[Angela]

Originally Posted by Bliss Sage

And the point I made when I wrote about learning with an open mind was that nobody was there to learn.

What about me, or Erin, or the other people here who feel committed to a responsible discussion about things we care about, with people we trust to talk about it from a context of personal development? You don't think we're all nobody, do you?

What I am doing is not censorship. I'm deathly allergic to peanuts--I tried them out and now I make all the effort I can to "censor" them from my diet. It's not censorship, it's protection against harmful substances.

okay, I understand. I guess I disagree with you that open, responsible discussion is a harmful substance. And if you feel it is, you are wise to stay away from it.

That's my business.

That's so true. It was meant as a rhetorical question really -- political discussion is here, that's the reality of it, and for you it looks like "dealing with it" means "staying away from it." I was thinking that "staying away from it" would likely be easier if it were in a tidy, self-contained forum, instead of running rampant and free throughout other unrelated threads, and you seem to feel otherwise. There you go.

seeker5, I don't think it's likely that this place would be overrun by people showing up just for the sake of political discussion if there were a dedicated forum, but I can understand your concern about that happening.

To me it looks like the folks who want to avoid political discussion feel much more strongly about not having a dedicated thread than the interested folks feel about having one. So maybe it's not so important to build a dedicated thread, after all.

It strikes me as working against the naysayers not to have a dedicated thread, but oh well. I'm not really interested in political discussion myself right now (although I'm not allergic to it!), so I'll just continue to not notice the threads that don't interest me. And I feel that you people who want to work out your thoughts and feelings in the area of politics and world affairs should feel welcome and safe to do that here. I look forward to hearing what you have to say about it, when I'm ready to!