I hesitate to make this post, because I do not want to beat a dead horse… But it is interesting to see a few others ask these questions here…
I joined this forum back in Oct 2019. I joined it to discuss tech, not politics. There have been tons of political posts since then (since I joined), and I stayed out of all of them.
Sometimes I would start to say something, but I just bit my tongue and did not make my post. Despite recent events, I peronally am not one to discuss politics on a forum. Any forum… Also, it has been my experience that people on the left are not nearly as tolerant as they pretend to be. So, most of the time I just decided to stay outta those topics. Why get dragged into something…
On the flip side, I don’t really care to hear politics when I listen to shows about a specific topic - namely tech in this case.
But, I have noticed that most people posting political comments on this very forum are all on the left, and they are not tolerant of any other view point. Not at all.
Well, I finally couldn’t help myself and jumped into a political thread about a month ago. The topic of the thread was Right/Left views, or something like that. And, it WAS a thread soley about politics.
Guess what… My posts on the thread kept getting flagged. Then, removed, and then the entire thread was taken down. Even other people questioned why it was happening. I posted nothing bad at all… Just another point of view.
Then, there was another political thread I commented on a week or two ago. I think the only reason nothing got flagged on that thread was because Leo himself commented on the thread a few times. But, even on that thread, it is obvious that many people on the left side of things are not tolerant of any other point of view.
That intolerance to other view points seems to have changed in the last 10 to 15 years. We used to agree to disagree. Not anymore. Now, it is micro-aggression “this” and you cannot make ANYONE uncomfortable “that” on college campuses.
The real world doesn’t work like that, but we are raising a bunch of snowflakes who go red with rage and just shut down anyone that does not agree with them… Don’t believe me? Look at what happens when someone who has a conservative view is invited to speak on a college campus and tries to go…
This forum does not seem to be friendly to any other points of view that do not lean left either… Silent people who flag posts that they disagree with, for no other reason, illustrates this. They won’t publicly discuss why they disagree. It is so much easier to have you removed…
That is the last time I will say it, because I don’t wanna be “that guy.” But, it is so painfully obvious that even a blind person can see it.
I personally only listen to the Techguy Podcasts because too many of the other TWIT ones are filled with too much politics. That probably won’t change either.
Heck, there was another older thread that bounced up today. When I looked at it, it seems that for every person asking for politics to be taken out of a podcast, there is someone else who asks that things be kept as is. So, nothing is likely to change…
All I am saying is that when a show/celebrity makes his politics known and really gets into it, it alienates half your audience right off the bat. That is true when a celebrity does it, and it is true here as well…
Just because someone can get on tv and give their point of view does not invalidate the opinions of many other people who do not have a tv show and have their own points of view (that are different). But, what it does do is turn off a lot of people to your product. For example… There are some actors I refuse to watch because they are so vocal, and their beliefs are way out there to me. I refuse to pay my money to support that person.
I have enjoyed listening to Leo for over 20 years. Now, he lives in California, which greatly increases the odds that his point of view leaned to the left. But, it never was really apparent in the stuff he did. And, I liked that about him a lot.
But, in the past 3 or 4 months, that is no longer true, and it really is disappointing. Between some of the TWIT podcasts and comments on this forum, it is VERY disappointing.
I have received several private messages after the two political threads I did jump in on. And, based on quite a few of them, it seems that many people are deciding to leave this forum, or are considering doing so… Why? Because of the politics and lack of tolerance for another point of view here…
And, if ya wanna say: “Good riddance, we didn’t need them here anyway…” Well, that is your right to do so. You may not miss any of them. And, I am sure you won’t.
But, I just wanted to throw that out there… Because it is happening. They came here because TECH is fun, or they had questions concerning tech… They did not come to be ostracized for believing what they believe in if it differs from the left viewpoint here on the forum.
The fun of this forum is mostly gone for me too, after what has happened in the last 3 weeks. I am sure most of the people here won’t miss me if I do not come back either.
But, I wanted to make this post because the lack of tolerance by people who think of themselves as so tolerant is startling. And, it is affecting many people here.
I would make the suggestion that NO politics be discussed here. I am on many, many other internet forums, and several have that specific rule. It has caused too much strife on those forums in the past, and it is not a topic that that ever ends well.
Just my 2 cents…