It won’t. Instead, what will happen is that people will start attaching the mental labels of “Blue” and “Green” to other commenters, based on encounters in such a thread, and these labels will apply everywhere, and consequently distort the discussions and the voting on all topics.
This. I can’ tell you how grateful I am that I have no idea about the politics of most posters I’m familiar with.
Perhaps any forum for political discussions here should allow (force?) people to choose a secret identity (i.e., separate nickname) for use only there.
Nice! Encouraging alternate identities, combined with thomblake’s idea of refraining from voting, could go a long way toward having a sane politics discussion thread.
This. I can’ tell you how grateful I am that I have no idea about the politics of most posters I’m familiar with.
Perhaps any forum for political discussions here should allow (force?) people to choose a secret identity (i.e., separate nickname) for use only there.
Nice! Encouraging alternate identities, combined with thomblake’s idea of refraining from voting, could go a long way toward having a sane politics discussion thread.