After being "back" mostly just cruising the Politics board for about a month now I feel like I'm in a better position to comment on the state of things now rather than when I did upon first returning.
In my initial post I made a honest error of words by using the term 'alt-right'. I apologized for the mistake but was still jumped on by a lot of people which was disappointing. It seems to me that those here that do lean right politically are very defensive of their beliefs and that results in them having a very negative outlook on posters challenging their views.
In a twist of irony those posters are planting the seeds to become everything they hated about "Old GAF". It's nowhere near there yet but the seeds are there. You see the same group of posters in threads aggressively trying to belittle or shut down oposing views. It's sad and I hope they realize what they are doing.
Another thing I've noticed is a lot of the content creators are right leaning posters. So by just looking at just the Politics forum thread titles one would get the impression that the board is more right leaning than it actually is. Once inside a thread it's clear their is more of an equal balance.
I really only follow the Politics Subforum because that's what I'm most interested in. I'm going to stick around and hope the community continues to grow.
I thought you copped it a bit unfairly over the alt-right comment as you were willing to admit your mistake. As
cormack12
suggested, you likely bore the brunt of several months worth of Ree members popping back in to wring their hands and throw driveby alt-right labels so it was unlucky timing for you I guess. As I’m sure you are aware now, it translates to Nazi in social justice Newspeak, and it’s obviously not true. It would only appear that way to someone who has locked themself away in an echo chamber like Ree and severely damaged their personal Overton Window.
I don’t agree with you about the same seeds of discord being sown. There is no meta-narrative here right now; no party line to toe; and you are free to express your mind with very few limitations. If you see anyone belittling or unfairly shutting down reasonable opinions, speak up then and there. Don’t complain about it after the fact.
You must be looking at the Politics subforum threads with political beer goggles on because it’s a fairly even spread across the spectrum. Many of the threads currently on the front page were created by our resident lefties, including: yourself,
HenkDV
,
Arkage
,
TheLaughingStock
,
@whiskeystrike,
Gander
,
AfricanKing
, and
luigimario
. Seems like you’re ignoring those and framing your argument solely around the ones that make you feel uncomfortable. Get used to it, because there are things in life that are going to make you uncomfortable, the least of which are the very mild moderate-left to centre-right opinions you see here. The onus is on you to adapt to their presence, not the other way around. That said, I do respect your willingness to stick around and contribute fairly respectfully. I can’t say the same for many of the comrades from Ree.
To sum up, I think you should spend less time complaining about opinions you don’t like and more time figuring out how to counter them and win people to your side. It’s the hard way, but it’s the only effective way in the long run.
