The question of political / conspiracy theory content

Folks are warning politics is dangerous because discussions become heated. I don't see that as being any different for politics than  for religion or parapsychology or paranormal phenomena which are allowed subjects.

I don't think it is necessary to have special forums for politics, conspiracy theories, social issues, etc. I would prefer "other stuff" be used for that purpose because i agree the main focus here should be on psi. I want to discuss politics with the folks who are here for psi and are also interested in politics. I don't want this to becomes a general politics forum because those already exist and the quality of discussion is generally very poor.

[Ninshub]

Or maybe set up a Conspiracy Theory Discussions forum inside of Other Stuff if this is possible. My thinking now though is that we allow for conspiracy theory discussions but not pure political discussions, unless we host political discussion in a single thread in Other Stuff called Political Discussions or something of that nature. This would avoid the problem of the Other Stuff forum becoming completely cluttered with multiple political threads.

That was mine. Here's a bit of what I wrote more extensively, which are just my current thoughts. I'm sharing them here.

Whether that is possible or not, my thinking right now is we should allow for conspiracy theory discussion, not pure political discussions (left, right, Reps, Dems, Brexit, SJWs, alt-right, alt-left, capitalism-anarchism-socialism-libertarianism, Trump, Clinton, bla bla bla) - unless we create just a thread inside of Other Stuff called "Political Discussions" or "Politics and/or Current World Events" and people can put all of their political discussions in that single thread. That way when people look inside of Other Stuff it wouldn't be populated with tons of political and current event threads. (Or when people look at "new posts" it wouldn't be populated with tons of political posts, just a recurrent, very active "politics" thread.)

Regarding conspiracy theory threads: let's say they can be posted in the Other Stuff subforum. But one possibility is to ask that if the conspiracy in question is mostly related to politics and world current events and is too closely to a current sociopolitical agenda, put it in a Politics and/or Current World Events thread. Pretty much every single place in the internet right now is a space to discuss such topics, it doesn't need to be here. This would be one way of keeping it very secluded, so as not to turn off a great number of people who would be turned off by the presence of this material, especially if takes up a lot of space.

These are just my thoughts.

Or maybe set up a Conspiracy Theory Discussions forum inside of Other Stuff if this is possible. My thinking now though is that we allow for conspiracy theory discussions but not pure political discussions, unless we host political discussion in a single thread in Other Stuff called Political Discussions or something of that nature. 

A sub forum for politics within other stuff is fine with me and would not clutter the higher level forum. (A single thread for politics would be useless in my opinion. It seems like a sneaky way of preventing political discussions not enabling them. If the deciders don't want political discussions then ban them - don't create second class members restricted to a subset of the forum's capabilities who aren't allowed to make threads.)

[Ninshub]

It wasn't meant to be sneaky. I'm on another, completely different interest-related forum, and they have a single thread devoted to Politics and there's tons of debate, discussion going over there. It's just an idea - mostly to not make it appear that the forum is overrun by this type of content. Possibly there could be another place to discuss the type of psi-related political stuff stuff that Sci mentioned in another space (transhumanism, etc.).

These are just ideas.

Politics and conspiracy theories will overlap. If you allow conspiracy theories but not politics what is going to happen when political conspiracy theories show up? Maybe I am too comfortable with my own paranoia but I think politics is a subcategory within conspiracy theories.

It wasn't meant to be sneaky. I'm on another, completely different interest-related forum, and they have a single thread devoted to Politics and there's tons of debate, discussion going over there. It's just an idea - mostly to not make it appear that the forum is overrun by this type of content. Possibly there could be another place to discuss the type of psi-related political stuff stuff that Sci mentioned in another space (transhumanism, etc.).

These are just ideas.

Just because you can have different discussions in a single thread  that doesn't mean its good  way to do it.   If you think it is okay, why not have one thread for this entire forum? 

(I didn't mean you were being sneaky, I meant if someone wanted to be sneaky that is one thing they might do.)

A sub forum for politics within other stuff is fine with me and would not clutter the higher level forum.

If there a lot of activity in politics threads then when people search for unread posts they might get overwhelmed with politics.

I don't have an answer for that. (Is that why it was suggested to have just one thread for politics? I can see now why it might be done that way.)

