I’d like it better if CC distinguishes being partisan from being political. I think being partisan is waste of time but we can have a constructive political debate.
There is a link on Facebook to ‘not see more posts like this’. I don’t know how it filters by content but it is there in the upper riight hand corner on a drop down list.
The rants and diatribes do allow a view into your ‘friends’ minds. And not in a good way.
I take the word “friend” somewhat seriously on Facebook and so I only follow 50 or 60 “friends.” I hide two of them (relatives) due to a long-standing pre-Trump habit of railing against the “government” in repetitive non-interesting posts. So I typically don’t see much negative stuff on there except from one or two relatives who post fairly rarely . But I am surprised that the one “friend” who actively uses Facebook to promote her sales of oils and home-made soaps is at the same time quite vocal and contemptuous of people with certain views. I wonder if she cares that she might be limiting her own sales.
I have my FB privacy setting so I only share with ‘friends’ not ‘friends of friends.’ Your friends need to change their settings.I don’t know why anyone wouid even want to share with friends of friends.,
My tennis forums allow anything in the “non-tennis” forum and the “chat” forum. Tons of political threads on every topic imaginable. It’s great because anyone can post anything, There is no xxxing out of any words or another site. YouTube/twitter/ etc. can be posted - along with pictures of anything. I’ve never seen a thread getting closed, either.
It also has people from around the world of all ages posting - which brings a fascinating prospective to the topics being discussed. People who couldn’t care less about topic of a specific thread just don’t go there and post.
I never used to have anything to do with that part of the tennis forums, but since this is the only other forum I’m on, I needed a place to post which isn’t so stifling regarding expression.
Never thought I would say this, but I think we actually agree on something! 
^^^Me too. That and the love of tennis.
While I understand CC has an absolute right to censor any way they wish, I too would like to see a Political forum opened up.
And, I’d like all to see there is a difference between Civics and politics
I was a fan of the Political forum here on CC , but just like other sites, things sometimes got nasty. That just ends up stressing me out.
But having a dedicated forum for political discussions would allow people to blow off some steam there, and keep the rest of the PC threads free from politics.
If you are the type of person who doesn’t want to talk about politics whatsoever, you could just avoid that part of the forum. It’s a win-win solution, IMHO.
You can unfollow people without unfriending them on FB if you don’t want to see their posts on the Home page. I just learned this yesterday.
I am all for political discussion with reasoning and respect.
“I am also tired of negative news, and I’d hope that networks would choose to change on their own. But I don’t think the Fed gov’t can’t force it, in light of the First Amendment. Ratings could change it.”
That one is interesting (and I apologize for deflecting the thread a bit), the FCC has the power to do something like this, the old fairness doctrine was an FCC requirement that if a broadcaster had a news item with a slant to it, ‘the other side’ had to have a voice, too. The reason for this is simple, broadcasters (I am talking over the air broadcasters) get their license from the FCC for free basically (the filing fee is like 100 bucks for I believe 10 years, haven’t checked the cost recently) which gives them the right to broadcast on the public airwaves, long ago frequency spectrum was determined to be owned by the public and the government held it in trust (obviously, large swaths of the spectrum have been sold off to the highest bidder, cell phone frequencies, satellite feeds, etc, all are owned by the service provider or leased by them from the owner). Basically the broadcasters were given free access to something that is very valuable, and in return that license gives the FCC rights to set rules on content and such and to fine or revoke licensees who violate them. So they could in theory impose a fairness rule, but not likely to, has nothing to do with the first amendment per se, as long as any rules are enforced equally (for example, it would be illegal for the FCC to fine a station with a foulmouth commentator who was of one political bent, while ignoring another one of a different position).
However, I don’t think they would have that much influence, the FCC as far as I know doesn’t have control over cable tv because that is not broadcast spectrum, so it wouldn’t, just as examples, apply to Fox News, CNBC/MSNBC, CNN, and so forth, it would apply only to traditional broadcast programming which is a tiny fraction of what is out there.
