Kukulkan wrote: ↑Mon Mar 14, 2022 5:18 am
As someone who has joined fairly recently in comparison to others, it is sad to see the board descend into the state that it has as of late. I think Dr. Shades needs to realize this is no longer a 'free speech' issue when those are using that reasoning to purposefully antagonize members on the board. I don't think people are reacting the way they are for just any reason. There seems to be a fairly large consensus that the actions of AM and other is beyond 'free speech' and has entered the territory of trolling.
I feel a good example is Ajax. He is obviously not very liked on this board but from what I can tell he posts and generally engages with what he posts about. People disagree with him strongly, but his intentions seem 'purer' then that of AM and company. Again, I am fairly new here in relation to others so maybe my interpretation is all wrong. But Dr. Shades if you are reading these threads, something needs to be done.
As hard as it is, DON'T feed the trolls. DON'T engage with them. Even if it means threads are ruined by their posting for a while. AM and company are only here because of the reactions they get. DON'T give them what they want.
There is always a distinction between freedom of speech and the free exchange of ideas. The former is silent on the question of quality while the latter is, definitionally, reliant on there being both ideas and also interest in articulating/defending/engaging the ideas being presented. In functional societies the distinction is largely semantics as there are norms and values that discourage intellectual vandalism that has no more purpose than someone drawing a penis on everything they see because they just so happen to have a black Sharpie and no conscience. Where those norms and values no longer hold, or are not recognized, one is forced to confront this difference. Just as some may not advocate for violence and be for non-violence, it is no hypocrisy to recognize that threats to social order make demands that, goddess willing, are temporary and unfortunately needed to restore those norms and values.
I don't think the solution is to elevate someone to being the wielder of the board's ban hammer. Between the three active moderators we have, I feel all three are better than most in recognizing the dangers of personal bias and emotional reaction to sufficient degree that were all three to discuss and agree that an action were needed for the good of the board, they'd probably do better at it than our lone chief executive because, frankly, history isn't kind when it comes to having a great, all-powerful leader as the model. Plus, I suspect Res, Xeno, and Canpakes would likely seek the input of the community in making decisions that they would take quite seriously into consideration while also weighing the greater consequences of opening a particular Pandora's Box.
In short, the divide that is our board government should, in my opinion, be co-equal branches rather than a symbolic three-person executive acting out the will of a single person legislative branch.
Now, that doesn't really solve anything, in my opinion. It just bandages a critical, acute problem in the person of one distruptive poster who lacks coherent political ideological views. To the people they think they are speaking to reading the board but not participating, I'm sorry if you identify as a conservative and this person claims to represent you. It would be a terribly sad commentary on the state of American Conservatism were that true.
So many years ago, I spent a summer working as a herbicide/fertilizer applicator for a landscape maintenance company. It required taking a test to be licensed to apply herbicides commercially and was, as can be imagined, not too different in format from the test one takes to receive a drivers license. One thing that stuck with me from the experience was the overarching statement that the best defense against invasive weeds was a healthy lawn/landscape. Chemical remedies always came with negative additional effects, be they potential injury to desirable plants, killing helpful insects, build-up of toxins in the soils over time, or any other number of consequences.
Likewise, I do believe the best solution to the problem apparently of top concern is collective willingness to engage ideas. If the board is reduced to talking about talking about people, after passing through the threshold of just being a vehicle for talking about people, then there isn't anything really worth defending anyway, is there?
I'd be curious to know what books others have read recently? What places others have visited? What topic engaged them beyond a Buzzfeed headline or a quippy TicTok meme? What's new?
Last book I read: The Framer's Coup. Could I write more about it? Oh yeah. It's a book worth reading.
We spent some time up in Payson, AZ this winter that was a new place for us. Could I write more about it? Maybe.
Topic? The origins of Dubstep. Found out the artist Burial is my personal soundtrack.
Decided I wanted to play more D&D, found a local web group that I used to find a game and have been playing regularly with people I didn't know three months before. Won a couple of awards for work stuff. My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, went on a roller coaster ride, prognosis very positive but not an experience I'd wish on anyone. She's a light in a dark world in so many ways.
I don't know. There has to be more to talk about than some dude who doesn't have anything more to say than the message board is an echo chamber while not being able to articulate a coherent argument for conservatism because he isn't one. I mean, dude wasn't Mormon enough to keep his dick in his pants long enough he could be worthy to serve a mission because that would be a sacrifice. And now he's an adult he's all pro-Mormonism and "God, Guns, and Anti-Gays" because again, don't ask him to do anything that is for a greater cause than his own adolescent narcissism. Privileged narcissism isn't conservatism. The only people who ever defended conservatism on the board, as an actual political ideology that wasn't some thin centered masking of their own self-interest and fear, rarely posted on this forum. American conservatism is largely lost. American liberalism isn't far behind. Political identity is not a basis for reforming a relatively healthy board culture.
Having ideas, being willing to engage in the exchange of those ideas rather than just talking about the poster involved? It's the only real, long term solution. People should really look inward and ask what they are posting that isn't just people talking about people talking about people. That problem is bigger and much more prolific than just dude. And that is what lets the weeds get a hold and take over.