[Slava]

Originally Posted by mariners_fever

Political threads on this forum have become insufferable.

There really is no room for intelligent debate anymore. I find it dominated by left-of-centre activists, and if anyone dares provide an alternative point of view, they get jumped on and now called 'trolls'.

For those who are supposed to represent the side that typically self-proclaims itself to be the open-minded ones (although not always on this board, just seems to be a mantra of progressives in general), they just do not like to debate fairly in this thread. I'm not saying the other side is perfect, but they seem to be more open to fair debate.

In particular, this thread has degenerated from a good discussion on the byelection to raging piling on of all things associated with the CPC. And if anyone suggests otherwise, the same old suspects pull a drive-by on them.

Slava, I didn't use your post to single you out, but I will admit that it was the use of the word 'troll' that ignited me to write this post imploring for a higher standard of discussion. To be honest, when it comes to standards of discussion, I find you to be one of the few good ones around here. You are informed, involved, and even ran yourself so you bring a lot to the table in these discussions.

I'm just disappointed that after years of following the going-ons on this forum that the conversations aren't what they used to be.

Shame.

I agree that things have degenerated here and have become quite polarized. I used the word troll here because that's what it was. Shawnski posted his bait, I stupidly took it and he hasn't posted since.