My facebook feed is a marvel of puppies, artwork and rainbows. There was a HUGE rainbow this morning at school as I was walking in to class, and I stopped and took a picture of it :).
I do have a pretty wide spectrum of people on my FB feed (all 150 of them, so I don’t blow the Dunbar Number), and occasionally I have to dial them down by seeing less (or occasionally, none) of them. It happens; they’re human, they’ll eventually go back to posting about stuff that I’m interested in, and I’ll eventually un-mute them.
Or, I’ll forget that I’m friends with them and they’ll live in purgatory until someone else comes along and they get unfriended so I can stay at 150…
Oh, I will tell you, moderating a political thread is the psychic equivalent of smashing your thumbs with a hammer. Repeatedly. I can understand why they got rid of it. We’re considering killing the one political thread on the site I mod on. It’s just too hard on the volunteers.
I just have this enveloping sense of dread which I’m finding is very hard to get rid of. I avoided media on Sunday but it didn’t help. I had hoped that 7 hours of football yesterday would bring some relief but it didn’t. I think for me, the only thing that’s really going to help long-term is to get involved in one of the causes I believe in.
I like not having politics here. The old forum was nasty. And I can go out here close to bedtime and not have my blood pressure raised. I have to stop the rest of the Internet except emails about an hour before bed if I want to sleep these days.
I’m not super sympathetic to people who don’t want their friends to post on FB about current actions that impact the friends’ lives, though. Actions have consequences. Evidence should be shared.
While I would enjoy political discussion, I can understand it being banned, the work load on the moderators would be tremendous, to say the least, because people basically can’t discuss politics without it becoming personal and ugly. Leaving it open would be tantamount to a bar room brawl I suspect.
It is sad, there is a lot that is good going on out there, but the gloom and doom sells better. The same person you view on TV as a raving maniac supporter of X (some idea, politician, etc) might be the guy who pulled a baby out of a burning building, or someone who quietly paid for a group of kids to go to college. There are people who mentor kids and other people who get no credit, there are people trying to make the world a better place, people like the animal rescue group we adopted our pups from, who when the terrible storms hit Louisiana this past year, rented a truck, filled it up with all kind of supplies (both human and animal), and drove down there, ended up helping people, rescuing animals, and came back north with like 60 dogs, and found them all good homes (and these same people are also active in their community, they help those less fortunate with all kinds of things). You don’t hear about these people, but there are a lot of them, and they represent the best of this country, not the worst…but it doesn’t sell, sadly.
I think it’s a little easier for me because I’m not on Facebook. After the election, one of my kids showed me a FB post by a friend of mine and I was so shocked (naively) by the vitrole.
I like having some control over what I’m allowing “in”. No doubt, what we immerse ourselves in, will water the seeds inside.
Love your church’s soup idea. I’m hoping to add some volunteer work in 2017.
This weekend I finally insisted on shutting off the tv on Sunday. I got on my laptop and was bombarded with the same vitriol. It gets tiring after awhile hearing the same thing over and over again. I found myself wanting to get some quality sleep but was too wired and felt my heart pounding all night long. I am exhausted today and frankly need a social media detox. I am really limiting my time online in the evenings and am resorting to reading or doing some activity that transitions me to relaxation and getting enough sleep.
I continue on CC because I find the threads to be helpful and a wealth of knowledge but find myself limiting my time on this site as well.
I sometimes wish there was a political forum on CC because I would HOPE that it would be a real exchange of ideas which I do value. There are always two sides to a story. But it was gone before I joined–I can see where it could get bad. But right now it would be great to be able to discuss a few issues with reasonable people from “the other side”–if I could find any.
FB lately is just a running bunch of half truths and memes. So much posted stuff is easily fact checked. It’s discouraging to see how gullible people are because they WANT to believe something. I’ve not posted anything, I’ve not un-friended anybody. I have commented “that’s not true” and listed sources.
I like cat and puppy videos. Pix of grand kids are good. Vacation photos are nice.
It did get bad. That’s why they ended it. People absolutely refused to adhere to the TOS.