[Ninshub]

Yes, Jim, that's why I brought it up. My post above included:

(Or when people look at "new posts" it wouldn't be populated with tons of political posts, just a recurrent, very active "politics" thread.)

Being a big conspiracy fan who was hopefully agreeable enough to not cause too much division or hard feelings on the Skeptiko forum, I'll make my impassioned plea for the allowance of conspiracy theories here.

IMO, the reason conspiracy theories were so divisive on Skeptiko was because they became part of the central content producing podcast and its top level subforum and therefore, some members felt like being part of the forum associated them with those conspiracy theories or a level of perceived ignorance. I can relate to that... for example, I wouldn't want flat-earth to become a dominant high level topic on here and would want it relegated to a dark corner if it appeared at all. I think if a main topic on here starts branching off into divisive politics or conspiracy theory, the mods can step in and put an end to it swiftly or rather move the discussion to a new topic in the appropriate conspiracy/politics subforum.

I think we can quarantine the divisiveness if we give conspiracy theories and associated political topics their own subforum. We can even nest it and bury it under the "other" forum so that new people don't initially see it and long-timers can easily ignore that it exists.

I'm not a fan of banning any topics with the justification that: "there are other places on the internet to discuss those topics" because... as everyone has mentioned the quality of posters here is great and we have diverse views. I don't really want to go looking for other forums as I spend enough time on just this one already. I don't want a forum where everyone agrees with me. The posters here are generally open-minded, curious, and polite people. And in spending years on a forum you start to develop casual friendships with people and it is fun and interesting to discuss all kinds of different topics with friends. Perhaps it even builds bridges across the chasm between ideologies to find someone you disagree with so strongly in one area, but agree with in others. It introduces people to new topics they hadn't considered. I get bored if we all agree on everything. I'm drawn to argumentation (in a friendly way) because it really forces me to grow. Controversial topics are more interesting for lots of people and will drive up forum participation.

People (especially those coming out of establishment professions or religious backgrounds) usually must cross a threshold of questioning of authority to enter into Psi topics and that makes them more likely to question other authorities and naturally be interested in conspiracy theories. The suppression of Psi itself has some aspects of a conspiracy: materialist institutional dogma, consumerism and debt slavery, top secret government projects, government psychedelic experiments and government bans on psychedelics, esoteric knowledge about consciousness and magic has been hidden away in secret societies and makes appearances in symbols hidden in plain sight that are part of our governments and architecture. Psi and consciousness naturally leads to the esoteric and the occult topics and many of these are interwoven in the study of power.

Once I became convinced of the reality of Psi, it was no longer very interesting to debate the evidence for Psi and I was ready to move on to the implications in the philosophical and political and cultural domains. Improving the dominant philosophical, political, and cultural landscape is something most of us share an interest in and part of that involves changing the dominant attitude towards Psi and survival of consciousness, and illuminating blind spots and seeing through deceptions and overcoming nihilistic materialism. Elucidating government conspiracies (e.g. 9/11) can swing open a door or put a fatal crack in the structures of common knowledge that imprison more than they protect.

Gnosticism is a topic frequently discussed because part of our mission is to wrestle with the meaning of life and the meaning of Psi or OBE or NDE information. Gnostics were the conspiracy theorists of their day, and for all we know there may be some truth to the theory that a malevolent or misguided hierarchy spawned this world.

OBEs NDEs, spirit communication, etc leave wide open questions about the nature of good and evil, importance of love, free-choice, life purpose, hierarchy, etc. What good is an solely abstract discussion of these things without real world application?

Okay, I'm done.

It seems to me a parapsychology forum's moderation is better when it is more restrictive - For example I know a lot of people didn't like Andy or David as moderators, but it's arguable that you do need someone to keep shepherding discussions. Especially if we want to invite guests to interview - many people in the public eye expect something of a tidy house before they jump in and associate themselves with a group.

A political forum is better when it is more "liberal" - Inevitably someone is going to hurt someone else's feelings as one person's anathema is another's sense of self. And as we saw on Skeptiko, almost everyone has a limit to free speech in a forum. I've even pondered posting most of the Gnostic, World-is-Prison, stuff on liberaparolado.com/phpBB3/ as the people who want to discuss dream telepathy may not want to ponder Reality itself hates them while sipping morning coffee?