META: Politics
Mods and MgoMembers:
This is a great board. Yes, there are a handful of morans and trolls, but it’s generally a great, intelligent community. It’s refreshing to see some of the ideas and news shared during these challenging, strange times.
But please, for the love of all that is good, stop with the politics. You can make impassioned, cogent arguments without resorting to bashing or dehumanizing people that disagree with you. And you can make great points about economics or policy without inserting your comments about capitalism, socialism, Trump, Biden, or your news outlet echo chamber of choice.
Mods—please ban folks breaking the no politics rule. Especially during these times, this board should be a haven from the divisive garbage that consumes the rest of the world.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:27 PM ^
You'll know which threads contain it. Avoid them if it's that much of an issue. This country is fucking crazy right now and there are some major flaws being highlighted and coming to fruition...and that isn't a partisan statement. There is a president on the news DAILY saying...well he's saying stuff. It's damn near impossible to not have the notion of politics come up somewhat.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:30 PM ^
Dude...
March 24th, 2020 at 10:38 PM ^
I interviewed a guy once who tried to impress me with his vocabulary. During the interview, he mentioned seeing a project through to fruit-ition. I laughed inside, but then I felt bad knowing that he was going to be hired regardless of the outcome of my interview. He’s horribly average and lazy.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:46 PM ^
Sounds like your feelings came to fruit-ition. In short, he's been berry lazy. But somehow he's the apple of the bosses eye, who thinks he's one in a melon. Orange you glad you didn't say anything during the hiring process? Really, the whole thing is bananas.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:49 PM ^
You two make quite a pear.
You interviewed someone and your company didn't care what you had to say about said interview?
same with the company I work for. Said person goes through 3 interviews and as long as 2 of the 3 agree they will be hired. I have had people that came in and you wondered how they managed to get dressed. You mark no and then a few weeks later you seem them in orientation. So i totally get it.
I once worked with a guy we referred to as the "random word generator" who would spout words I am not quite sure he knew the meaning of..
March 24th, 2020 at 10:49 PM ^
Yep.
1) COVID-19 is the biggest story to hit the world in (at least) 19 years.
2) Nobody on this board isn't impacted by this (unless, perhaps, they are posting from the International Space Station or a research lab in Antarctica).
3) HUGE policy decisions are being made multiple times per day, those decisions impact all of us, and those decisions are being made by politicians.
4) There are literally no live sports to talk about right now (outside of Belarusian soccer, a league that is still playing right now for God knows what reason).
So to the OP - people are going to talk about this and politics is part of it.
March 25th, 2020 at 12:04 AM ^
and...
5). Racing is limited to Marbula 1
Totally agreed. I mostly agree with the no politics rule, because it just becomes a flame war and no one's changing their mind. But you can't really talk about corona without touching on politics unless you just want to mention platitudes about how it's bad people are dying, though even that might get a reply about how it's normal and we just need to live life as normal.
The actual sports posts don't seem to get political.
Hopefully we are not far from the time that Brian and the rest of his team can send out an e-mail that while it was appropriate to be a bit more lax about how we treat political posts during the coronavirus, now that we are past the worst of it, we are now returning to more normal order.
March 25th, 2020 at 12:50 AM ^
You're right
Pushing for mods to start banning people does not help in the long run.
Theirs enough censorship all over the internet and this board has been great at keeping things free speech.
DO NOT ENCOURAGE MORE CENSORSHIP.
Get over it if something bothers you and move on.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:32 PM ^
Totally disagree with the OP. I think the mods are handling this ideally. No politics in every thread but covid19 threads. Overt personal attacks are still disallowed. The norm will return to the board when there are sports.
March 24th, 2020 at 11:49 PM ^
The Mods gave up handling things a long time ago. That coincided with the HUEL abomination.
