PaulfromYorkshire wrote:Evening All
I’m missing this place. I’ve happily joined in Ephemerid’s community and it’s lovely to see old friends there.
But I realise it doesn’t solve my basic problem, which is that I want to be able to post my carefully considered political views in public without being made to feel like an idiot. I realise I’m still scared posting over there. Or anywhere.
If I feel like this I worry that others do too. Where is the space for nuanced views on the Labour leadership? And on Labour’s Brexit policies? Is there really no room on the internet to explore these ideas without it feeling heretic? Would it be possible for FTN to make itself a safe space again? Where we disagree but listen with respect to each other? Where we don’t put words in each others’ mouths?
Any thoughts? Love to you all, Paul
Hi Paul - thanks for this. I have been thinking about this for some time, hoping that we can do exactly as you propose, and wondering how we can go about it. I know that I have misunderstood some posts in the past, and know (from some responses to me) that sometimes I have been completely misunderstood. On other occasions of course I have just been a get, but old habits die hard.
I do think this is intrinsically difficult. Face to face you get to read expressions, hear tones, and consider how to put things so as to avoid inducing tears/receiving a punch in the head. Online we get none of this, and the red mist can suddenly descend. But if we can't make it work here, then where can we?
Have suggested a few things in the past which boil down to:
READING
1) if you think someone's a troll then don't feed them, but accept that one man's troll is another man's lost soul. The only alternative is banning people and on the whole how can you really draw that line?
2) very occasional posts that are clearly just offensive or deliberate stirring can be removed on serious justified request if mod agrees
3) if something makes you, er,
seethe, see if there are other tones you might read it in that might at least alter the seethe level
WRITING
4) imagine that you are actually talking to someone AND/OR draft before you post - particularly if you are a) seething or b) surrounded by red mist
CLARIFICATION
5) ideally develop a process for seeking clarification (white flag approach)
(when I say "you", I might add, I mean "one")
Am most keen to read other views and am often influenced by people posting here. Am sure that fundamentally our views are generally more aligned than not, and it's important, in general, particularly in this new barking mad world, that we can discuss our smallish differences without losing it.
Having said all that of course, even face to face I struggle to communicate without unintentionally pissing people off.
It's a gift. And a curse.
Mostly a curse.