How can there be a discussion of the Biden administration without talking about the tragic recent events of Afghanistan? Disallowing Afghanistan goes against the OP, bolding mine —
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I celebrated when Biden defeated Trump. I’ve been checking this thread off and on through the months to see what Dopers are saying about the challenges Biden has had to deal with since winning last November. I don’t think any other topic has been shut down in the thread.
The US had been in Vietnam from 11/1/1955 to 4/30/1975 — that’s 19 years, 5 months, 4 weeks and 1 day.
The US had been in Afghanistan from 10/7/2001 to 8/15/2021 — that’s 19 years, 10 months, 1 week and 1 day. This is the longest war in US history.
Afghanistan discussion should return to the thread. Talking about the Biden administration without Afghanistan is like talking about the Nixon administration, or LBJ’s for that matter, without Vietnam.
So the Op (@ThelmaLou) of the thread in question asked that the Afghanistan hijack of her thread be stopped.
There were also multiple flags that came in around the same time with posters attacking each other and not the posts. All on the Afghanistan issues.
Additionally, as I linked to in the thread, there were at least 2 other threads on Afghanistan. There are now more. There is no shortage of places to discuss Biden’s job concerning Afghanistan.
All of this added up to agreeing to ThelmaLou’s request. It seemed reasonable and the thread was getting problematic to say the least.
Yes @What_Exit I did read it. But you give more info now about the problems. The Biden thread should be about his administration, yes, but posters who attack each other should be warned, as is the norm.
Why can’t AFG discussion be included in the Biden thread? Warn, as needed, and disable their account if they continue to not heed.
But we should be talking AFG there too.
Covid is talked about there, even though there are other covid threads. And a subforum.
AFG is not a hijack of the Biden thread. It is exactly what the OP asked for.
Well, I think I did mention, I hadn’t even had my coffee yet. It was easier to write out a full reply here when I was fully awake.
Mostly it boiled down to the Op made a reasonable request and there was no shortage of places to talk about Afghanistan. Apparently at least 6 currently. The chaos in the thread added to my judgement call.
Why don’t threads asking for opinions about music go in IMHO? Why don’t factual questions about COVID go in GQ? Even though such questions technically fit the general description of those forums, there are more specific forums for them. Same thing with Afghanistan and the Biden thread.
Afghanistan discussion is certainly related to Biden’s administration. But if all the Afghanistan discussion is going in the general Biden admin thread, it will swamp every other topic and effectively mean there’s not a good place to discuss anything else. That was already happening, which is why the OP requested a change.
Maybe you should change the thread title to Only the Good Stuff in Biden’s first 1,500 Days. Like it or not, what’s going down in Afghanistan now is going to be a big part of the history of the Biden administration. Especially now with the bombings and Biden’s speech about tracking down the bombers. Since they are located in Afghanistan, it looks like our presence there is now extended, even if it is only drone warfare.
There were umpteen Trump threads over the last four years, most of them talking about the same things at the same time and I don’t recall any of them needing special protection.
I think Afghanistan discussion should have been allowed in the Biden thread as long as it was specific to Biden - not a discussion of casualties, ISIS-K, etc. in general, but specifically, about Biden’s actions, Biden’s upcoming strategy, Biden’s speeches addressing the issue, etc.
Maybe the solution is to merge some of the Afghan threads into the political threads, provided that they’re not Pit threads. I’m with @Bullitt - Afghanistan is a big issue, and it’s a big issue for Biden’s presidency.
It’s not about only showing the good stuff. It’s about how sometimes a single aspect can take over a thread. I definitely prefer that sort of thing being moved to a spinoff thread, unless there’s nothing else to talk about.
I wouldn’t get too upset if things specifically about Biden’s administration were in that thread, but I do see the logic of having it in a different thread, if it was not what the OP made the thread to discuss.
I would have no problem if the thread title were changed to “Biden’s 1500 days [Domestic policy]”, and a new thread made about Biden’s foreign policy, with the relevant comment moved over. Would that satisfy others?
I’m fine with this mod decision. Better to confine the Afghanistan discussion to the 5+ other threads where Afghanistan was the central intended subject from the beginning.
It’s hard enough to keep up with all those other threads as it is - had the discussion been allowed in the Biden thread, the volume of posts and their singular focus would quickly overwhelm that thread and drown out what I feel is a well-paced and informative dialogue covering diverse areas of government/policymaking.
In a way, I find this scenario not dissimilar to when COVID topics began taking over the board in early 2020, and then the mods cordoned them off to a new separate forum, a move that improved the readability of the other forums immensely.
Yes you did mention coffee, and I did too. It was early, around 0430 Pacific.
Okay, you made a judgment call, and I disagreed. But, okay, I can live with it. We’ll agree to disagree. No problem and thanks again for explaining (without, and with coffee!).
Okay, thank you. It’s a good thread, thanks for starting it back then. It is a good thing!