[Love]

Well, first off, I want to say that I thought, seeker5, that you handled your last post in a very effective manner. You carefully responded to other's opinions, thought about how they related to your own, and then produced what you thought as a result. You did that pretty politely, I thought, without bashing or anything of that sort.

This, ideally, is what I imagine a political forum could be like. People discussing ideas in a respectful manner. You've already demonstrated, seeker5, that whether or not to have a forum at all is an issue of great importance to you--as other political issues may be of great importance to yourself or others--but you were able to handle this one well.

Originally Posted by seeker5

I read new threads through the "New Post" search function. I don't really go into individual forums much to look for new threads to read. Oftentimes, when I read a thread, I don't really even know what forum it is in. So, if you were to put all of the existing political threads into a political forum, it would not decrease my exposure to them. However, on the other hand, a separate political forum will naturally encourage people to start political threads. Thus, the net result is that I will see more political threads.

This is true. I also like to use the new posts function. You would see many of the political threads pop up.

In regard to Erin's comment, it's not easy to ignore. It's not like a subject that I have no emotional connection to like Religious topics, or psychic stuff. I don't care about those topics, and I don't care what others think about those topics so it's easy for me to ignore.

I can understand that a certain topic may be harder for you to ignore than another topic. I also think that may be an issue for you to work on, rather than an issue for the group to work on.

I think some of you are probably wondering "Why do we highly developed people who want to intelligently talk about politics have to put up with these lesser developed people who can't just ignore such threads? These people need to do some personal development to improve themselves so it's easy for them to ignore such threads."

LOL. Yes. I didn't use terms like "higher developed" and "lesser developed," but I admit, my thinking was very much along those lines.

Perhaps you'd be right, I know I would love to easily ignore such threads, but I'm not at the point yet, and it seems that a number of other people aren't at that point yet.

I can understand that as well. I also think that all challenges provide growth experiences. Sometimes the challenge comes whether you will it or not.

I do like Brutha's idea though, of creating a separate political user group so you have to check mark or sign up to have access to the political forum. That way, people who want to discuss politics can do so. Those of us who feel politics would be harmful to our personal development can choose to remain ignorant of it in the same way we non-mods are ignorant of what goes on in the mods forums. It's not a perfect solution, but it can perhaps meets the needs of both those who want to discuss politics with other forumites on here, and meets the needs of those who want no politics in here.

I would prefer that than to having no world affairs forum at all. So if that were the only alternative, then yes, I would accept that.
I still think that for that to be the only alternative would be indicative of our inability, as individuals and as a group, to handle such posts and such a forum. I think it's a necessity to learn to live with others and their views, and that while we could potentially escape that challenge by not having a forum or by hiding it here on the site, we couldn't escape that challenge as it exists in the world around us. So why try? It would be a personal development experience just to have the forum and deal with yourself in a controlled and respectful manner.

I have a high opinion of the people that constitute this group, and I feel that everyone could handle such a challenge. Including the "nay-sayers."