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.
If it is not too much trouble, could you explain further what you mean by that?
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.