Quote:
Originally Posted by XCR-700
I am simply expressing my feelings that I am very unhappy about the direction we are heading in as a society.
Forums are places where people express ideas, opinions, engage in discussion (sometimes heated) and vet concerns.
Forums are not places where the thin-skinned are protected from the inconsiderate, where every word is measured to ensure they are politically correct, nor where we go to throw mud at our neighbors.
One would hope that we can go to forums are speak freely and when we don’t like something we don’t read it unless its deemed so offensive that no one should ever read it, if some are advocating that this forum has spiraled into something like that, then they are reading things I have not seen.
I have seen things I did not care for on this forum, but nothing that rises to the level that I felt no one should read it.
If we have reached a point in our society that we need to have someone monitor and approve our communications because we are either so sensitive that we cannot be exposed to such communication or that our exchanges are so rude and inconsiderate that no one should read them then it is clearly a dark period in our history.
But if all this is just because we are letting our sensitivities run amok and we need to live with moderators watching and approving our exchanges, then sham on you all for delegating your adult responsibilities to a moderator to police your comunications,,,,  |
XCR-700. While philosophically I tend to side with your position, it's a philosophical position about an ideal world, not the real world. I have been absolutely amazed at the vituperousness of some of the responses in this forum (including a private message from PineNeedles suggesting I leave town because he felt my position on global warming wasn't welcome... well, I cleaned up what he said to me for public consumption).
So I too support moderated forums. I think the thin-skinned should not have to be subject to a torrent of abuse for having an opinion that differs from the majority (as many of mine seem to). It would be nice if the disagreements focused on the differences about the issues, but so often they become personally denigrating, and I even wish the forum were more moderated.
What good is a forum, if the unpopular (this year) get shouted off the forum for expressing an opinion. To respond to something you say above, yes, it does seem to me we are at a dark point in our history when intolerance and personal abuse of those one disagrees with becomes the norm.
That said, this forum tends to be much better behaved (in general) that something like the comments section of the Union Leader for example. Partly there is a regular group who recognizes others as regulars, and thus a substantial number of people DO discuss the issues instead of flaming people for seeing things differently.