The Bore mods thinking the new GAF thread isn't going to turn to shit like the last one
My long-awaited statement on this situation:
The Bore is a discussion forum; the whole point is to disseminate information and debate it, on civil terms, in an atmosphere that encourages healthy skepticism, fact-checking and credible sourcing, challenging preexisting worldviews, shitposting, and talking points and biases by providing a platform for a diverse audience to contribute, etc. And yes, the site does lean loose butthole, because it is inclusive and thecoli-based and has way too much hate speech. But while there are core values associated with this place, there's no point in discussion without providing a framework that allows for multiple perspectives to engage with each other like cracked-out, thirsty prostitutes.
I mention all this because, particularly for those couple hours yesterday when anyone trying to operate in good faith within the aforementioned parameters set up for this place ended up going full flipper baby en masse, the Shitty Other Forum thread suddenly became unrecognizable to me some 10 or 11 years after we set this cornhole of the forum up. The place kinda turned into what this Voat place sounds like: with everyone who tried to contribute to the normally questionable discourse systematically going full Milo, the remaining members either stayed silent or radicalized up, and we were left with a squad of polarized “moderately loose buttholes” unwilling to have a conversation with anyone about issues, repeating the same talking points in every post to each other in a self-righteous echo chamber, newly confident that any non-conformity would be driven out or otherwise made to disappear. This was not just ostracizing people attempting to challenge reductive, exclusionary "with us or against us" polarized rhetoric, either (and that should absolutely be challenged), but also anyone even trying to have a conversation within that radicalized bubble. People were driven out, character assassinated, labeled traitor for "not sounding like etoilet enough," or for not being entirely on board with ostracizing non-binaries for the same reasons.
There's nothing righteous, informed, or progressive about that. It's just a sanctimonious, vitriolic, self-destructive circle jerk that drives out the kind of people most valuable to discussion: not the "retweet my Side and quote it in yells or else you're The Enemy" people, but the people engaging on each individual issue with critical thought and an open mind, willingness and capacity to perform independent investigation into the materials initially presented, come to an independent conclusion and present it, and to allow the same from folks who have made similar effort but with different credible sources or different justifiable conclusions than your own.
World isn't binary, folks. Hyper-partisan, radical, binary, "us or them" environments with constant purity tests demanding adherence to the pre-established talking point of the hour breeds ignorance, intolerance, hate, and self-destruction.
This is why we talk about things. This is why diversity of background/ethnicity/orientation/culture is important within an environment like a campus or a message board: not just as an outcome better representing the diversity of the population it's pulling its membership body from, but critically for the diversity of perspective that results from that intense microcosm you've built, and the insight and nuance of thought it can bring to each participant when they share an appropriately moderated space and each have a fair voice.
That's why we
talk about things.