# Asimovian, a word...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asimovian-a-word/832921>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [April 23, 2019, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asimovian-a-word/832921 "2019-04-23T05:50:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asimovian-a-word/832921/1 "2019-04-23T05:50:57Z")

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[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21602725&postcount=171](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21602725&postcount=171)

So first off: mea culpa, **Asimovian** , I did, in fact, miss the mod note earlier in the thread. Sorry, my bad.

That said, I deeply disagree with the way this has been handled.

> [@Which is harder - being liberal and surrounded by conservatives, or vice versa](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-harder-being-liberal-and-surrounded-by-conservatives-or-vice-versa/831871/152):
>
> **Moderator Note**
> 
> **Der Trihs** , a reminder that this thread is supposed to be anecdotes about being a member of Group X surrounded by people of Group Y. Your purpose in this thread seems to be to talk about how terrible you think a certain group is. You are in the wrong thread for that, and it’s only serving as a hijack. Take it elsewhere.

> [@Which is harder - being liberal and surrounded by conservatives, or vice versa](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-harder-being-liberal-and-surrounded-by-conservatives-or-vice-versa/831871/153):
>
> **Moderator Note**
> 
> The note above also applies to anyone else who is just interested in ranting about the other side, rather than addressing the OP.

Without meaning to put too fine a point on it… This is a moderator _specifically enabling_ an unreasonable framing of the issue. That’s the whole thrust of my first post on the subject:

> [@Which is harder - being liberal and surrounded by conservatives, or vice versa](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-harder-being-liberal-and-surrounded-by-conservatives-or-vice-versa/831871/158):
>
> I generally take issue with the framing here. I think it’s entirely probable that the average\* conservative in a liberal area will get more shit than the average\* liberal in a conservative area. But… here’s the thing. There’s a _reason_ for that. The current republican party is… well, crazy. Think about the kind of political opinions each party could hold that could lead to someone disowning someone else. With the democrats, there’s… what, abortion? For the republicans, there’s anti-gay discrimination, transphobic discrimination, rampant racism, separating families and throwing children in cages, denying and exacerbating global warming (an ongoing catastrophe), and… I’m just gonna go ahead and say _basically anything_ involving the Trump administration. He just fired his DHS secretary for not being extreme enough for him because she wouldn’t follow his orders when it broke the law, and she was extreme enough to separate families and throw children in cages!
> 
> […]
> 
> How would you _expect_ this social dynamic to play out? Say what you will about Obama, but he never pulled a “both sides” on neo-nazis. The Obama O symbol [is not an international signal of white supremacy and far-right extremism](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-extremism-maga-hat_n_5ca5075be4b082d775dfca37) - the MAGA hat is.
> 
> Why would my conservative grandmother want to exclude me from her social circle? I haven’t done anything wrong or evil. But I want her gone from my social circle, because she voted for a president who wants to disenfranchise, delegitimize, and discriminate against me and a great many of my friends.
> 
> That’s what’s missing from this dynamic.

Demanding that all we look at are individual anecdotes is essentially a moderator demand that we miss the forest for the trees. It’s forcing us to skip over really important context in the discussion - the context that explains _why_ any such disparity would exist, _why_ wearing a MAGA hat on a university campus is likely to make people give you shit. And I really disagree with this ruling. It makes the thread less deep, less interesting, and frankly more misinformative.

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**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asimovian-a-word/832921/2 "2019-04-23T06:11:59Z")

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Sorry, there are PLENTY of thread discussing the craziness of the Republican party.

The framing was put before you. Either accept it or don’t post in the thread.

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**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asimovian-a-word/832921/3 "2019-04-23T06:37:40Z")

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It was a fair cop. There are a lot of other places to rant about “the other side”.