I'm convinced that the same people that run the post office runs HUEL. We are all being silenced... one letter at a time
For whatever reason, the MGoLeaders don't seem interested in bringing more mods on. There are many who I'm sure would volunteer and I recall a google survey in the last year or so which was fielding interest from possible mods. Don't know what happened there, but the board obviously needs a few more people to take on modding ability.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:34 PM ^
I think most people would agree with you that posters should avoid making political posts. But once someone makes a provocative or dangerous political comment/post, you can't blame others for knocking down said idiocy. You could even reasonably argue that people have a responsibility to speak truth to dangerous rhetoric, especially during a crisis like this one. No one should just let morons spread nonsensical "information" -- "miracle cures," "the virus is a hoax" -- during a pandemic. Sorry if you don't like that.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:49 PM ^
One of my good friends is an ER doc and he's urged me for weeks now to get out the message about social distancing . . . and then some posters in this community keep spreading the same "It's the same as the flu" bullshit. They should be caved, or at least suspended, for spreading that kind of misinformation.
March 24th, 2020 at 11:06 PM ^
It is the same as the flu....but worse
Except it's much more like pneumonia.
March 25th, 2020 at 12:54 AM ^
People should be encouraged to think for themselves.
Not be pressured to only listen to doctors.
Doctors are still human and make mistakes all the time. No one knows what F this thing is right now.
I’ve worked with a plenty of Drs that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone. I’ve seen Neurosurgeons dissect healthy tissue on the wrong side of the back.
They are like everyone else in this world. They range from extraordinary to the occasional idiot.
Of course you should think for yourself, but when the medical community is unanimously saying 'take this seriously' and the only people saying 'this is just the flu guys!' are Alex Jones fans and old guys on facebook who don't know anything, the choice is clear.
I don't even know what to make of "Not to be pressured to only listen to doctors" in the middle of a pandemic. Who else should we listen to? Quacks that think QAnon is real? "In times of continuing car trouble, it's important that we aren't pressured to listen to only auto mechanics and auto engineers. My neighbor Ted has some ideas too"
March 25th, 2020 at 12:35 PM ^
This is not just a medical issue we are facing. It would be insane not to listen to the medical experts to understand. It would also be wise to listen to business and economic leaders.
Right. We'll listen to the guy who stares into solar eclipses instead! The guy who asked in all sincerity if a "really strong" flu vaccine would work. The guy who has blatantly lied to us day by day... That'll learn 'em!
March 24th, 2020 at 11:43 PM ^
At risk of violating the very topic of this thread, it should be noted that whatever moron to whom you are referring, did not say the virus itself was a hoax. I’m not trying to be adversarial since I don’t care much for the guy either, but thought it would be good to highlight this
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-coronavirus-rally-remark/
March 25th, 2020 at 12:21 AM ^
Did he call it a hoax? Not really.
Did he wrongly downplay the virus for over a month? Yes.
Is he now lying about having downplayed it? Yes.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/timeline-trump-covid19-responses/
He banned flights from China right away. He was trying to be optimistic and not alarmist. Most of the country approves of how he handling the situation. Be glad you don’t have Europe’s leaders.
Well I am glad we don’t have BoJo.
There is a big difference between being optimistic, lying and not doing your job. Anyone who wants to get tested can get tested was a lie. Banning flights was only one of many things that he should have done. What about getting testing in order, ensuring we had as big a national stockpile of equipment as we could?
Also, he didn't ban flights from China, only the entry of Chinese nationals. Big difference.
March 25th, 2020 at 10:41 AM ^
I keep thinking 1) that's his solution for everything and 2) what if other foreign nationals or returning Americans brought it here and 3) what if it was already here by the time it went into effect? He shouldn't be lauded for that solution because it doesn't come close to solving the problem. We should have been working with the Chinese from the get-go and using the models of Korea and Japan to track, test and quarantine. Of course, that's easy to say now but, still, we missed major opportunities but he seemed naive and arrogant to just assume this wouldn't be a problem.
But Don, he was just being xenophobic when he banned people coming in from China. And overreacting when he did the same for Europe.
