the impending U.S. Champs.

Extended Metatard wrote:

Now if there were a general consensus here that every NOP athlete is guilty of breaking drug rules until proven otherwise, and I haven't seen such a consensus, then I could agree with you.

Geez, are you blind? Front page right now:

OFFICIAL NOP dope Sign ideas thread for USA Championships! - EPO CHEATS OUT (everyone in NOP is on drugs)

Is Jordan HASAY in the twilight of her career? - Tiptoe through the Tulips (AlSal is drugging Hasay)

How does Jordan Hasay's lean build help her - Brit985 (another Hasay is on drugs thread)

Centro & Moser doing prerace at adidas, no Mary Cain to be found - AlSal degrees of separation (centro, Moser and Cain are all on drugs).

If it weren't for witch-hunts and right-wing conspiracy theories there'd be no threads at all.

Wow, you are angry on multiple threads today. Did your prescription run out? I'll call Walgreens for you right now if you give me the Rx number. You can trust me, I'm not like the others. The bipolar curse is tough to manage.

I went point by point detailing the parallels between Salem and NOP and you only quote/address my introductory sentence? Even for letsrun, that is disappointing. BTW - Do yourself a favor and look into what semi colons are used for; you're just embarrassing yourself.

Yes, and for obvious reasons: Those athletes you mention as being analogous to certain witches are not the targets of the BBC or any of the UK newspapers covering this story. I have already said that posts by the members of this message board can't be counted as being part of any "witch hunt." I mean; shit; no one even knows; who is making them. (This isn't true of rojo and wejo, but they have not accused any NOP athletes or figures of anything not offered in the press. They, like many of us, are merely eager for Salazar's response.

So once again, your analogy falls dismally short.

I am not sure what a "semi colon" is. I know what a semicolon is, and I know perfectly well how they're used. Perhaps my casual omission of the subject of the second clause in my example threw you off? Does "Or even if you won't; it makes no diff to me..." work for you?

Thank you so much for misusing a semi once again; that was simply beautiful. (My phone's auto correct apologizes for splicing semicolon originally.)