Politics- suggestion

@RiotDemon Yeah…wishful thinking it is…two of them just got bumped just to bump them.

@mike808

@joelmw It’s a couple factions, by my estimation. One of them is more out of step with more people in this area.

@InnocuousFarmer @joelmw The person posting from the less popular faction has stated he is posting in response to some hateful topics by a person from the more popular faction. Maybe that’s where to start with a solution?

@joelmw @sammydog01 I mean that sounds good to me, but the tried and tested approach is to work on the assumption that nobody is mature enough to ever have a discussion in text with good faith and good intentions. That might be easier.

@InnocuousFarmer @joelmw So true. I’m happy if people take out all their aggressions in the political threads instead of sprinkling them all over the place. I just want to look at puppy photos in peace. If insane topics keep my puppy photos politics free it’s a small price to pay.

@InnocuousFarmer @joelmw @sammydog01

/youtube puppies

@InnocuousFarmer @joelmw @llangley@sammydog01 @tinamarie1974 OMG I’m a cat person but this made me want a puppy!

@Willijs3 +1 I have quite a few friends (and I’m talking 30+ years of friendship in some cases) who are on the opposite side of the political spectrum from me. And at least one close friend/coworker who started on the opposite side and has gradually shifted over the years to agree with me on many issues. But they are all good people, even if we disagree on some things.

@macromeh @Willijs3 Similar to your situation I also have friends who are going to vote very differently than I am (and because I live in an area where most of the people are on one side of the political spectrum my vote is likely futile but I am still voting anyway). We don’t talk politics - we didn’t even discuss that we were going to do this, we just automatically didn’t. And if we hit a topic that it turns out has been politicized even though it is, for example, science, and shouldn’t have been (covid for example) we back off and don’t talk about that either. it is a mutual action on each of our parts. It is what adults do. If we didn’t respect each other we wouldn’t be friends.

Creating just a topic for politics - yes some will comply and some won’t - unfortunately still doesn’t mean there will be adult behavior on those threads with some. Because, of course, there are people in this world who don’t act like adults, don’t respect select others and behave poorly, including some on here, on these kinds of topics or in how they choose to treat select others they disagree with, don’t like, etc. Self policing just doesn’t work with those folks. And on online forums then some kinds of explicit limits and then moderation when/if they aren’t followed, unfortunately, is generally required.

I think the other reality is that this is a company owned forum and they can do what they want with it, even if we disagree. Of course in this particular case they mostly let things go where they go and manage with a light touch (although for a while there they were deleting cyber bullying, trolling others - that has unfortunately stopped - and are still deleting spam) and so i think we tend to forget they don’t have to do that. That forum members have input into the direction of the forum is great - but in the end the company can still make the rules because it is their forum.

@Kidsandliz I don’t think I could respect someone I couldn’t talk to. I could see avoiding topics because they’re hard work, but only to a degree.

I wish people spent more effort on developing mutual comprehension, but they couldn’t begin that effort without first relieving themselves of the effects of ideological distortions. Nobody seems to want to play that game.

Not that meh’s the best place for that. I don’t see any place for it, though.

@InnocuousFarmer In an ideal world I’d agree. In that county only 286 people voted for whom I voted for. The rest of the entire county (of the people who voted) voted differently. I have never lived in a place that is as rabidly close minded as here. Sometimes life has compromises that aren’t ideal. And outside of politics I enjoy the friends I have. We have interests in common, we help each other out… we do the things friends do.

@Kidsandliz Yeah. Maybe I just need another few years. It’s pretty hard for me to decide where the line is between childish avoidance and mature pragmatism / being a normally socialized adult. It does seem to me like people could be induced to be better…

You don’t want to slip into the point of view that politics is the big thing to be concerned about (rather than just one thing). And no amount of wishing is going to change other people, so what then.

@InnocuousFarmer There are no good answers. Just like with some friends I don’t talk religion (I am not very religious and two of them are fire and brimstone types, another is an “alternative” big auditorium type) I don’t talk politics if I know I am facing someone firmly planted in their corner (after a few trial balloons to see what happens if there is an opening like with covid that they turned into politics and using science they had a multitude of political and fake news/China influence explanations that were firmly cast in stone). While the election this time around is critically important, so are friendships. I am not going to change their minds and it isn’t worth sacrificing a friendship over it provided they also behave maturely on the subject too (which all of my friends do or likely I wouldn’t have been friends with them to begin with).

@medz
why?

@medz @mick
Why do you ask?
Alphabetical order.

Oh, and … uh … reasons.
https://keepamericagreat.com/

@mick because it’s better than Trump

@medz I imagine y’all can guess for whom I’ll be voting, and while one ticket is enormously preferable to the other and more rational than the other, let me just say, in a spirit of bipartisanship, I’m not enthused about any of the four candidates or either of the two entrenched parties.

/giphy meh