Just Thinking About Our No-Politics Rule

I think I have been a member since 2014 or 2015, maybe earlier, but before I joined, I would watch and read the comments. When Politics where allowed here, it got mean at times. Some people can’t debate and keep their temper. Others just posted mean statements that were meant to sting.

The owner of this forum made the best decision by deleting the Politics category.
 

Paco Dennis said:
One of the most infamous cases about the difference in the way facts are perceived is the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Did O.J. get away with murder?
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I would think that question is more of a perception that hinges on the understanding of the phrase, "get away with".
If the question was "Did OJ murder his wife", there is a truth concerning that reality, even if we don't really know it for sure. The fact is independent of whether we know it.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
While I'm not as senior a member as hollydolly, I was here when politics was a forum category. It was not a really civil discussion, it was running arguments, with post after post of angry, personal attacks. But the hostility didn't stay in the "politics" section, it spilled into every other topic. I was kind of upset with the ban on politics, but after a while, instead those "pig headed idiots" became friendly daily visitors. I agree with hollydolly that banning politics was a good decision that saved the forum.
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Exactly that..(bolded)... if people disagreed with another poster over a political stance or belief, they were often hounded and ridiculed on every other thread...
 

Politics is everywhere and can’t be ignored.

But, bare faced political discussions on sites like this rarely change minds and even more rarely settle things. In reality half the country does not hate the other half. But, we have been told the other half hates us because that is good for ratings, raising money, and personal success. And in some cases it‘s a weapon used by enemies of our country to divide and conquer.

Relax. Love your neighbor. Don’t return hate with hate. If a person insists on being politically obnoxious, avoid them.
 
I like free speech. The extreme hatred is everywhere in America which is sad to see but silencing everyone isn't the solution. I can find something good and likable about everyone and focus on that. Then there is no hatred even if our opinions differ. To me this is a solution. :)
 
Pepper said:
What about actual FACTS? How have they become so twisted? How can Facts be perceived differently?
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Sorry to sidetrack but whenever I hear the word "fact" this stanza from a Talking Heads song always pops in my mind. And this is from a song that is 41 years old now !

"Facts are simple and facts are straight
Facts are lazy and facts are late
Facts all come with points of view
Facts don't do what I want them to
Facts just twist the truth around
Facts are living turned inside out
Facts are getting the best of them
Facts are nothing on the face of things"

I can state that it is 77F outside right now and I am sure that on some social platforms someone would want to argue with me about it being 77F ;)
 
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AnnieA said:
I don't think the average poster on most boards realize that some people are paid to post in support of a political candidate, ideology etc. It gets pretty easy to spot them once you know.
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Interesting, quite frankly I've not spotted any such posters here, but I suppose I'll just have to try harder.
 
bobcat said:
Well, truth is independent of perception. Something can be true, even if no one on the planet believes it to be true, and conversely, something can be false even if everyone believes it to be true.

Our experience of reality, on the other hand, is subjective, and therefore reliant on our perception. We use language to describe things, and language is malleable, interpreted, and often misunderstood. But none of this alters truth. I may say it is true or false, but it doesn't make it so, or alter facts.
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💯

Edit: I know everyone hates lawyers(including lawyers!) but the legal system was designed to extract the truth from the myriad of falsehoods. Doesn't always work as planned, as every human system is vulnerable to corruption.
 
Nathan said:
💯

Edit: I know everyone hates lawyers(including lawyers!) but the legal system was designed to extract the truth from the myriad of falsehoods. Doesn't always work as planned, as every human system is vulnerable to corruption.
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I suppose you are correct and even though “the legal system was designed to extract the truth from the myriad of falsehoods,” it doesn’t always work that way. That statement made me curious last evening as to how many times I appeared in court to give testimony in my 37 years as a State Trooper. To even my surprise, I counted over 250 different days I spent in court. When I got to 250, I quit counting.

