Hobbies and politics

[Cnorm]

Some of the best advice I've heard regarding this is to turn off the news and go talk to your neighbors.

 

[TheTank]

Two things I dont come here for… politics slop and medical advice. Despite “ignoring” a bunch if threads and forums, I still had stuff popping up. It has honestly greatly reduced my desire to visit and participate here to be honest.

 

[Funkworks]

Two things I dont come here for… politics slop and medical advice. Despite “ignoring” a bunch if threads and forums, I still had stuff popping up. It has honestly greatly reduced my desire to visit and participate here to be honest.

All you have to do is visit the right forum sections. I don't even use the "ignore" function. When I want to talk about rockets, I just bypass the watering hole altogether. In fact, I think I even suggested once that the watering hole be way down on the home page and the rocketry forums up on top.

 

[TheTank]

All you have to do is visit the right forum sections. I don't even use the "ignore" function. When I want to talk about rockets, I just bypass the watering hole altogether. In fact, I think I even suggested once that the watering hole be way down on the home page and the rocketry forums up on top.

I typically review threads by “new posts.” When its clogged up with a bunch of threads with that slop, I lose interest quick. Not worth the time or hassle to steer around it.

 

[kuririn]

If a thread title has anything remotely political in it I steer clear..................
Oh, wait.

 

[heada]

I typically review threads by “new posts.” When its clogged up with a bunch of threads with that slop, I lose interest quick. Not worth the time or hassle to steer around it.

I do the same and after a few surgical ignore operations nearly all of the political cruft is removed. It greatly increases the enjoyment factor of the site.

 

[Back_at_it]

Rocketry is my main hobby and this is the only ‘social media’ platform I use. I don’t do Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. It’s helped me keep my sanity in these somewhat insane times.

However, in several recent threads I’ve been involved in politics has reared its ugly head. I’ve made the decision I don’t really want to know, and I don’t want to care about anyone’s politics on this forum. All that should matter is your knowledge and experience, or your desire to increase your knowledge and experience. In my club we have members of all political stripes and we get along just fine. But somehow when a keyboard gets involved things seem to go off the rails in a couple of posts.

I’ve decided to steer clear of any thread, no matter how emotion or passion inducing it may be politically, for the sake of continuing my time on this forum. I don’t want to start discounting someone’s knowledge or experience just because they expressed a political opinion that I may strongly disagree with. For me, I think I’ll enjoy this forum and hobby far more if I keep politics out of it.

Just my opinion, but for your consideration.


Tony

Tony,

I agree completely. Social media has been one of the major causes of the issues this country is facing. I've had to ignore a bunch of threads on this forum especially as it deals with covid. Reading the constant back and forth from guys on both sides of the argument is taxing. I do have an extremely strong opinion on the subject but try very hard not to voice it here.

What gets me is the conclusions that people jump to that eventually end in name calling. When politics get involved it seems like everyone reverts to their childhood and we're all back on the school yard in third grade.

It doesn't belong here and we will all get along a lot better if we can keep it off the forum. I also agree with the earlier statement on avoiding main stream new outlets. I don't care which side you're on. Both are full of crap and are looking to push an agenda. A year ago we had "Orange man bad", today we have the "Brandon " thing. I'm tried of all of it. If this forum devolves into that like so may others have, I would stop visiting the site.

 

[mo2872]

All you gotta do, is just scroll on by........I have found that typing out a zinger of a response, but then deleting said response, sometimes makes me feel better, while not riling anyone else up. Other times I shake my head, and think to myself, "What an idiot", but I think it in Hermione Graingers voice. ......YMMV

 

[Michael L]

I stopped watching TV a decade ago. I still have one for the grandkids but they are getting old enough now that I can teach them how to use tools, soldering skills, breadboarding, woodworking, and soon, TIG welding (once I figure it out). <old guy voice> Back when I was a kid we were outside until after dark. Then the family ate at the table. Then we watched TV, took a bath, and went to bed. Oh... and one of us had to go feed the dinosaurs. We took turns </old guy voice>

 

[[email protected] Rocket Tech]

Rocketry is my main hobby and this is the only ‘social media’ platform I use. I don’t do Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. It’s helped me keep my sanity in these somewhat insane times.

However, in several recent threads I’ve been involved in politics has reared its ugly head. I’ve made the decision I don’t really want to know, and I don’t want to care about anyone’s politics on this forum. All that should matter is your knowledge and experience, or your desire to increase your knowledge and experience. In my club we have members of all political stripes and we get along just fine. But somehow when a keyboard gets involved things seem to go off the rails in a couple of posts.

I’ve decided to steer clear of any thread, no matter how emotion or passion inducing it may be politically, for the sake of continuing my time on this forum. I don’t want to start discounting someone’s knowledge or experience just because they expressed a political opinion that I may strongly disagree with. For me, I think I’ll enjoy this forum and hobby far more if I keep politics out of it.

Just my opinion, but for your consideration.


