1) I would like to be able to talk about politics with rational people
I’d suggest a distinction between “politics” and “policy”, at least in the American English prevalent on LessWrong. “Politics” implies party politics, blue versus green, horse races (by which I mean election horse races), and tribalism. I think your post suggested an interest in this. Personally, I don’t want this here.
If, however, you want to talk about policy, using the analytical language of policy, then I say go for it. However, your original post, with its reference to parties, made me doubtful.
But that doubtfulness is precisely the point. I want to be able to make references to contemporary issues, without having to worry all the time whether or not someone might interpret it as being a sneaky and subtle way to signal affiliation for… whatever. I don’t frequent too many sites, but it’s only Less Wrong where people are so paranoid about this. And what’s worse it’s skewed, because if I complain about crazy political parties the response is “How dare you insult the republican party!”, as seen in at least one post in this thread.
If you don’t want to be seen as sneaky, don’t mince your words so much. Everyone here knows what you’re alluding to anyway and to be honest your views themselves don’t seem anything other than solidly mainstream. You’re not being persecuted for being a slightly-left-of-center liberal / social democrat, it’s a question of content.
If you don’t want to be seen as signaling affiliation… signal your affiliation less? Lots of us are open about our political views, in fact that seems to be a big part of your complaint, but even then most of the time it involves more substance than just saying “Yay X” and watching the Karma counter. You can be proudly liberal / marxist / Bokononist / whatever and people will generally be cool with it as long as your posts have some substance behind them.
I don’t want to strawman your position, but I really can’t see what you would prefer other than just having more posters here agree with your politics. Is that an inaccurate assessment?
I am curious now. What makes you think I am slightly left of centre, or liberal, or a social democrat?
I mean, I admit that it’s quite obvious which party I am calling crazy in the OP. But that’s because there is only one crazy party in the US, and everyone knows this, so that’s easy to infer. But bear in mind that in Europe, almost everyone agrees that US politics are crazy, so I don’t see what you could infer from that. Maybe it was the comment that I don’t vote for the racist party? That makes you think that I am centre left? Or the fact that I don’t like Ayn Rand?
The only other thing I can think of is that I am not obviously crazy, but if that means I have to be centre-left, there is something wrong here.
As I said before, your allusions aren’t terribly subtle. If you think the Republicans are too far right then you’re left of center and if you can find anything to agree with the Democrats about you’re not very far left either. That leaves Green and Social Democrat parties mainly, and their ideologies are all variations on the same tune.
You’re assuming I frame my political beliefs in terms of US political parties. I do not. You should bear in mind that according to the average European (which I am) your entire political discourse is nuts. It’s not even a question of left or right. So no, the fact that I think one of your parties is more crazy than another of your parties does not mean I am centre left. The most right wing party in my country is to the left of the US democratic party, crazy as that may sound to American ears. The fact that politics in the US have been becoming more and more extreme over the years does not in any way mean that my country is now more left-wing, either.
Frankly, I don’t care about left vs. right. I just want people to be able to discuss individual issues based on actual argumentation without turning it into a shouting match. I want to be able to ask what if anything we should do about climate change, without people claiming that I am showing colour politics because my being “in favour” of climate change means I am clearly left wing, or something like that.
I just want people to be able to discuss individual issues based on actual argumentation without turning it into a shouting match.
Have you found calling people crazy achieves or helps achieve this goal? Can you formulate a logical and probable pattern of events where calling people crazy will help achieve this goal in the future?
I’d suggest a distinction between “politics” and “policy”, at least in the American English prevalent on LessWrong. “Politics” implies party politics, blue versus green, horse races (by which I mean election horse races), and tribalism. I think your post suggested an interest in this. Personally, I don’t want this here.
If, however, you want to talk about policy, using the analytical language of policy, then I say go for it. However, your original post, with its reference to parties, made me doubtful.
But that doubtfulness is precisely the point. I want to be able to make references to contemporary issues, without having to worry all the time whether or not someone might interpret it as being a sneaky and subtle way to signal affiliation for… whatever. I don’t frequent too many sites, but it’s only Less Wrong where people are so paranoid about this. And what’s worse it’s skewed, because if I complain about crazy political parties the response is “How dare you insult the republican party!”, as seen in at least one post in this thread.
If you don’t want to be seen as sneaky, don’t mince your words so much. Everyone here knows what you’re alluding to anyway and to be honest your views themselves don’t seem anything other than solidly mainstream. You’re not being persecuted for being a slightly-left-of-center liberal / social democrat, it’s a question of content.
If you don’t want to be seen as signaling affiliation… signal your affiliation less? Lots of us are open about our political views, in fact that seems to be a big part of your complaint, but even then most of the time it involves more substance than just saying “Yay X” and watching the Karma counter. You can be proudly liberal / marxist / Bokononist / whatever and people will generally be cool with it as long as your posts have some substance behind them.
I don’t want to strawman your position, but I really can’t see what you would prefer other than just having more posters here agree with your politics. Is that an inaccurate assessment?
I am curious now. What makes you think I am slightly left of centre, or liberal, or a social democrat?
I mean, I admit that it’s quite obvious which party I am calling crazy in the OP. But that’s because there is only one crazy party in the US, and everyone knows this, so that’s easy to infer. But bear in mind that in Europe, almost everyone agrees that US politics are crazy, so I don’t see what you could infer from that. Maybe it was the comment that I don’t vote for the racist party? That makes you think that I am centre left? Or the fact that I don’t like Ayn Rand?
The only other thing I can think of is that I am not obviously crazy, but if that means I have to be centre-left, there is something wrong here.
As I said before, your allusions aren’t terribly subtle. If you think the Republicans are too far right then you’re left of center and if you can find anything to agree with the Democrats about you’re not very far left either. That leaves Green and Social Democrat parties mainly, and their ideologies are all variations on the same tune.
You’re assuming I frame my political beliefs in terms of US political parties. I do not. You should bear in mind that according to the average European (which I am) your entire political discourse is nuts. It’s not even a question of left or right. So no, the fact that I think one of your parties is more crazy than another of your parties does not mean I am centre left. The most right wing party in my country is to the left of the US democratic party, crazy as that may sound to American ears. The fact that politics in the US have been becoming more and more extreme over the years does not in any way mean that my country is now more left-wing, either.
Frankly, I don’t care about left vs. right. I just want people to be able to discuss individual issues based on actual argumentation without turning it into a shouting match. I want to be able to ask what if anything we should do about climate change, without people claiming that I am showing colour politics because my being “in favour” of climate change means I am clearly left wing, or something like that.
Have you found calling people crazy achieves or helps achieve this goal? Can you formulate a logical and probable pattern of events where calling people crazy will help achieve this goal in the future?
For what value of “anything”? It can’t be the literal one, as I’d guess that Obama and Stalin both agree(d) that 2 + 2 = 4.
LOL. There’s one party that’s conventionally called “crazy” in the mainstream media. And..?