During that time, I have seen lawyers argue with other lawyers. Four times I saw 2 lawyers actually fighting in the hallway outside the courtroom and I had to step in and breakup the fights. Once, I had to arrest an attorney for threatening to kill another lawyer. One lawyer was threatened by his client “in court” and the lawyer pulled a gun on him. How did he get his gun into the courtroom? Only Sheriff deputies and myself are allowed to carry a weapon into the courtroom.

I have seen lawyers come into the courtroom as a defendant for stealing their client’s money. There was an attorney that mostly dealt in real estate transactions. He collected over $1million that was to be deposited into escrow accounts. Instead, he deposited over half of that amount into his own account. He was found guilty on 3 counts and was sentenced a month later to 3 years in prison, along with being disbarred at a trial a few years later and before his release from prison. He served all 3 years,

I don’t have any scientific survey to support my estimation, but I would “guess” that over 90% of lawyers are honest and work hard for their paying clients. I can’t say that for public defenders, who I notice only work hard for their clients if it’s a high profile case for that area.

I remember an old joke that was passed around between law enforcement officers years ago:
Q: “What’s a damn shame?”
A: “A bus load of lawyers going over a cliff with one empty seat.”

I will leave it there.
 
Nathan said:
💯

Edit: I know everyone hates lawyers(including lawyers!) but the legal system was designed to extract the truth from the myriad of falsehoods. Doesn't always work as planned, as every human system is vulnerable to corruption.
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Lawyers were hated in former times too. It was the German monk Martin Luther, who wrote: "Juristen, böse Christen" (Lawyers, evil Christians).
 
hollydolly said:
Exactly that..(bolded)... if people disagreed with another poster over a political stance or belief, they were often hounded and ridiculed on every other thread...
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So ...... would it not be better to block that ill behaving person/poster , than to block a topic of interest to the rest of us ?

A topic by the way that affects all of us ...... the governing of our country.
 
My last post brought to mind of a lawyer that was brought to court for ‘evidence tampering.’ This was in Allegheny County and the courthouse was in Pittsburgh, which was the County Seat. I only had to testify for the evidence that I had logged in. This gives the defense attorney an opportunity to cross examine me and of course, like most attorneys will do, they attack the witness’s credibility.

There is an old saying among lawyers that was told to me. “Never ask a witness a question that you don’t already know the answer to.” The defense attorney asked me, “How did you happen to find the private and well hidden document that he wrote to Mr. George?” My answer was simple, “I had a search warrant. That means I conduct a thorough search. Maybe next time, you should tell your client not to leave evidence lying around where a cop with a search warrant will find it.” Of course, there was an objection, but it was overruled.

I looked at the judge and he was half smiling and nodding his head. He told me later at lunch, “That was a great comeback.”
 
rgp said:
So ...... would it not be better to block that ill behaving person/poster , than to block a topic of interest to the rest of us ?

A topic by the way that affects all of us ...... the governing of our country.
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If that were to be the case, several people would have been blocked. It wasn’t just a few posters that posted not so nice posts, but several posters. It also went beyond posts. Individuals were getting PM’s denouncing their opinion, which in turn causes the person receiving e nasty PM to return the favor and then on and on it goes.

I wrote a neutral post when the debate came up over the Bush votes in Florida. I only wrote “The vote counters thought they were following the rules they were given.” There was a comment about not counting the votes with the hanging chads. That went on for days as I remember it. We don’t want to go there again. It got ugly and I received 3 PM’s that weren’t complimenting me on my spelling.
 
911 said:
If that were to be the case, several people would have been blocked. It wasn’t just a few posters that posted not so nice posts, but several posters. It also went beyond posts. Individuals were getting PM’s denouncing their opinion, which in turn causes the person receiving e nasty PM to return the favor and then on and on it goes.

