It seems to be treated as a thought stopper. “Do not go beyond this point.” There are good reasons for it, but the behaviour looks just like shying away from a bad thought.
I assume that was the intention. I’m not actually convinced that it would improve the site for us to dive headfirst into politics … but it’s odd for the stuff discussed here not to be applied even somewhere else, or even in the discussion section, without a flurry of downvotes. There’s a strong social norm that even the slightest hint of political discussion is inherently bad and must be avoided.
It seems to be treated as a thought stopper. “Do not go beyond this point.” There are good reasons for it, but the behaviour looks just like shying away from a bad thought.
The thoughts are there, they’re just not expressed on this particular site.
I always assumed it was more a discussion-stopper, meant to keep people polite and quiet. However, your interpretation is probably better.
I assume that was the intention. I’m not actually convinced that it would improve the site for us to dive headfirst into politics … but it’s odd for the stuff discussed here not to be applied even somewhere else, or even in the discussion section, without a flurry of downvotes. There’s a strong social norm that even the slightest hint of political discussion is inherently bad and must be avoided.
It should be noted that RationalWiki is not a website known to be, let us say, lacking in killed minds.
It is a very silly place.