Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

A "democracy" in whatever form presumes we have an informed voting public better able to make choices en masses than some more insular group, or single person.

Part of that presumes the voting public has the ability to decipher truth from fiction, at least in large enough numbers to "count".

We also could consider a kind of "qualified democracy" where only some minor portion of adults could vote, or make choices, with the limit being one person (or perhaps computer in some future).

Do "we" really want to go there?  We probably shouldn't on this site.

Well poop.  Just when I thought this site had a major advantage over the sterile "omg we can't talk about that" confines of places like CFN.  

Incidentally, open and civil discussion of ideas is one of the hallmarks of an informed society.  

I'm just gonna leave this here, feel free to ignore, delete, ban, whatever.  This whole idea that's overrun our society about "Two things you don't talk about in polite company, politics and religion" is bullcrap.  If people bothered to think about it, what could possibly be MORE important?  How are we going to live in this life, how are we going to live in the next one, if there is one?  Frankly I can't think of anything else people should be talking about more.  Good lord, we spill gallons of digital ink and waste hours of our lives deconstructing every aspect of a game played by kids that doesn't affect us in the least.  But sure, everybody shut up about things that actually affect our existence.  

Well poop.  Just when I thought this site had a major advantage over the sterile "omg we can't talk about that" confines of places like CFN. 

Incidentally, open and civil discussion of ideas is one of the hallmarks of an informed society. 

I'm just gonna leave this here, feel free to ignore, delete, ban, whatever.  This whole idea that's overrun our society about "Two things you don't talk about in polite company, politics and religion" is bullcrap.  If people bothered to think about it, what could possibly be MORE important?  How are we going to live in this life, how are we going to live in the next one, if there is one?  Frankly I can't think of anything else people should be talking about more.  Good lord, we spill gallons of digital ink and waste hours of our lives deconstructing every aspect of a game played by kids that doesn't affect us in the least.  But sure, everybody shut up about things that actually affect our existence. 

In all respects I agree, but as a collective group, we made a decision long ago to not go into these things. MDT, that you wrote what you did makes me happy. Everyone should care about this stuff. Really. I know I do. I'm worried about the "us" in USA.


Yes, we've been a little more lax here than in past places, and that's OK. We're all grown up now. And yeah, we do need to talk about this more as a society - maybe here too - I don't have that answer as to the latter. There are two other owners here, and one of them built this board from scratch for us (and also built in a place that is not moderated, toward the South end of the site).

Fair warning. Tread lightly. They do seem like a good group of guys. Drew seems to think so, or he wouldn't have created a home for them (like he created one for us).

In all respects I agree, but as a collective group, we made a decision long ago to not go into these things. MDT, that you wrote what you did makes me happy. Everyone should care about this stuff. Really. I know I do. I'm worried about the "us" in USA.


Yes, we've been a little more lax here than in past places, and that's OK. We're all grown up now. And yeah, we do need to talk about this more as a society - maybe here too - I don't have that answer as to the latter. There are two other owners here, and one of them built this board from scratch for us (and also built in a place that is not moderated, toward the South end of the site).

I think one of the aspects that breaks things down is when a discussion starts trending away from ideas, and onto politicians or political parties. 

For the most part, when politics has strayed into this portion of the site, I've found that we are actually discussing ideas. Such as this discussion of the platonic ideal of freedom of speech vs. the negative effects of biased and manipulative modern "news" reporting. It's usually easier to keep those discussions at the high level of discourse we normally have here. 

It's when it becomes about people, and about party, that things can get personal, acrimonious, and end up damaging the character of the board as a whole. 

Fair warning. Tread lightly. They do seem like a good group of guys. Drew seems to think so, or he wouldn't have created a home for them (like he created one for us).

I'll bet they [most of them, anyway] are a good group of guys personally. But the level of argument there is about 5th grade level. It rarely goes beyond ad hominem and strawmen. They resort to insult immediately, and spend most of their time arguing against what they think you believe based on your "ideology" rather than what you actually say.

The signal to noise ratio down there is FAR too low for any constructive debate. But that's okay, for them. Because I don't think it's about constructive debate. I think they're there because it's a remote and out of the way place to vent to/at each other and they enjoy it. It just doesn't result in much in the way of an honest exchange of ideas.

Yup, the place can be entertaining, but rarely informative.  Choosing sides is required, apparently.

Seems like it's always the same guy trying to steer the convo towards politics.