Tony

I did talk about politics before until one day I realized I was beating a dead horse, should've listened to my dad. Anyway, I think every human has the right to engage or disengage from politics. But it really sucks nowadays from the whole spectrum they push people to choose political sides and stress expressing it basically taking this freedom away which is unacceptable. Every person has the right to believe the ideals and philosophies they would like, and everyone should respect each other for that so long it fulfills the condition that the individual believes so for the interest of pursuing what they believe is best for the interest of themselves and others without violence or extremism. Politics has fallen into a world lacking rational discussion, respect, and facts. It's instead been filled with division, emotions, and basically void of the pursuit of the common ground and cause and concluding to no solution for a given issue. Now I say this on behalf of most of society now, but I assure you there are many people in politics who still try to pursue facts and rational discussion from all sides of the spectrum. But even then I completely understand people who just want to forget about it. And hobbies should be a place of common ground where we say, hey, let's just focus on doing the thing we enjoy together. That should be our common goal, our common ground, our chief focus, and letting politics or bringing to light the difference in ideologies ruining what we enjoy is terrible. Politics has already given itself cancer, and if it starts to spread into hobbies and other areas where people of all different backgrounds can pursue a common goal, well I don't think humanity has a chance, to be honest. Anyway thank you for this critical thinking provoking conversation

 

[dr wogz]

what about the politics of the local rocketry club?

 

[Bravo52]

Some of the best advice I've heard regarding this is to turn off the news and go talk to your neighbors.

They are all away at an Illuminati Conference

 

[boomtube-mk2]

What about Illuminati: Lower Decks? Can we talk about the scrappy peons at the bottom of the pyramid with the big eye?

Discussions about Illuminati: Lower Decks often get highly animated, so beware when broaching that subject.

 

[neil_w]

Now I say this on behalf of most of society now, but I assure you there are many people in politics who still try to pursue facts and rational discussion from all sides of the spectrum.

Face-to-face discussion and online discussion are very different things. History (especially recent history) has shown that discussion of politics in an online forum deteriorates fairly quickly.

 

[dhbarr]

First I try to ignore the post, then the thread, then the person, then the subforum, then the board.

So I have a few threads and a few people on ignore, and I think maybe one subforum. This keeps me from having to leave the board.

 

[heada]

Growing up, I was taught that there are 3 subjects that you simply don't talk about unless the discussion was specifically started about them. Politics, Religion and Money. Since none of those 3 are related to the hobby*, there is no reason they should be discussed on a hobby forum. There are numerous other places were they would be appropriate but TRF isn't one of them.

* - there are times when they are directly related to the hobby such as when the NAR/TRA lawsuit was on-going. And even then, it was only in how it was directly related to the hobby, not in general.

 

[boomtube-mk2]

[NM]

 

[dr wogz]

Face-to-face discussion and online discussion are very different things. History (especially recent history) has shown that discussion of politics in an online forum deteriorates fairly quickly.

it was [apparently] shown that more & more are likely to more aggressive in their "talks" on line, as it is easer to hid behind a moniker. So, I can be a complete [posterior orifice] and you would never know it when we meet each other at LDRS..

But some of us do have our names & locations displayed, so you can 'figure it out'.

The racing simulation 'I racing' allows only "real names" so you know who you are racing against.. FB was supposed to be like that too, but ...


I knew guy named Wayne Doe. He couldn't make an FB account, because his last name was 'Doe'..

 

[[email protected] Rocket Tech]

Face-to-face discussion and online discussion are very different things. History (especially recent history) has shown that discussion of politics in an online forum deteriorates fairly quickly.

Somewhat true, but I feel like modern media does nurture more felling oriented people

Face-to-face discussion and online discussion are very different things. History (especially recent history) has shown that discussion of politics in an online forum deteriorates fairly quickly.

True, but I have encountered plenty of people in real life who politicizes literally everything and get angry over anyone who disagrees. I somewhat feel as if modern society promotes being too vocal about politics sometimes. But like you mentioned, I do see how when we don't see each other we tend to react to the message rather than remember there is another guy like you on the other side of the screen

 

[neil_w]

True, but I have encountered plenty of people in real life who politicizes literally everything and get angry over anyone who disgarees.

Also true, but the problem is definitely much more pervasive online, hence the need for no-politics rules in forums such as this one.

 

[[email protected] Rocket Tech]

what about the politics of the local rocketry club?

I guess a part of human dynamics

 

[[email protected] Rocket Tech]

Also true, but the problem is definitely much more pervasive online, hence the need for no-politics rules in forums such as this one.

I do feel as if enforcing "no-politics" rules simply causes more issues. Super political people will just start fighting lol. If enough people express their distaste of politics and just want to shoot rockets, I trust most of the community will respect it

 

[prfesser]

I'm glad that TRF has The Watering Hole. Politics will show up, like it or not. With a special place for non-rocket posts there's no real excuse for including political posts elsewhere. And if such posts do show up...move 'em to the Watering Hole. Without that steam outlet I'm pretty sure that heavy moderation would be required, as there are a few () rocketnutz who have strong opinions and aren't averse to expressing them.

