This is a funny thing to say, as what’s really shocking IMO is that a message board that does skew old and white is as “woke” as it is.
If you say so. I seem to recall something about the board pledging to do something about the sexism here, so it must be a problem if they feel that they need to work on it.
The woke see “problematic” issues everywhere they look. It’s their raison d’etre.
Yeah, I know that’s what the perpetually upset like to think. Usually, when I hear someone use language like that, I assume that they are an old white man who is upset that other people want a seat at the table.
madmonk28, can you give us some examples of us being “pretty casually accepting of some pretty shocking misogynistic and racist attitudes”? I don’t know that I’ve seen much of that. On the other hand, I spend most of my time on the “General Questions” and “Cafe Society” forums here because I’m interested in fairly straightforward factual questions, not ones that would involve long potentially nasty arguments. If there are such misogynist and racist attitudes here, I’d like to know about it.
I’m sure you’ve noticed the many threads in ATMB about misogyny on this board? Each one contains many examples.
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=885419&highlight=misogyny
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=880206&highlight=misogyny
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=866463&highlight=misogyny
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=862824&highlight=misogyny
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=862944&highlight=misogyny
No, I haven’t noticed those threads. I seldom read threads in the “About This Message Board” forum. I’ll read them now and get back to you about what I think of them. One thing that should be noted is that even posters who have been SDMB members for a long time sometimes spend nearly all their time in just a couple of the forums.
I’m sure you do. But what I’m really curious about: you think the woke people who constantly object to the racism and “misogyny” (really just the new word for “sexism”) they see everywhere, even among those on the center-left, are not “perpetually upset”? 
To me, that is their identifying feature!
Just another bit of data since people talk about Reddit being more popular: Reddit automatically locks all threads over 6 months old. You not only can’t comment, but everything else that the site allows is disabled, like voting, guilding, etc. It becomes just a static page, a testament to what was said.
Though, again, the proper comparison to Reddit would be more to subreddits. Maybe you could say the SDMB is more like a group of related subreddits. We’re not Reddit proper.
Maybe compare us to something like r/History or r/Science, or other intellectually themed subreddits. Oh, and BTW, r/politics leans left just like this place does. It’s even worse because, just due to how voting works, it only takes a few more on the left than the right to make all of the right leaning posts fall to the bottom with negative scores. And, of course, all the conservatives accuse the forum of bias because of it.
I think that when people object to racism and sexism, they are objecting to racism and sexism and I think that some of those objecting are the victims of racism and sexism. I think that this is a concept that is hard for racists and sexists to grasp. I also think that when someone constantly tries to trivialize people objecting to racism and sexism by trying to use words like “woke” instead of people who object to racism and sexism, they are trying to contain the existential threat that confronting racism and sexism present to them.
I think it is people who write “woke” ironically that are the perpetually upset. Their defining feature is an eternal state of being triggered.
Bringing it back to the OP, I think that this attitude is killing the Dope. We can be a place for sexists and racists and slowly fade away, which is what we are doing now.
The place has become a liberal echo chamber. Liberals love it but there is little real debate. It’s too bad, this used to be a pretty good place.
No, this is not the situation and not how this place works.
It is a place where many points of view get discussed. Discussions of racism, sexism, etc. are not the same thing as allowing/tolerating/encouraging racism and sexism and to assume so is greatly incorrect.
This is not a “safe space.”
We do not issue “trigger warnings.”
We do assume (in some cases, perhaps erroneously so) that you are a reasonable human being who has something meaningful to bring to a conversation and that you will do so within the rules of each forum area, which are not the same forum to forum. We still hold out hope that we can discuss damn near anything and everything, that has been our intent from day one here.
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Where on earth do I use the phrases “safe space” or “trigger warnings?” What does what you wrote have to do with what I wrote?
In response to a question, I said that I thought people who complain about the “woke” are the ones who live in a perennial state of being triggered and then you wrote the above, which had nothing to do with what I wrote.
This: “We can be a place for sexists and racists and slowly fade away, which is what we are doing now.”
I disagree with that statement, and strongly so.
Discussion of racist and sexist topics does not make us “the place for sexists and racists.”
Neither does it make us “racists and sexists.”
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Oh, ok. I think that the fact that there have been some spectacular blow ups about sexism shows that it is a problem here. Whether or not the Dope does anything about it remains to be seen. There’s been some movement on it and it seems to be trending in the right direction, but there has been a tendency to let it slip, again and again. Meanwhile, people leave and aren’t replaced.
Yes, it is a shame. It became more insular when “Bush lied!, he lied!” But that was nothing like Trump getting elected. There used to be more actual discussion of issues and events, now there is not. There can only be agreement.
This happens with most all web sites. Reddit was full on Bernie for President. There are still many threads there that lack the understanding of just what went wrong. Because they have never talked to anyone with a different view. And of course, Reddit has the upvoting/downvoting travesty that hides any non-conforming view. At least the SDMB does not have that shit.
And, lets face it, the members are aging out and not being replaced. New posters are not really treated well. They may have registered to post something about an old thread and are usually mocked for reviving a zombie. They aren’t in the club. And then they shut up and leave.
I haven’t gone digging, but it shouldn’t be hard to remember someone making arguments that go against any number of relatively far left wing shibboleths getting a lot of heated and nasty commentary- flat out being told they’re wrong, etc… Granted, our mods do a great job of keeping personal attacks out of it, but it’s not uncommon for people to post something, and then have one of a handful of usual suspects drop in and say how they’re wrong, and how that viewpoint is evil, etc… as if it was fact, not opinion. And there’s little moderation to dispel that stuff.
And considering that most anyone conservative or not left-wing tends to be dramatically outnumbered on here, it gives the impression that this place is very specifically hostile to anyone outside of the prevailing viewpoint around here. Although he’s far from conservative, look at how **elucidator’s **been treated in his comments about grocery store workers and PPE. That’s how we often treat newbies who aren’t used to this place yet, as well as grizzled, toughened long-time posters who know what they’re in for when they say something asinine.
bump, notice that I asked madmonk28 to give us some examples of misogynistic and racist attitudes. I’d like you to do the same in the opposite way. Give us some examples of someone making arguments that go against relatively far left wing shibboleths whose arguments then get a lot of heated and nasty commentary. Frankly, I don’t see that much of posts that far in either direction. Partly that’s because I tend to stay out of thread likely to have such partisan arguments, I admit.
Serious answer:
I only found this board because of reading the column in physical newspapers in the decade before they went effectively extinct. I have no idea how someone currently under 30 or so would be led to this place now. Certainly no one else I know in that age group has heard of the column or website
When someone hears about a website run by the “smartest” and “hippest”, and when they visit they are met with a mostly blank page, save for the text that says: Hurr Hurr 502 Hurr!!! are they likely to stick around, recommend the place to friends?