Snape said:

There is a section on this board specially designed for politics, just so you know

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He knows, he posted in there once.

The thing for me is, I've been forum-ing and IRCing for many many years, and I've seen and said it all before...  The problem is, both religion and politics are generally fruitless to discuss in a technical forum (eh, mostly where I go, but I'll call the shroomery a "drug and ethnobotanical technical forum") because firstly it is off topic (except of course, in designated areas like a subforum meant for it) and secondly (most importantly) in the end, almost no-one is willing to concede or be swayed by anything anyone else says so it ends up that people just start talking AT each other instead of TO each other, as well as often brings emotional responses which lead to flame wars and such...  It's just, to me, not productive.

That said, I love discussing religion and politics.  It never gets old for me to see what makes people tick, and I've always tried to keep an open mind throughout these things and re-evaluate myself again and again.  EVERYONE makes good points and bad points.  I think political discussions on forums and such as I grew up directly contributed to me becoming a moderate and not a democrat with my dad's family or republican with my mom's family (heh, having both sides there, too probably contributed as well ^_^ ).

Meh, my however-many-cents-it-is-worth-to-you

ricochet said:

sometimes, I tend to avoid a lot of political discussion lately because I know where I stand on issues and don't think constant discussion, especially with someone who isn't willing to understand where I'm coming from regardless of their political affiliation, really produces anything. I don't come to the Shroomery for political discussion. I have other outlets for that if I want it.

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