Let's Get Rid of the Politics Forum

[spudcon]

Let me know when you do Jim. It'll be fun to watch.

[lumberjim]

You'll know because Chuck Norris will be ass raped by Jesus in there

[lookout123]

Obviously Jinx will be doing the heavy lifting then.

[sexobon]

@ lumberjim (the first Dwellar to greet me in the Cellar way back when).

If you're just venting, disregard the following:

WE don't need no stinkin' Politics forum: we have the capability to start a non-stinkin' Politics social group. Follow UT's modus operandi and start a moderator nomination thread for the person Dwellars would like to see create and moderate the Politics social group. After an ample time period, start a voting thread for Dwellars to choose from among those who have accepted the nomination. Announce the communities choice and let us create our own modus vivendi.

The social group would be able to initiate its own topics for discussion; or, rip off threads from the Politics forum that have turned sour. The additional moderation will keep out the riff raff. Show them how it's done. It's about time someone used the social groups feature for constructive purposes.

Administrator's and Moderators' input welcome.

[gvidas]

Isn't this just a microcosm of american culture in the internet age? We can get the news that agrees with our held opinions, so actual research or honest inquiry tends to get short-circuited into some more superficial emotional satisfaction. And anyone can find a semi-credible source to back up just about anything, so all things boil down to a mixture of personal values (what do you think is most important, and what's the best way to get there?) and some debate of whose sources are more credible (which any honest look at requires you to first admit that your sources are not necessarily credible, which takes a fairly serious amount of chutzpah.)

I guess my point is that what we're seeing in Politics here is kind of what we're seeing in culture nation-wide, and, apparently, the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to grow -- there's talk of the coming "left-right populist revolution" or something to that effect.

So if it is just a microcosm, it's only fair to see it play out: indeed, to try to accelerate it, to find a solution to it here. Because what is the cellar if not sort of a weird petri-dish-kind-of-thing that we can poke and prod, and sometimes get poked and prodded by?

[ZenGum]

This thread has got political ... yet insightful. Reasonable even. Cept that bit about Chuck Norris.

[Pete Zicato]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

This thread has got political ... yet insightful. Reasonable even. Cept that bit about Chuck Norris.

I think LJ was disappointed to find out that Chuck Norris is a vocal Christian.

[lumberjim]

Originally Posted by Pete Zicato

I think LJ was disappointed to find out that Chuck Norris is a vocal Christian.

not disappointed that he is Christian.... That's assumed in the US. Disappointed that he seems rather zealous about his Religion. That's one of my turn offs.

[Pete Zicato]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

not disappointed that he is Christian.... That's assumed in the US. Disappointed that he seems rather zealous about his Religion. That's one of my turn offs.

Yes. I know.

It doesn't seem as big a deal to me. He hasn't tried to twist my arm yet, so I'm happy he's got something to be passionate about.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

not disappointed that he is Christian.... That's assumed in the US. Disappointed that he seems rather zealous about his Religion. That's one of my turn offs.

And he wears a toupee.

[DanaC]

The politics thread is as subject to fashions and fads as any of the others. It'll swing back again.


I don't really look at it as 'going into the politics forum'. half the time i don't even notice which forum a thread is in; it's just all in the New Posts category. I do know there are some threads which, though I occasionally skim through to see what they're up to, have become more or less unreadable. But there are usually some interesting little sections of the discussion in amongst the tedium and destruction.

[DanaC]

I don't avoid political threads; but there are certain dwellars and/or subjects I tend to avoid engaging with at a political, or at a serious level. From time to time I forget I'm avoiding them and get drawn in by my own curiosity. But...at that point I'm often just throwing in the odd double entendre.

I don't really have much of a heart for political discussions here, of late. There's only so much searing anger I can handle at any one time. And the landscape is strewn with boobytraps and populated by wolves, ready to ascend on the unwary who has dared to write their post whilst sitting at the computer, in their pants, eating cereal; thereby falling short of the astounding peer-review quality, properly and exhaustively researched, fully spellchecked political argument we apparently see as a minimum standard.

If I sit round a pub table talking politics with mates, we're not correcting each other's grammar; or demanding we present our findings fully supported and properly referenced. But this seems to characterise much of the political discussion here at the moment. Some of it is justified, some of it is funny, but some of it is petty and not much fun to watch, or get involved in. It's like there's some hidden rule which states that, the second a topic becomes political, people start sharpening their weapons.

It's like, in the big online games, there's often a separate arena area where players can take their avatars and beat the shit out of each other with gay abandon. Normal game rules are suspended. The politics forum seems to have morphed into a free for all arena. Which occasionally then spills into the rest of the forums. Some of the stuff people say to each other once a thread has become political in nature, just bypasses anything approaching civility.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by DanaC

I don't avoid political threads; but there are certain dwellars and/or subjects I tend to avoid engaging with at a political, or at a serious level. From time to time I forget I'm avoiding them and get drawn in by my own curiosity. But...at that point I'm often just throwing in the odd double entendre.

Same here. There's just too much heavy lifting separating the wheat from the chaff. 1 or 2 informative posts on either side of a position mixed in with a dozen 'nyah nyah' posts.

BTW, I've been keeping it a secret until now and it's still in the development stage, but I am working on the world's first triple entendre. Prepare to be amazed.

[lumberjim]

so, what are you trying to say?

[Pie]

Not gonna read on the politics forum, in no particular order:
tw, radar, merc, ug, redux & classic.

Now, if I could only get an 'ignore' feature that was politics-specific, all would be fine.