# A section for Politics?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-section-for-politics/494663>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [April 28, 2009, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-section-for-politics/494663 "2009-04-28T20:34:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2009, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-section-for-politics/494663/41 "2009-05-02T04:25:47Z")

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> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#):
>
> So you want to discuss religion or Freud without having to skim past political thread titles? That seems to be a pretty weak reason. Furthermore, if this plan was put into effect, I can guarantee that there would be calls to contain witnessing and the like in its own special forum.

It’s not just about having to skip past thread titles- it’s about going “Is it even worth starting this (non-political) thread, since all anyone is talking about here is politics? Is anyone even going to read this and then respond without dragging politics into it?”

> [@](#):
>
> OT, but my sense in Britain was that people were a _lot_ more interested in politics than your typical USAin. As evidence, consider the fact that public demonstrations tend to be way larger in Europe than in the US.

The difference is that the British don’t go on about their politics _ad infinitum_ on messageboards the way Americans seem to, dragging it into unrelated areas and using people’s political affiliations to take pot-shots at them when they disagree on non-political issues.

> [@](#):
>
> Perhaps this explains the intensity of the online discussion here: a politicized minority has insufficient outlets. Or then again, maybe it has to do with the singular ideology of the modern Republican Party: after all, most conservative parties in the OECD could safely ensconce themselves within the Democratic Party’s spectrum.

This is a pretty good illustration of the point I’m making. The Republican Party, the Democratic Party, and the OECD have _nothing_ to do with this discussion at all. Nothing. Not even tangentially. It’s irrelevant. Can you see why some of us would like to keep the irrelevant political stuff somewhere that only people who care will go?

Look, most of the Religious Types here have learnt not to witness because most of the board’s membership don’t care, already agree with them, or point and laugh until they give up. The fact that political threads continue to be popular suggests that enough people like them to make a political forum popular.

And I fail to see how “Putting threads in their own forums so people don’t have to skim past them if they aren’t interested” is any worse a reason for having an extra forum than “I don’t want have to look at an extra forum title on the front page” is for not having a forum.

The Other Boards (both of them) have Political Forums and they don’t appear to caused a rift in the space-time continuum, you know.

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