Thread drift (Page 1/5)
williegoat OCT 14, 11:34 AM
First and foremost:
I certainly do not want to see any rules or restrictions on off-topic posts. I want to say that out front. I think rules suppress open discussion.

Now:
Lately there has been an increase in the trend to derail any discussion by bringing up an issue that has been beat to death, an issue that has little or nothing to do with the subject at hand. In my opinion, it is nothing more than a means to stifle free and open discourse on some important issues.

Here is an example from a few months back:

I started a thread to discuss the value of cultural diversity:
Something to think about (music, culture, ethnic identity, religion)
The very first post was a complaint about a word that I didn’t even use. It had nothing to do with what could have been an enlightening discussion, but the thread immediately sank into another argument about the Left/Right political dichotomy.

So, I started another thread specifically to discuss the Left/Right issue:
Something to think about - Go ahead, read it, I dare you.
And guess what happened: Not a single post addressed that issue.

It is obvious that the obsession with this perfectly legitimate English word is nothing more than a diversion tactic, a tool to “cancel” issues that some would rather not explore.

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"Ain't no rest for the whiskers."

olejoedad OCT 14, 01:14 PM
Hmmm, I've recently experienced the same phenomenon.
Doug85GT OCT 14, 01:22 PM
It appears that some people treat the Politics & Religion forum as a free fire zone. Any post in this forum is free game to just flame away for them.
rinselberg OCT 14, 01:42 PM
I don't think there is any problem here that calls for a solution. The "williegoat" himself says at the very outset here, that he isn't calling for new forum posting rules or guidelines.

The first of the two topics that williegoat has reviewed turned into what I think is a fulsome and valuable discussion.

The second of the two topics just kind of fizzled out, because no one who saw it was that excited about the quotation from Thomas Sowell.

"Dem's the breaks."
Jake_Dragon OCT 14, 01:54 PM
Trolls will troll, I don't think they can help themselves.
williegoat OCT 14, 03:08 PM

quote
Originally posted by rinselberg:
The first of the two topics that williegoat has reviewed turned into what I think is a fulsome and valuable discussion.


Yet you thus describe that very topic:

quote

The second of the two topics just kind of fizzled out, because no one who saw it was that excited about the quotation from Thomas Sowell.
rinselberg OCT 14, 03:11 PM
No. That was the second of the two topics that you posted, in your Original Post of this thread.

So I call it the second of the two topics that you reviewed. The Thomas Sowell topic.
williegoat OCT 14, 03:14 PM

quote
Originally posted by rinselberg:

No. That was the second of the two topics that you posted, in your Original Post of this thread.

So I call it the second of the two topics that you reviewed. The Thomas Sowell topic.


OK, describe the two different topics.
rinselberg OCT 14, 03:21 PM
YOU describe the two different topics.


Sincerely, I need to disengage from the forum at this time.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 10-14-2023).]

williegoat OCT 14, 03:27 PM

quote
Originally posted by rinselberg:

YOU describe the two different topics.


Sincerely, I need to disengage from the forum at this time.



The first thread was instantly derailed into an argument about Left vs Right.

The second thread was started as a discussion of Left vs Right.

The whole point is that you seem to want to argue about Left/Right in every thread except the one thread where it is actually the topic.