Sensitive subjects

[phathack]

There's a saying that one should refrain from discussing religion, politics, and money.
By extension of this is you should also refrain from referencing the above topics by mentioning controversial people associated with them.
The members of this forum cover a wide variety of social and political views, and that's great—but this is not a political forum. I urge members to stick to advocating for social change related to men wearing skirts and related fashion subjects, without referencing the topics above

[Grok]

I have seen bickering about politics almost overwhelm forums...forums that weren't intended to be political.

One tactic that didn't work was an attempt to confine politics to one specific thread. But argument kept spilling over into other threads.

As I understand it we aren't supposed to discuss politics, unless it impacts the topic of MIS.

[crfriend]

As I understand it we aren't supposed to discuss politics, unless it impacts the topic of MIS.

That's technically the way the thing is supposed to work, but right there the camel gets its nose under the tent-flap and is pretty soon inside.

It also trusts the hope that there's a sense of society and comradeship amongst the membership ("the citizenry"); if there is, there likely won't be arguments and personal invective (which is strongly frowned upon). However, given the times and the ham-fisted way that politics seems to run nowadays, it's going to contaminate everything because it affects everybody, and the notion falls on its face and civility goes out the window.

The fact that the world seems to be on a trajectory towards another global war doesn't help matters any, and deteriorating economic conditions only exacerbate that. It's difficult to be civil when somebody's got a gun pointed at your head, or that the stroke of a pen in the Capital can ruin your life completely or even end it.

Note that it's possible to disagree with someone and still be civil, and it always worth recalling that there is vastly more that unites us than divides us. We ignore that at our peril.

So, it's inevitable that the pervasive notion of what's happening in our environs is going to creep into conversation -- and forcefully suppressing that conversation (so long as it remains civil) is usually harmful in the long run.

[Ray]

At the moment it’s VERY difficult to avoid the evilness, bullying, threats and repugnant comments that are threatening the globe. I’ll try my best, but these are very disturbing times.

[crfriend]

At the moment it’s VERY difficult to avoid the evilness, bullying, threats and repugnant comments that are threatening the globe. I’ll try my best, but these are very disturbing times.

Trust me, this ol' boy understands that fully and is integrating that into my responses. Bluntly, we are watching the world we all grew up in come entirely asunder, and many of us may not survive the matter if the "big toys" come out -- and that's entirely possible right now. You are not alone in being nervous.

The main thing I'm after is that we stay civil to one another, no matter what opinion somebody may have. We should have the decency to not denigrate our fellow community members.

[Faldaguy]

Another challenges arises because the idea of MIS's immediately brings in the kinds of concepts, beliefs, and attitudes that drive most human emotions and reactions. Be it MIS's or politics of any brand -- we are talking about "boxes" we have been shoved into. The very same sensitivities are stepped upon in these controversial areas. The 'dividing' line between the attitudes driving many of the explosive issues of today are of the same roots that judicially and ex-judicially get MIS banned, fined, fired, ostracized, or even mugged (rare) -- so the overlap to the roles of politics, religion, and social acceptance are very much in play for our daily lives -- and certainly for their intersections with contemporary issues.

Extremism is rampant in this era of 'grab a headline' because one more click bait hit brings in $'s regardless of merit. This forum has survived a long while, largely in part (I think), because of the emphasis on trying to retain content of a caliber that educates without rancor and without snide bot-like bile. Given much of the political arena has succumbed to grade school name calling as their norm -- we at SC should pat ourselves on the back and carry on with the essential reminder to keep it courteous despite the great divides present.

We must recognize real divisions do exist; try to learn from them -- but cancelling anyone is rarely helpful.

[Jim]

So maybe it's OK to mention the dress I wore to the local anti-ICE and No Kings protests, but not why I was there?

[crfriend]

Thanks for going and thank you for speaking out against tyranny. The reason you were there speaks volumes. The dress just added some extra character to the gathering.

[Faldaguy]

So maybe it's OK to mention the dress I wore to the local anti-ICE and No Kings protests, but not why I was there?

Good on you Jim and thank you. Probably better you wore the dress than your preferred state!

[Jim]

A dress is my preferred state when the temperature is in the Fahrenheit teens.

[Stu]

Humans categorise - that's how we make sense of the world. The simplest form of categorisation is binary - black/white, positive/negative, 1 and 0 in binary code. Being one not only negates the opposite, it is also meaningless without the existence of the opposite. The word "alive" only has meaning because it has a converse - dead; being male only has meaning because it has an opposite - female. This is the essence of structuralism. However, the price of the simplicity of structuralism is over-simplification. Many attributes require scalability, which is much more complex than the binary. Am I young or old? Tall or short? Strong or weak? Good or bad? These adjectives offer the temptation to pick one and treat it as an unassailable truth because that makes life so easy, but all are relative rather than absolute. We can accept the reality that a perfect human being - invariably good - is aspirational only and has no bearing to reality. Every saint is also a sinner. In that case, the converse also applies: bad people can do good things as well.

I think we lose sight of that when certain figures are mentioned, whether they are politicians, historical figures or celebrities.

[Faldaguy]

Humans categorise - that's how we make sense of the world. The simplest form of categorisation is binary - black/white, positive/negative, 1 and 0 in binary code. Being one not only negates the opposite, it is also meaningless....

Thank you Stu. How easily we reduce a spectrum of choice to a simple binary.

Yes, I cut-off your quote in a manner that precludes your specific conclusion, to emphasis other fallacies to which we so readily succumb.

One of my pet peeves is the "either or" option ... the masses fall for it, as if nothing else exists. Perhaps our most dangerous word is: Or.

Almost as annoying; "What is your favorite....?" As if some singularity exceeds all else at all times. Poo.

[Grok]

The fact that the world seems to be on a trajectory towards another global war doesn't help matters any, and deteriorating economic conditions only exacerbate that. It's difficult to be civil when somebody's got a gun pointed at your head, or that the stroke of a pen in the Capital can ruin your life completely or even end it.

Or, conceivably multiple regional wars during the same time, over lapping in time, but not necessarily interconnected the way World War II was.