I agree, I wish I was able to lock threads however I don’t have the ability to do that, or maybe I don’t know how?
Correct . It’s been used 34 times on here, including by mods . So seemed to be a commonly used phrase .
If I want polical commentary I watch FOX or CNN. When I want Buick related information I come to V8Buick. I do not wish to get into political debates on here. IMO, that goes against to productive nature of this board.
Its too bad my Canadian thread went all sideways, it WAS interesting to hear peoples knowledge on gas prices around the world
WELL………(yeh,I know “deep topic”,wells are lol). On a SERIOUS note though I am going to say that ONE TIME in my life I was wrong, upon further investigation however it turns out I was just ……..”mistaken”
Ive noticed that as long as were not berating each other political threads are not closed right away. Im thankful this forum dosent ban people for their political leanings. Ive been banned from yelp talk, and next door for having conservative views and supporting the tea party movement. Emotions are hard to keep in check, you have to check yourself often when replying. I thought that reacting off emotion was a woman thing. That is until you read a political thread. But all said I think V8 Buick does it right.
^^^ Agreed. It is not the discussion of politics that gets things sideways, it's the nastiness that gets interjected. Disagreements, do not have to end up in the ditch, upside down and on fire anymore than a car with formidable power. Just because you can, don't mean you must. And, yes, I am guilty of stepping on it harder than I should. So, I tend to not say too much on such things. I do like to discuss hard and serious issues, but as stated, in a forum, the nature of they way communication flows, the number of people that can speak, all the missing cues, and the inability to stop and clarify something obviously misunderstood prevent things from getting out of hand. Yeah, that car analogy, loose steering, suspension or a car getting loose, can be lost if those same things are missing. Many times, I have found I and the other person are looking at the same coin, just different sides, and silly that we are disagreeing on the same thing. Often, the greatest thing that makes us so passionate, is that a lot of the problems are that we are unable to effectively communicate our position to those that we really want/need to hear us. So, it becomes a proxy war. And the wrong people end up hurt, every time. So, that is the extent of my "political" views, unless one wants to email or PM me.
Politics and Religion, two subjects we should avoid talking about. The reasons are very simple. When it comes to politics, everyone has their own set of facts, or "alternate facts". If we can't agree on what is fact, and what is fiction, how can there be any basis for a discussion? We have freedom of speech in this country. Unfortunately, that means misinformation can spread very quickly because we are so in touch via social media and our phones. "A lie can make it around the world three times before the truth even gets it's boots on". It is more true today than ever before. Religion is open to wide interpretation of religious texts and scripture. That's why there are so many different religions, and even different divisions within particular religions. Throughout history, people have looked to kill each other over differences in the same religion. Trying to talk about it is like joining a circular firing squad. I look to avoid both subjects, but if I have no choice, I prefer talking face to face about it. Talking about it online is perilous and like walking through a mine field.
That's true Larry, any type of statement needs to be backed up by supporting documents and research. And opinion pieces on the news, in books and magazines don't count as facts.. You need the hard data. The truth is out there, you just have to look for it, and most people these days will take whatever they hear on the news or on social media as gospel. Most folks are too busy with life to look up and see if what the news media or Facebook is telling them is true. Usually what your reading or hearing, is slanted one way or the other, if not outright a lie.. this is done to push the agenda of whoever is putting together the information. A good portion of the content on my local news these days has nothing to do with news, it's pushing and promoting whatever the 'cause of the day' is. Just the other morning, I heard a 15 second segment on my local morning news.. " The results of a new poll are in, 10% more people are "seriously concerned" about Climate change , than were in 2018" I burst out laughing.. First off, that's nothing that even resembles news, secondly, push-polls, in which the question is asked a certain way to elicit a particular response, have been around since polling began, 300 plus years ago. What a joke that was.. And you see this stuff on a daily basis. For this reason I have unplugged totally from the news media. You know, this is really nothing new.. There is an old statement often attributed to Mark Twain.. "If you don't read the newspaper, your uniformed, if you do read it, your misinformed". And funny thing, do a couple minutes of research, and you find out that Twain really never said that... in fact the sentiment of that statement goes all the way back to the writings of Tomas Jefferson. The internet is a wonderful tool for researching the truth, if you care to spend a few minutes doing it.. but most folks don't. JW
I wish there was no such thing as polls. They serve no useful purpose IMO. I think they are inherently inaccurate, actually influence people's opinions, don't reach the common person, and depend on the honesty of people participating in them. (that's the biggest stretch)
Religion & Politics I've heard that all my life those topics shouldn't be discussed? Who said that? And why? Chances are they knew nothing of either and wanted to avoid the back & forth? And clam up like a clam! there has to be a standard in both IMHO And the standard that is missing today is TRUTH! And we can argue about what is truth? This leads to my point! Search for the author of truth and then you will have discernment of right & wrong? And being imperfect as we are? We will need to trust the author of Truth first & foremost
I sometimes wonder who we go to for accurate or trusted information. Used to be a tabloid was for entertainment and we watched Walter Cronkite for the news. Who is the Water Cronkite of today?
