Im new here, just checking this out.

[Andylusion]

polite discussion from the 1980s... you likely won't find much of that here. Some... but not a ton.

That's what I'm looking for, indeed. It doesn't look too promising so far. But thank you for your honesty.

The good side of this forum, is that you never have to worry about the moderators messing with you. I've been on other forums, where simply having an opinion moderators didn't like, resulted in your posts being deleted or censored, or even temp bans.

And that's why I'm still here. I've determined it is better to have a nearly free-for-all forum, where I can say what I want, and just place people who never have anything but bitterness and hate, on my ignore list.

I was on another forum years ago, and there was a lot less spam and trolling... but when I respond, it takes me 20 minutes to an hour to write one response, especially if the issue is complex. On those other forums, they would say I was "Micro-agressing", and delete the post. Well crap, I'm not doing that. The smallest, even entirely unintentional mistake, and 20 minutes of writing, and researching an answer is deleted? That sucks man.

I don't know where in this country, you can still have open free-speech debate, that remains civil. Pretty sad. But for me, I'll stay here, where at least I can say what I want.

 

[anthony]

He doesn't believe in free speech for everyone. Hypocrite.
[/QUOTE]

Me?

 

[P F Tinmore]

Hello,
I'm new. Not sure if this is the right forum for me, but interested in civil discussions on politics, to pass the time.
Trying to get a feel if this is that kind of place, or if it's just shouting across the great divide.
I live in California. Philosophically I'm on the extreme left on most issues, but am what I consider 'pragmatic' in my voting.
I am a professor at a decently large University.
Cheers.

So I'm going to warn you up front, what you are stepping into.

There is a minority of people on this forum, like me, who as long as you are civil with me, I'll be civil with you.

However, this forum is about as much free-speech as you can get, without it being like no-holds-bar Ultimate Fight. Meaning... if you do not have a thick skin, if you are not able to roll with the punches, if you can't handle people throwing poop....

This is not the forum for you. I promise. Many *WILL* discuss issues with you, but others are going to yell and scream.

This is how it is. I would suggest you familiarize yourself with the "ignore" functions, because we do have a large population of professional trolls, and they default to insults, rather than discussion.

If you need to know how that works, you click on their Avatar icon. A pop up window will open, and you can locate and click on the "ignore" button at the bottom of the pop up window, and then reload the page, and magically the troll disappears.

But I want to be open and honest with you, that if you are looking for the type of civil debate that you saw with William F Buckley and "Firing Line", with polite discussion from the 1980s... you likely won't find much of that here. Some... but not a ton.

Most people on this board just want to sling poo and call names

Not unlike any other conversation.

 

[Marion Morrison]

Meet the unofficial USMB mascot!

 

[MarathonMike]

Extreme Leftists who can debate their point rationally are rare. It seems most of that species died out sometime in the late 80s.

 

[P F Tinmore]

He doesn't believe in free speech for everyone. Hypocrite.

Me?
[/QUOTE]
No, the guy in the video.

 

[Marion Morrison]

What part of the land of fruits and nuts is anthony from?

 

[anthony]

[/QUOTE]
No, the guy in the video.
[/QUOTE]

Gotcha, still think it was a weird post. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Votto]

polite discussion from the 1980s... you likely won't find much of that here. Some... but not a ton.

That's what I'm looking for, indeed. It doesn't look too promising so far. But thank you for your honesty.

The good side of this forum, is that you never have to worry about the moderators messing with you. I've been on other forums, where simply having an opinion moderators didn't like, resulted in your posts being deleted or censored, or even temp bans.

And that's why I'm still here. I've determined it is better to have a nearly free-for-all forum, where I can say what I want, and just place people who never have anything but bitterness and hate, on my ignore list.

I was on another forum years ago, and there was a lot less spam and trolling... but when I respond, it takes me 20 minutes to an hour to write one response, especially if the issue is complex. On those other forums, they would say I was "Micro-agressing", and delete the post. Well crap, I'm not doing that. The smallest, even entirely unintentional mistake, and 20 minutes of writing, and researching an answer is deleted? That sucks man.

I don't know where in this country, you can still have open free-speech debate, that remains civil. Pretty sad. But for me, I'll stay here, where at least I can say what I want.

I second that!

I just left a forum because they started censoring my posts even though I was being civil.

But that is the trend today, unfortunately. And I'll give you a hint, it does not come from conservatives.

 

[anthony]

What part of the land of fruits and nuts is anthony from?

I think I'll leave that part out until I get a feel if im going to stick around or not. Legit fear doxing and what not in certain online communities. And I'm already getting some pretty snippy responses haha, so for now, I'll just leave it at "california"

 

[mdk]

Welcome. The best conversation and debate can only be found in the Flame Zone. Upstairs is mostly filled with unintentionally funny dipshits.

 

[meaner gene]

Extreme Leftists who can debate their point rationally are rare. It seems most of that species died out sometime in the late 80s.

There are no extreme leftists. That's just what conservatives call any liberal.

 

[anthony]

can someone tell me how to turn off 'get an email every time someone posts in here' feature. I feel like I have everything unchecked.

 

[Votto]

He doesn't believe in free speech for everyone. Hypocrite.

Me?

No, the guy in the video.
[/QUOTE]
I was going to show a YouTube of a movie about how speech is being censored at universities around the country, but they censored it and took it off.

If interested, the movie is called, "No Safe Spaces:" and is an excellent film

If you want to see it though, you better hurry because it is disappearing fast on the internet!

 

[meaner gene]

Welcome. The best conversation and debate can only be found in the Flame Zone. Upstairs is mostly filled with unintentionally funny dipshits.

Actually the best debates are in the "clean debate" zones. The one's where moderators require people spend more time on debating the topic, than on flaming the other posters.

The basement (taunting zone, badlands) is filled with people just flaming each other.

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

can someone tell me how to turn off 'get an email every time someone posts in here' feature. I feel like I have everything unchecked.

Click your name at the top right of the page. You'll find your account settings to turn off all the noise.

 

[mdk]

Welcome. The best conversation and debate can only be found in the Flame Zone. Upstairs is mostly filled with unintentionally funny dipshits.

Actually the best debates are in the "clean debate" zones. The one's where moderators require people spend more time on debating the topic, than on flaming the other posters.

The basement (taunting zone, badlands) is filled with people just flaming each other.

Oh, I disagree. I find the CDZ to be frightfully dull.

 

[meaner gene]

can someone tell me how to turn off 'get an email every time someone posts in here' feature. I feel like I have everything unchecked.

Go to your profile, and start unchecking all the e-mail boxes (there's a ton of them so be patient)

 

[meaner gene]

Oh, I disagree. I find the CDZ to be frightfully dull.

It's in the eyes of the beholder.

Some find chess and golf boring. They would rather see hockey fights, and racecar crashes.

Do you want intelligent debate or entertainment?

 

[mdk]

Oh, I disagree. I find the CDZ to be frightfully dull.

It's in the eyes of the beholder.

Some find chess and golf boring. They would rather see hockey fights, and racecar crashes.

Do you want intelligent debate or entertainment?

I want both.