People who don’t want a regularly-occurring exception.
The entertaining thing from my perspective is that the discussions here have been polite, informative, and honest, and overall I’d consider them to have been productive thus far. It is of course possible that the tone or nature of these debates will change over time, but it seems on current evidence to be that a lot of people are mindkilled about whether or not politics is in fact a mindkiller. Granted, the voting system here generally encourages controversy—fifty votes yay and forty nine votes nay is better than an uninteresting post with one vote nay, after all.
but it seems on current evidence to be that a lot of people are mindkilled about whether or not politics is in fact a mindkiller.
Maybe the “mindkiller” business is largely a rationalization for the opposition to political discussion, and not the motivation for the opposition.
Some people like having their ideas questioned in a group, some don’t. Mindkiller talk is a convenient rationalization for those who don’t like it to pressure those who do like it to shut up.
I’ll continue them as long as they seem to remain productive and polite, and as long as they seem to be isolating politics rather than spreading political discussion around. A failure on either count would be a failure of the purpose of these threads.
There isn’t an an official ban on politics either. The much cited “politics is the mind-killer” post, merely argued against using political examples in non-political contexts.
People who don’t want a regularly-occurring exception.
The entertaining thing from my perspective is that the discussions here have been polite, informative, and honest, and overall I’d consider them to have been productive thus far. It is of course possible that the tone or nature of these debates will change over time, but it seems on current evidence to be that a lot of people are mindkilled about whether or not politics is in fact a mindkiller. Granted, the voting system here generally encourages controversy—fifty votes yay and forty nine votes nay is better than an uninteresting post with one vote nay, after all.
Maybe the “mindkiller” business is largely a rationalization for the opposition to political discussion, and not the motivation for the opposition.
Some people like having their ideas questioned in a group, some don’t. Mindkiller talk is a convenient rationalization for those who don’t like it to pressure those who do like it to shut up.
Yes, I’ve noticed that too, which was part of why I was confused that people objected to it.
I upvoted Vladimir’s post—but I don’t think the lack of “accepted exception” means you should stop these discussion threads.
I’ll continue them as long as they seem to remain productive and polite, and as long as they seem to be isolating politics rather than spreading political discussion around. A failure on either count would be a failure of the purpose of these threads.
There isn’t an an official ban on politics either. The much cited “politics is the mind-killer” post, merely argued against using political examples in non-political contexts.