Why Are Political Discussions More Heated Than Scientific Ones?

In summary, I think that political threads get locked or terminated far more frequently than is the case with more scientific ones because posters wander far off the OP topic, but more often it appears that incivility simply reaches unacceptable levels.
  • #36
(evo, I've tried to pm you, but "Evo has exceeded their stored private messages quota and cannot accept further messages until they clear some space.")
Evo said:
When posting crosses the line to hate mongering, it's not allowed.

ah, but, to deal with hate mongering, is it better to delete it, or to publicly contradict it? :smile:

on some forums … or in some threads on this forum … such hate mongering goes uncontradicted

a deletion policy means that those who make up such things are in a "heads i win, tails i don't lose" situation …

their lies are never publicly contradicted :redface:

deletion may be intended to stop hate mongerers, but it actually helps them, since it both removes the downside of possible contradiction, and wastes the time of those who do contradict :rolleyes:

(and that's a lot of time … unfortunately, a lie that takes a few seconds to write can take up to an hour to investigate so as to be sure that it's completely made-up
 
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  • #37
tiny-tim;3501983 ah said:
hate mongering[/I], is it better to delete it, or to publicly contradict it? :smile:

In my opinion, it's better to delete it. Going into discussion with hate mongerers only gives them credibility.
 
  • #38
Evo said:
When posting crosses the line to hate mongering, it's not allowed.

you mean the way your anti-religion posts always go after a specific group?
 
  • #39
Proton Soup said:
you mean the way your anti-religion posts always go after a specific group?
Evangelical politicians? That's not hate mongering, that's posting articles of what politicians have said.
 
  • #40
Thread derails have been deleted. Let's all please stay on "this" OP topic.
 
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  • #41
Evo said:
Evangelical politicians? That's not hate mongering, that's posting articles of what politicians have said.

you rail against certain groups while giving protect status to an other. that's hate mongering.
 
  • #42
Heh, heh, think I have found an area to build up my post count if needed. As a former linguist, I was checking out the social sciences section, and lo and behold, it appears to be highly similar to P&WA.

More seriously, my impression was that many threads there ought to be moved in this direction.

...

Back to the OP: Here's a http://arstechnica.com/science/news...ured+Content)&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher" on Science News interesting.
 
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  • #43
Proton Soup said:
you rail against certain groups while giving protect status to an other. that's hate mongering.

No, it's your opinion. And you're derailing the thread.
 
  • #44
micromass said:
No, it's your opinion. And you're derailing the thread.

no, it's exactly what this thread is about.
 
  • #45
tiny-tim said:
deletion may be intended to stop hate mongerers, but it actually helps them, since it both removes the downside of possible contradiction, and wastes the time of those who do contradict :rolleyes:

(and that's a lot of time … unfortunately, a lie that takes a few seconds to write can take up to an hour to investigate so as to be sure that it's completely made-up

on this we can agree.
 
  • #46
Proton Soup said:
no, it's exactly what this thread is about.

Is this thread about attacking Evo's posts?? I don't think so.

It's unfair to accuse Evo of hate mongering. She has her own opinion and she defends it. But she bases herself on facts and actual quotes.

You are making baseless accusation to another member, that is the derailing of a thread.
 
  • #47
Proton Soup said:
you rail against certain groups while giving protect status to an other. that's hate mongering.
People get posts deleted, edited, and warnings and infractions on all sides. Perhaps you fail to notice. I consider hate mongering when members here call for harm towards another group of people, or when they accuse them of false crimes.

Please stop derailing this thread. I don't know what your problem is, not long ago you accused me of giving you infractions just because I disagreed with you. I pointed out that I have never given you an infraction.

Keep derailing this thread and that might change. Just fair warning to stop.
 
  • #48
Proton Soup said:
no, it's exactly what this thread is about.

Might I kindly interject that the specific topics of other threads and personal styles in them is too specific for the broad notion of what it is that keeps many of us (myself certainly included) from seeking to be more objective and, at minimum, criterion-based? IMO the OP suggests we examine cognitive bias in general terms.
 
  • #49
Hlafordlaes said:
Might I kindly interject that the specific topics of other threads and personal styles in them is too specific for the broad notion of what it is that keeps many of us (myself certainly included) from seeking to be more objective and, at minimum, criterion-based? IMO the OP suggests we examine cognitive bias in general terms.

well, in that case, i guess a lot of it has to do with not being able to relate to groups and experiences outside your own. our own groups and experiences are axiomatically correct.
 

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