Best -- Terry

 

[NateB]

Growing up, I was taught that there are 3 subjects that you simply don't talk about unless the discussion was specifically started about them. Politics, Religion and Money.

I've been taught this too, but I have to disagree. I think this mantra has left people unable to discuss sensitive topics in a civil manner leads to some of the fighting over these topics that we see. Debate is a learned skill, not one we should avoid.

 

[neil_w]

I do feel as if enforcing "no-politics" rules simply causes more issues.

I think that a frank evaluation of this forum shows that the above is not true, at least not for this forum.

Super political people will just start fighting lol. If enough people express their distaste of politics and just want to shoot rockets, I trust most of the community will respect it

History suggests that they certainly will not, without moderation to enforce it.

 

[Michael L]

Try joining a motorcycle forum, that has rallys in Denver, where people come from all over the US (VTXOA group) to attend. It's interesting to see what happens when a political discussion goes south and the people doing the talking meet for the first time. My favorite was when a wiry little old friend of mine (former Marine, tough as boot leather and I wouldn't have wanted to tangle with him) used to harass a Muay Thai fighter. The guy was a national level competitor. Lee used to call him May Tai and post photos of drinks with little umbrellas in it. He was constantly prodding him. When the guy walked into the hotel courtyard we all watched him. He came up behind Lee, tapped him on the shoulder, introduced himself, they talked, and then he found a group to sit with and that was that. Wanna know what the lesson was? Nothing. Lee went back to harassing him just like always. Lee passed away earlier this year. The broke the mold after they made him. The moral of the story is - It won't make a difference one way or the other. So why argue about it.

The news boys and girls have turned this into my favorite sports team... heck of a way to make a buck

 

[Scott_650]

Somewhat true, but I feel like modern media does nurture more felling oriented people

True, but I have encountered plenty of people in real life who politicizes literally everything and get angry over anyone who disagrees. I somewhat feel as if modern society promotes being too vocal about politics sometimes. But like you mentioned, I do see how when we don't see each other we tend to react to the message rather than remember there is another guy like you on the other side of the screen

And here’s where that lack of historical context comes in play - our current social climate here in the USA (as described by a great many people with a vested interest in either the outcome or the continuation of the conflict) isn’t even in the same ballpark as the truly horrendous conflicts of the past. We are NOT living in “the most <contentious, acrimonious, divided…use the adjective of your choice here> time in human history” - today’s current political and cultural conflicts are nowhere near what they were even during the Great Depression (the one that started, mostly, in 1929) much less the level of conflict extant during say the US Civil War, the French Revolution, the Glorious Revolution, the Thirty Years War, the time of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms in China, c. 907-960…plus dozens and dozens of extended periods in human history when something as mundane as the type/color of your clothing could get you and your family executed. Our differences are so near trivial it makes the Dr Seuss story about the Sneeches nearly rise to an account of genocide in comparison

 

[Michael L]

And here’s where that lack of historical context comes in play - our current social climate here in the USA (as described by a great many people with a vested interest in either the outcome or the continuation of the conflict) isn’t even in the same ballpark as the truly horrendous conflicts of the past. We are NOT living in “the most <contentious, acrimonious, divided…use the adjective of your choice here> time in human history”

Nope... we sure aren't. It's more like a sideshow on a very large stage. "Pushing" an agenda is going to cause "Pushback" from "the other side". Every single time.

 

[manixFan]

I started this thread partly as a public reminder to myself about my decision. I post under my real name and I personally know many folks who post here. So what I say here tends to follow me around in real life. The magnetic/WiFi switch banning thread was a good example. I got calls from several involved parties and that led to some good discussions. For me I feel it’s better to stay honest and open then have to stay anonymous. I realize that’s not for everyone. But it has caused me to delete a lot of posts before I hit submit.

It’s great to see the lively discourse my post engendered, even if it’s not rockets its still been interesting and thought provoking. I’ve refrained from posting lest I break my rule in the very thread I expressed it, but I figure this is pretty harmless. Thanks all for the positive feedback on the initial post, and for all the opinions expressed along the way.

But always remember, the Illuminati are watching!!


Tony

 

[georgegassaway]

Rocketry is my main hobby and this is the only ‘social media’ platform I use. I don’t do Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. It’s helped me keep my sanity in these somewhat insane times.

However, in several recent threads I’ve been involved in politics has reared its ugly head. I’ve made the decision I don’t really want to know, and I don’t want to care about anyone’s politics on this forum. All that should matter is your knowledge and experience, or your desire to increase your knowledge and experience. In my club we have members of all political stripes and we get along just fine. But somehow when a keyboard gets involved things seem to go off the rails in a couple of posts.

I’ve decided to steer clear of any thread, no matter how emotion or passion inducing it may be politically, for the sake of continuing my time on this forum. I don’t want to start discounting someone’s knowledge or experience just because they expressed a political opinion that I may strongly disagree with. For me, I think I’ll enjoy this forum and hobby far more if I keep politics out of it.

Just my opinion, but for your consideration.


Tony

In theory, politics are strictly against TRF rules and are not allowed.

In...theory.