“Paul LePage has made quite the name for himself during his two terms as Maine’s Governor. Kind of a precursor to the ugliness and proud ignorance that has come to define the Republican party in the era of Trump, he was peddling in casual racism and lies before they became the norm for the party.
One of his most common themes was the fight against drug trafficking, which he repeatedly tried to frame in racial terms by claiming most of the people engaging in the crime were black or Hispanic. A lie of course, but the type of lie you can get away with if you are a Republican because you base of terrified, gullible whites wishes it were true.“
Paints all republicans, the party and it’s supporters, as racists.
The second thread you threw out was in the same vein, but within TOS, meaning you know how to do it but choose not to. It would have stayed if not for the opening sentence which was made to show your disapproval of the prior deletion. (PSA - Hopefully this factual account from a journalist is not seen as broadbrushing and allowed to stay.) As evidenced, another thread was made on the same topic the same day without deletion. You doubled down with another post in that thread showing your disapproval of the prior threads deletion. The peanut gallery was there too.
Have you become toxic? In my personal opinion, I think the whole of politics has become toxic. People can’t support the president without being thought of by those on your side of the aisle as racists. If you guys come right out the gate with the premise that the opposition is racist, what venom do you expect will be spewed by that opposition?
Funny story about golf - I was really good in high school but used to get incredibly wound up and stressed for competitive matches. I was an excellent student, played music, and worked as well, so when I wasn’t playing golf, my time certainly wasn’t being wasted, but I always felt like I should have been practicing golf. I also noticed no one really wanted to walk nine with me.
This was different than competing in baseball, which gave me a healthy, nervous energy and never seemed too onerous.
So one day, I realized the golfing - which should have been a fun hobby - wasn’t giving me any joy, and I stepped away, put down the clubs, and didn’t play for five years.
Anyways, I picked it back up again after college, played by myself (or the old guys who don’t like waiting) most Saturday mornings at dawn and loved it. Got my handicap back down to a respectable 7 before the kids came along, and now play very sparingly (ie, Father’s Day), and love every minute.
With political parties, there are people who agree and disagree with how the party is run. Now if I said this is how everyone in the democratic party thinks, that would be broadbrushing.
I mean it’s even in the party’s platform to push for abortion and make laws allowing it:
Democrats are committed to protecting and advancing reproductive health, rights, and justice. We believe unequivocally, like the majority of Americans, that every woman should have access to quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion—regardless of where she lives, how much money she makes, or how she is insured. We believe that reproductive health is core to women’s, men’s, and young people’s health and wellbeing. We will continue to stand up to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood health centers, which provide critical health services to millions of people. We will continue to oppose—and seek to overturn—federal and state laws and policies that impede a woman’s access to abortion, including by repealing the Hyde Amendment. We condemn and will combat any acts of violence, harassment, and intimidation of reproductive health providers, patients, and staff. We will defend the ACA, which extends affordable preventive health care to women, including no-cost contraception, and prohibits discrimination in health care based on gender.
Again I’m welcoming people to the democratic party that right in the platform says:
We will continue to oppose—and seek to overturn—federal and state laws and policies that impede a woman’s access to abortion,
And these two laws are backed up by the platform. So it ~is~ the official stance of the democratic party like it or not.
If you said it was part of the party platform that’d be one thing but you said (implied I guess technically) that the party supported it while now admitting not everyone in the party does support it.
This feels exaclty like the broad brushing that isn’t allowed.
How about people on these boards understanding that a) people here are passionate and b) we’re all adults here and every one of us grow a little thicker skin?
I personally don’t care what people call me…we’re all on an Internet forum…you don’t really know me and I don’t really know you. I have never reported/flagged a post and never will. The only thing I get peeved about is when someone quotes pieces of my posts out of context to make it look like I’m saying something I’m not. Even then, I address my objection to the poster, not the mod.
Let’s stop asking the mods…who have already said modding can be a lot of work…to keep us in check and let things slide off our backs?
Stop reporting posts because you feel personally offended. How can an anonymous Internet poster offend you?
Grow a thick skin and let the mods do the only thing they really should have to do…make sure nothing goes so far as to cause legal issues for Sean Hannity.
Sorry for the rant…but we really all need to stop running to daddy or mommy every time we feel our knee was skinned.
I completely agree and could likely count the number of posts I have flagged on one hand. I do think what we are seeing more and more is people resorting to reporting people when they know they can’t win a debate. And that problem is only exacerbated when they know the system will automatically hide posts that get reported enough and we are currently dealing with what many would likely consider over moderation.
All it has done is make people not feel like visiting this forum anymore.
This forum community has existed for a fairly long time. Over the last several months, after relocating over here, many long term posters have found themselves bewildered by the type of posts ending up deleted. And that comes from all sides of the political spectrum. I will give you and Snow credit for at least trying to explain the logic behind what is going on, but even that is kind of a new phenomenon. For awhile there anyone even attempting to get clarification in this sub forum was seeing their thread closed without so much as an attempt at an explanation.
I think we are in this situation because of a few reasons.
Moderation definitely got stricter recently, but that isn’t always consistent.
The communication has been pretty bad, leading to frustration.
The new forum is an upgrade in many ways, but the way it is designed makes it far too easy for the community to mass flag innocuous posts.
