Yeah, we’ve all been there. I notice that the ability to edit’s been a godsend for a lot of us.

You’re right about the dividing lines. Everything in its place.

There was a time that I worried that starting political threads on Flame preemptively was self-censorship and that the venue prejudiced the discussion toward nastiness. Seems kind of naive these days. I’m inclined now to say that most of what passes for politics should go straight to Flame.

It’s not just the heat of discussions that’s made me see Current Events as a lost cause. It’s the way that dogmatism stops intellectual discussion dead in its tracks. There are topics I know it’s pointless to raise there, like post-18th century economics (bits and sheep have different economic properties…whoa!), because I know I’ll just be shouted down with shrieks of “Commie-nism! Socialism! Devil Worship!” (Disclosure: one of those three is an exaggeration…somewhat.)

It’s relatively easy to deal with political flames, compared to dealing with political dogmatism. Personally, I define conversation at someplace calling itself “the HabitableZone” as intellectual conversation, but you won’t find it on CurrentEvents. If I had to pick a board to throw overboard to lighten the load and gain altitude, CE would go first, no question.