[extropy-chat] Politics

[Samantha Atkins]

On Dec 27, 2005, at 2:56 PM, Harvey Newstrom wrote:

>
>> On 12/27/05, Samantha Atkins <sjatkins at mac.com> wrote:
>>> I have seen topics purged to
>>> other lists only to have some topics and discussions silenced.  It
>>> was not at all helpful to the community.
>
> A very interesting reaction.  I can only imagine that the  
> participants really had no interest in discussing the topics at  
> all.  Or else, why would they stop discussing it when the  
> disintersted parties stopped listening?  What is it about political  
> arguments or flame-wars that make people refuse to take it offline  
> or elsewhere?  Why must their political insults and putdowns be  
> made in front of an audience to have meaning?  And is it true that  
> the discussion has no value if the audience is not present?
>

Perhaps but I think the topics were sufficiently important in the  
context of the original list that moving them elsewhere lost  
context,  Also, if we say effectively "all this political stuff many  
of you think sucks will move over here" a lot of even the people who  
think politics important will not use the other list.  I am not sure  
of all the reasons why.  Some of the most passionate voices who  
actually care a great deal about the community and its main topics  
but also care about political things become frustrated and leave.    
At least this is what I saw before.   Although in that case the  
filtering and moving of political messages also seemed to be biased  
to certain types of politics, specifically more libertarian views.   
This added to the failure of this "solution".

> I think this reaction encourages my belief that the topics were a  
> waste of time.  I think any valuable topic, with actually facts,  
> exchanges of ideas, and real debate, would flourish and thrive if  
> it were moved to its own special section meant specifically for  
> that purpose.  In fact, I would love to see my own personal  
> favorite topics split off this list and made into special lists  
> just for those topics.  This would be so focused, on-topic, and  
> limited to those truly interested individuals, that it would be  
> wonderful.
>

I haven't seen this work and I don't believe it will re politics on  
this list and community.

- samantha

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