I wrote a neutral post when the debate came up over the Bush votes in Florida. I only wrote “The vote counters thought they were following the rules they were given.” There was a comment about not counting the votes with the hanging chads. That went on for days as I remember it. We don’t want to go there again. It got ugly and I received 3 PM’s that weren’t complimenting me on my spelling.
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So, it ran it's course .... and your still here. IMO, that is the way it should be .

Burying one's head in the sand is never the answer to anything !

And , IMO the broader the base of opinion, the better .
 
I have my own views on most everything and arguing over how I feel or don't feel about a certain subject on a keyboard is not going to convince me to change my views nor am I going to convince you to change yours.

I never participated in the political forum when we had one but did on occasion look at the conversations and you could plainly see that the threads were sometimes heated and created animosity between forum members which you could tell their feeling toward each other also carried over into other non political threads.....initiating a no politics policy is the best thing that ever happened on SF.
 
rgp said:
So, it ran it's course .... and your still here. IMO, that is the way it should be .

Burying one's head in the sand is never the answer to anything !

And , IMO the broader the base of opinion, the better .
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I never posted in Politics. I am like many others. We don’t debate Politics or the Bible. Never, ever.

There are plenty of Politic forums online. Pick one and go have your fun there.
 
rgp said:
So ...... would it not be better to block that ill behaving person/poster , than to block a topic of interest to the rest of us ?

A topic by the way that affects all of us ...... the governing of our country.
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A well considered response - which would involve extra duties for the mods or however has the power to block ? worthy of a try for freedom of speech?
 
While I would agree that any discussion involving parties or personal choices for political office are possible land mines, it would seem that all political topics may not suffer that fate.

For instance: I would be curious to know how others feel about whether any president should have the authority to pardon someone convicted of a crime. Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems that is why we have a legal system. Why give any president the power to overturn the work of the courts. Hopefully a discussion like that would be possible, but maybe it's not. I don't know.
 
Heard mentality? Are humans so gullible they cannot decipher what is really happening around them. People have forgotten how to think and reason for themselves while desiring to be a part of something they feel will change the world.
What in the world are media influencers and why do they exist? Sign of the times, society is overly dependent on media influencers and their followers. No one thinks for themselves anymore, sadly we go along with people who somehow knows best for me based on popularity.
 
Mr. Ed said:
Heard mentality? Are humans so gullible they cannot decipher what is really happening around them. People have forgotten how to think and reason for themselves while desiring to be a part of something they feel will change the world.
What in the world are media influencers and why do they exist? Sign of the times, society is overly dependent on media influencers and their followers. No one thinks for themselves anymore, sadly we go along with people who somehow knows best for me based on popularity.
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I get your point, although I think the claims are overblown. There are a great many people who think and reason for themselves independently. There are many right here on this forum.

Nevertheless, to your point, the reason media influencers exist is because they do work on many who won't bother to do any research on their own. They are either too busy, too trusting, or too easily swayed by shallow arguments.

Stephen Colbert branded the term "Truthiness". You put a decorative photo next to a claim, and people are willing to swallow the bait. It doesn't work well on skeptical people, but it works well enough on the others to justify the effort. Media can be a powerful tool in society, and that's why we need to all be skeptics, IMO.
 

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We get it, the "no politics" rule is meant to keep things civil and avoid heated campaign arguments. But here's the thing: politics are more than just elections and shouting matches. They're the foundation of our daily lives!

Traffic lights and road signs? - Enforced by laws passed by politicians.
The quality of your local schools? - Affected by education budgets set by elected officials.
The safety of your neighborhood? - Influenced by policies on policing and crime prevention.
How much you pay in taxes? - Determined by government spending priorities.
Your access to affordable healthcare? - A major political debate point.
Even environmental regulations that keep our air and water clean? - Stem from political decisions.

Politics touch everything from the potholes on your street to the price of groceries. By discussing these issues respectfully, we can be more informed citizens and make our communities better.

Let's keep the conversation going, but leave the campaigning at the door! :)
 
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