Okay, no political jabs in GQ. I get that.
But no politics in IMHO or MPSIMS? I’ve seen that getting modded from time to time. Recently, in the thread about the kid who beat up the kid who was beating up a visually impaired kid:
Political comments are not specifically prohibited in IMHO or MPSIMS the way they are in GQ. However, a deliberately provocative post in a thread that doesn’t have anything to do with politics directly can lead to a hijack and could even be seen as trolling. So they may be moderated even if other political comments might be allowed.
This is just one non-mod’s opinion, but it made sense to me. Political jabs in a thread that had nothing to do with politics can derail the thread. The main problem isn’t the “political” but the “jabs.”
ETA: Posted before I saw Colibri’s reply.
Politics is never neutral, not these days. The old adage applies: “If you put a spoonful of wine in a barrel of sewage, you have a barrel of sewage. If you put a spoonful of sewage in a barrel of wine, you have a barrel of sewage.”
I appreciate the “no politics” rule outside of designated forums. Not everything - to put it mildly - needs to be analyzed in US political terms.
As Colibri said, I saw it as a jab at liberals, which might have derailed the topic, which could have led to a huge, heated fight and was definitely a slam against liberals, which could be seen as a trolling type of comment.
In before “Would you have modded it if it was a jab against conservatives?”. Yes, I would have.
Let’s give a topic that asks “What sort of soda do you like?” as an example.
I would probably not mod a reply that said “Well, I like Pepsi, but I can’t drink it any more due to how high taxes are right now. Damn you, new Obama tax law! Etc”
I would probably mod a reply that said “Soda? Only Liberals/Conservatives drink that shit because they’re weak willed and need their sugar intake to have enough energy to vote the next mistake for a president in office.”
One is on topic and makes a slight joke.
The other is still on topic, you could argue…but most of it was just written to be an anti-Liberal or Conservative jab intended to get a negative reaction from others.