Political Forum
 

Today I came across The Villages political forum, thinking it might be a good place for some intelligent discussion of the extremely important issues that face us as we prepare to vote for president. Instead, all I see is angry, childish, insulting posts with no coherent arguments one way or another. Does anyone really believe name calling and vulgarity is a good way to present one’s case? Differences of opinion are what makes America great. Belittling those with differing views does nothing but to invite belittling responses. I always felt that we Villagers were a fairly intelligent lot, but I guess I was wrong.
This is not a place for any kind of exchange of ideas, but just a dumping ground for the worst elements of both sides of the political spectrum. It should be avoided by all thinking Americans.
On the other hand, we have the right to speak our minds, no matter how callously. This is one of the many things that makes America great. Just be prepared for the worst should you venture onto that forum.

P.S. Polar Bear-Thank you.

Many members of TOTV are not residents of The Villages.

I agree with your comments regarding the tone and content of the Political Forum. It is an embarrassment to think all TOTV Users might be associated with the school yard behavior found in that forum. I go to that section, like you hoping to find an intelligent civil discussion. But alas it is always the same. Vulgar name calling.

Don

You are most definitely wrong. The statement while perhaps your opinion to which you are entitled you are in fact wrong.

You have fallen prey to the modern day sickness of extrapolating the isolated case or the minority representation to sound like a general condition when it is not.

The other 95% of us who are the intelligent lot and the majority are proof of your error.

You make some excellent points. :thumbup:

When I first went there, I actually thought discussion of the issues, with legitimate links to bolster your position, was what the forum was supposed to be about.

I quickly learned however, that since my views do not mirror the majority...that's not the case.

Constant vulgar personal attacks and dogpiling...seems to be the modus operandi of the majority.

Of which, and I include myself, it is all to easy and tempting...to respond in kind. :(

Although on one level I understand the reason that everyone is labeled as 'guest' (it gets around the site rule of 'no personal attacks,' since no one is actually identified) and that there is no moderator button to report the extremely sexually vulgar, racist and misogynist posts, the anonymity also emboldens those who don't want folks/their friends upstairs...to know what they're really like.

Although showing user names would, IMHO, immediately bring a little civility to the forum, as a compromise it would really be nice if each guest were given a number so that when discourse is exchanged...a person knows to with whom their posts are being exchanged.

And it would also identify the worst offenders, so that a better handle on the real % of those types could be determined. :shrug:

And while I have been very generic and haven't mentioned a single name in this post, it wouldn't surprise me a bit if what I stated above...quickly bled over into this thread and proved me correct. :ohdear:

Flame suit on. :D

A good point. Obviously that forum is not representative of most Villagers. But the few who do comment there seem to be boorish, crude and narrow minded. I thank you for correcting me on the fact that they are not the majority of the Villagers.

Yung dum:

Please do not paint with too wide a brush. Do you read all the posts or scan a few? I have learned that a few posters never seem to read other posters comments and are more anxious to respond.

There are a number of posters to Polticial Talk with civil tongues and respectable IQ. These same posters have begged Admin to remove the epsilons and trolls from this forum but the pleas seem to have gone unanswered. So it has become a no man's land

I love to discuss both politics and religion but I found that some folks believe name calling is their argument. So I ignore the attacks and focus on the subject matter. Perhaps what the Political Talk needs are more people like you that will benefit the group and if we got more like you we my be able to suffocate out the epsilons and trolls

Personal Best Regards

I've been over there, more out of curiosity than anything else, and on one of my visits the names of posters was shown. Quite an eye opener to see the manner in which they post here and the filth they post there! However, I do think there are a number of trolls who use the political forum just to vent and stir the pot.

It's been my personal observation, that the term 'troll' is all too often incorrectly used to describe someone...simply because they do not appertain to the majority.

Conversely, when someone's posts are consistently of a racist/misogynist/bigoted/sexually vulgar/xenophobic/homophobic/etc. nature...then the term is much more apt.

Stopped viewing that "Forum" months ago.

There is no answer to it apart from moderation.
However that soon becomes self defeating, as posts that are quite innocuous to most, get deleted on a whim, then the whole thread becomes impossible to follow because of all the missing posts.
I post on another popular village forum with my full name, which is supposed to be required, but I bet 50% of other posters use a pseudonym.
It is a bit like the law. No enforcement, then do as you please.
My rule is never print, what I would not say to a persons face.

What I noticed the ONE time I made a comment on the political forum was that when I received an email from Admin that someone had responded to my post, the email gave that person's name even though if I looked at the person's post on the forum, it only said "guest."

The other thing I noticed was that people's signatures are included at the bottom of their posts, and some of the signatures are very recognizable. It's been a long time since I went onto that forum, so maybe things have changed since then (about a year, maybe).

There was rarely good discussion on that forum.

I try to provide links on the Political Forum. However there are a couple of extremely racist, misogynist, anti-immigrant people on there whom I get very tried of hearing from. I do wish there was an ignore button for these posters on the Political Forum.

Nothing has changed.

I find it hilarious