GatewayRedbirds.com

I think keeping the Politics forum is a good thing solely to separate out political discussion.

I remember in years past there was some issue in Social with regards to politics driving people away, but I also think that had more to do with the tones of posters than anything.

Lesson wrote: ↑

September 30 21, 2:38 pm

cardsfantx wrote: ↑

September 30 21, 2:22 pm

Lesson wrote: ↑

September 30 21, 11:39 am

Jocephus wrote: ↑

September 30 21, 10:34 am

i still think GRB is way better than CT. additionally, karps departure was definitely related to a *politics* forum/discussion. politics is nuts and in our increasing hyperized society, it easily gets out of control. as far as we know, he wasn't asked to leave or even stop his point of view posts. he made a choice and is not bound to it either.

On top of that, people were discussing his post and not making any personal attack on him.

No, not true…there were many personal attacks against him and his views. Some were deleted by mods, but a lot remain.

There were criticisms of his views, not against him personally.

again...yes...there were

cardsfantx wrote: ↑

September 30 21, 2:59 pm

Lesson wrote: ↑

September 30 21, 2:38 pm

cardsfantx wrote: ↑

September 30 21, 2:22 pm

Lesson wrote: ↑

September 30 21, 11:39 am

Jocephus wrote: ↑

September 30 21, 10:34 am

i still think GRB is way better than CT. additionally, karps departure was definitely related to a *politics* forum/discussion. politics is nuts and in our increasing hyperized society, it easily gets out of control. as far as we know, he wasn't asked to leave or even stop his point of view posts. he made a choice and is not bound to it either.

On top of that, people were discussing his post and not making any personal attack on him.

No, not true…there were many personal attacks against him and his views. Some were deleted by mods, but a lot remain.

There were criticisms of his views, not against him personally.

again...yes...there were

If I’m going to be quite honest, at least for me, it was challenging to interact or respond to his posts because of how he framed his logic.

From my perspective, I didn’t make any personal attack on him or view it as such. I can’t speak how others viewed their posts.

There were interactions that probably were overboard with some of the feedback from multiple posters, including karp. I specifically challenged his phrasing in a specific post given what he was insinuating, to which he apologized.

I don’t agree with his views at all but I can see how someone having a minority viewpoint could feel like they’re being ganged up on in a discussion and that’s been the tendency here, for better or worse. At least for the decade + I’ve been posting here.

That gang-up mentality isn’t unique to Politics, either. Also applied to BT.

When I first joined, multiple people accused me of being a second account for someone else on top of grouping up against me as well as not taking much of my views regarding baseball seriously. Some of those posters are still here, but have cut back on that tendency. Others are banned or are gone. It is what it is. Time passes. Things change.

I hate that Carp left. It was interesting reading his perspective on the vaccine but I didn't understand it.

Anyway I hope he finds his way back. I think he's a good guy.

I think you could say that last sentence about almost everyone here (except Michael). I'd bet if we all met under circumstances where we didn't know each other from here, we'd get along just fine.

The internet can be great and suck both.

Leroy wrote: ↑

October 1 21, 7:46 am

The internet can be great and suck both.

Agreed, though I think this place makes it suck less.

cardsfantx wrote: ↑

September 30 21, 2:22 pm

Lesson wrote: ↑

September 30 21, 11:39 am

Jocephus wrote: ↑

September 30 21, 10:34 am

i still think GRB is way better than CT. additionally, karps departure was definitely related to a *politics* forum/discussion. politics is nuts and in our increasing hyperized society, it easily gets out of control. as far as we know, he wasn't asked to leave or even stop his point of view posts. he made a choice and is not bound to it either.

On top of that, people were discussing his post and not making any personal attack on him.

No, not true…there were many personal attacks against him and his views. Some were deleted by mods, but a lot remain.

And he made personal attacks on more than one poster as well. I delete most personal attack type posts. But of course there's a fine line; we're adults, we can express our opinions, even if they're strongly held ones and we disagree vehemently on them. Some insults are not direct by slightly veiled or indirect. Maybe there's more the mods should be removing, but I'm also generally in favor of free speech.

I think trying to boil it down to some variation of "he was canceled because he has different opinions" is both inaccurate and facile.

The threads that connect people online are tenuous. If we were playing poker it would be so much easier to have these discussions more productively. Also, I'd be losing.

It's frustrating when someone tries to have a discussion in a Politics forum, but you're not allowed to base the discussion on things that you've read in the media, or things that science says, or numbers that governmental agencies present, etc..........because nobody is to be trusted. When that's the foundation of your position, how can you possibly have a rational discussion? He positioned himself so that EVERYTHING could be dismissed based upon that premise. That's a recipe for frustration.