/s
March 25th, 2020 at 10:36 AM ^
Yeah see you're just not being honest with yourself. It's sad really. There's being an optimist and then there's being completely ignorant/lying about the situation and significantly hindering the initial containment efforts. You know which one it is.
With that said, I'm 100% rooting for him right now. But it's pathetic when people refuse to acknowledge the past.
I’ve said it many times on here his words haven’t been great to say the least. I’ve also heard many people on here state that he said “the virus is a hoax” and I just believed it. Well, I did some digging and found out otherwise.
I think I need to do my own research on our president before taking people’s claim at face value.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/22/politics/fact-check-trump-coronavirus-false-claims-march/index.html
March 25th, 2020 at 11:04 AM ^
Rating - Mixture.
What's True
During a Feb. 28, 2020, campaign rally in South Carolina, President Donald Trump likened the Democrats' criticism of his administration's response to the new coronavirus outbreak to their efforts to impeach him, saying "this is their new hoax." During the speech he also seemed to downplay the severity of the outbreak, comparing it to the common flu.
What's False
Despite creating some confusion with his remarks, Trump did not call the coronavirus itself a hoax.
So I finally watched the video of this. If you thought he was creating confusion, you’re an idiot. It was very clear he was not calling the coronavirus itself a hoax.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:35 PM ^
Ok boomer snowflake.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:36 PM ^
Morans...
March 24th, 2020 at 10:43 PM ^
Is it divisive to say they both suck ass? I think everyone here can at least half way agree.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:54 PM ^
The Spartans and the Buckeyes?
March 24th, 2020 at 10:55 PM ^
Extensive conversations in the mod sticky on this.
https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/moderator-action-sticky-2019-c1
I'm doing the best I can while trying to keep the blog afloat and watching my two kids during the day because if my wife's not proving she's working every waking hour she's going to be laid off from her non-profit agency whose funding has been put in danger, and we'll lose our health insurance. I did a short sweep this afternoon from the old laptop I converted into a chromebook for my daughter while she worked on a project I gave her* and her brother napped. If I can find some time when I'm not living politics to keep more of them off the message board I'll do so.
* I had her draw a shape then try to copy it then try to copy that then try to copy that and so forth six times, and then we compared all of the nuanced changes that happened between the first and last copies as an introduction to the concept of chance mutation.
March 24th, 2020 at 11:28 PM ^
Seth please be safe.
Don't worry about trolls or politics
Take care of yourself and your family
March 25th, 2020 at 12:40 AM ^
Back when I was a kid I just played with toy cars and legos. What's on the docket for tomorrow Seth? The theory of relativity? :D
March 25th, 2020 at 12:57 AM ^
I try to do something with science every day and I have theme weeks. Last week was liquid-solid-gas. We did water experiments like "what floats?" and poured water into different-shaped glasses, and played with how it travels: fill two glasses with water and food coloring and put a paper towel in each that leads to a third glass and watch them fill the third glass. We weighed each other and her toys. And then did the old napkin in a glass that stays dry thing.
Evolution's the theme this week.
She's in kindergarten so she's not going to understand chromosomes and gene flow and population bottlenecks and stuff, but the base concepts are really easy: If I make 10 copies of a thing there are going to errors. But Daddy liked the last one best and we colored it in and made faces in it using the "errors" so those might not be bad things.
We started Monday by taking a walk and trying to find animals that are related to each other. Is a duck related to a robin? Is a squirrel related to a raccoon? To a deer? Which is related to our turkeys? Which is related to our dog? To us? Let's put them in families.
For tomorrow I have a couple of wood skeleton kits of dinosaurs. We're going to build the dinosuars then add flesh with playdough and then try to make them look like our turkeys (Gracie and her daughters Pancake and Waffle). Don't yet know what I'll do for feathers.
Thursday I've already started: I have a bunch of her toys and knicknacks freezing in a pitcher and she'll have to use a turkey baster to try to free them. Could buy me an hour or more to work.