Unfortunately, that persona/value ethic of reporting the news without bias does not exit in this day an age. Some places are worse than others, but they all dabble in influence peddling to some extent. "The news" has become a profit center for most outlets these days, so tell your core audience what they want to hear/believe, so you get more eyeballs to sell to your advertisers. And yes Larry, most polls are not designed to measure public opinion, they are designed to sway it.. That is why you see so many that are wayyyy off, especially when it comes to elections. Listening to pollsters try and justify that was good comedy in 2016.. I was hoping that all polls would be discounted after that, but they keep on doing them, and the media keeps on reporting on them. JW
This might not be popular, but... blaming the “news” is an easy out. The news, Facebook, even polls don't “tell” us anything… it is our job to interpret what is being said, cross-check it, and come to our own conclusions. If Mark Twain didn’t really say it the quote above, but someone from Thomas Jefferson’s era did, does it make it any less appropriate? Information and political strife have been around since well before the printing press. Communication has gotten easier and easier, but it doesn’t make it easier to determine what’s the truth. Once news organizations, and especially internet news portals and aggregates like Yahoo News, Google News, Facebook, etc figured out how to monetize internet clicks, the next step was figuring out what individuals liked and didn’t like. They began to only show what people tended to like, to get more engagement. Problem is that most people didn’t realize they were no longer seeing opposing views. We’ve reached the point where if you watch Fox News you’re considered a traitor if you turn on CNN, and vice versa. Same goes for newspapers and other sources of information. Dismissing a story you don’t like simply because of where it was published, and before you cross check it with other sources, isn’t the best way to stay informed. Opinionated? Yes. Informed? Not so much. Looking back, I believe it was Jefferson who also was quoted as saying don’t believe everything you read on Facebook… at least I saw an internet meme about it. But I could be mistaken, it might have been Lincoln
The Walter Cronkites of yesteryear had an information monopoly and no one to question their biases. That's why they look so angelic today, particularly to those who long for the return of such a monopoly. That "the news" were civil and unbiased at some point is an illusion. Adams was called by a contemporary paper "a hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman". It has never been any different when it comes to politics.
I think were very luckey to have access to the V8BUICK forum. From what I've seen online its the best Buick forum available. JW and the Mods VOLUNTEER a lot of time/work to run the page. Situations such as this topic don't make their job easy. Thank yall for what you do. I don't come here for politics. Here that always ends up going bad. I believe its said. Friends, Money and Politics don't mix. Or somthing like that. See y'all on the page.
I for one enjoy a “Spirited” Political discussion. I don’t know what’s wrong with having a Topic in Politics that anybody can have their way with on here, and don’t moderate it, anybody can say what ever they want and be butthurt by others all they want and others can ignore it entirely, no moderation needed. I agree with none allowed within other posts and threads but just give them that small space to groan and cry and laugh while solving the worlds problems isn’t such a bad idea, everything in its rightful place I say!
Time and place for everything - one can argue that the current time is the "time" (but it always has been), but this is hardly the place. How does V8Buick.com benefit if, and when, members with knowledge and experience leave because of an un-moderated section encouraging a free-for-all? Or, just as bad... someone sees a post I made in an off-topic section and doesn't agree with it (fine), but then doesn't reply to another thread where I am looking for advice/help/parts because they are, as you say, "butthurt"? I wonder what makes people be so aggressive that they have to find a way to argue every point they don't agree with in every venue...
