I don't make many threads but when I do I make sure it isn't another bad news bad time thread because those are a dime a dozen here. Not to say I'm against those threads per say. But I feel there is value in the amusing threads as well.
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EtcetEra can often be somewhat of a bummer to browse
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Huh, strange. I'm inclined to agree with you that the thread should have been allowed to run its course and fall off instead of getting locked.
I hope that doesn't discourage you from making more light-hearted / humorous threads in the future. Those sorts of threads are what help us build a sense of community.
OP
OP
Thanks, I stay informed about issues and politics in the US, Europe in general, my own country and various places in the world. I do feel overwhelmed, not only because of or since Trump, and I do feel depressed about it. That is why I sometimes feel I need a break, one of those breaks would be to browse lighthearted things or at least simply non-political when I have time for it.
yogurt posting some good stuff in this thread.
The fact that things are bleak in certain ways should not mean we obsess and constantly focus on them, which is what happens a lot on this forum.
Frankly, I found the early 00's far bleaker.
What is happening in this forum is the equivalent of watching the news 24/7. At some point it's bad for your brain, and at some point people are just piling on with every little bit of negativity they can come up, compounding there and everyone else's anxiety.
Unless you're literally at the point this is drastically affecting your mental health and causing serious harm, you can almost certainly afford the discomfort.
There's a reason this place is the way it is right now, and we 100% NEED to keep talking.
I am not privileged nor am I white, and I would give the same "horrible" advice you seem to think only privileged white man will give.
Take a break Era, especially the OT. Play some video games. Go exercise. Spend some time with your GF/BF.
Life goes on. The world is going to continue spinning. Don't give into the fatalism so many in Era have.
Because forums like this survive on clicks. Politics will always drive clicks. The admins would be foolish to have politics be a separate sub-forum.
Simple economics at play here.
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The thing that depresses me about Etcetera is that you can see the mod messages and there's clearly a pattern of people being censured for holding the "wrong" opinion. That's never the stated reason, but people that are ideologically correct are allowed to slide with worse behavior. Don't get me wrong, I think I'm comfortably to the left of Era's moderators on politics and feminism and so far I've always disagreed with the people that are getting shut down. But I feel like resisting them should be left up to other posters, we can handle it without bringing mod powers into play.
I know, I know, "Just leave." And I will. This is my last post here, whether I get sent to the cornfield or not I just can't bring myself to take part any more. But it is kinda sad and the end of an "Era" for me.
I know, I know, "Just leave." And I will. This is my last post here, whether I get sent to the cornfield or not I just can't bring myself to take part any more. But it is kinda sad and the end of an "Era" for me.
you really dont have a choice when SO many people around you feel attacked. Stuff IS that bad and trying to sweep this under the rug and go into a bubble is like not cool. like you can either not click on stuff or filter but really people are this vigilant because so many people feel unsafe and uneasy.
No, the reason they won't separate it is because this forum was created for a specific set of reasons, and one major reason is that it be a place we can discuss important issues like these.
I agree with you OP. It seems like lots of posters seem to think they're going to change things by posting on a forum, when in reality nothing posted here matters, and it's just a waste of time if they legitimately want to change politics or society.
Every cause I believe in and want to support, I do so in the real world, face to face, with real people - because writing essays on the internet is going to have absolutely no impact whatsoever.
I miss fun off-topic threads.
Every cause I believe in and want to support, I do so in the real world, face to face, with real people - because writing essays on the internet is going to have absolutely no impact whatsoever.
I miss fun off-topic threads.
Thats not true at all. that is fundamentally false. this does change things and sentiments especially with people who may not even be posting but just reading. TONS of people visit this site.
Wrong, keeping conversations like these going does help. It helps empower marginalized people by feeling their supported at the very least.
Get out with this nonsense.
I learned about the upcoming protests through ERA and I bet many others who plan on participating did as well, so no you are wrong
I do understand the depression, and my only suggested alternative is subscribing to a bunch of Community threads and only click on "Watched Threads" if you need a break.
It kind of feels like people are trying to be as miserable as possible. The vast majority of threads here seem intended to either make you angry, upset or just disappointed. With a large amount of posters going on those threads just to post their one-liner reactions. Fair enough to the few people who actually want to have conversations, though.
But it's rather depressing, even as someone who isn't affected by any of it. If I were, I certainly don't think I'd want to be reminded at every turn.
I'm not sure what it is. It's not something I've seen outside of here and the old NeoGAF. There's a much healthier balance of positivity in any other forum I go to, although maybe in this case maybe it just all went to the gamer side.
But it's rather depressing, even as someone who isn't affected by any of it. If I were, I certainly don't think I'd want to be reminded at every turn.
I'm not sure what it is. It's not something I've seen outside of here and the old NeoGAF. There's a much healthier balance of positivity in any other forum I go to, although maybe in this case maybe it just all went to the gamer side.
This is so incorrect. People are actually motivated by awareness. If we post about ugly Italian meals and other silly shit, sure that's fun, but stating discussion about the awful things currently happening changes nothing is so defeatist that you might as well give up on life. And secondly, you state it's simply a waste of time and you want to return to inanity over discussion of the current situation because "it's a bummer", well "waste" your time with the $30 Italian meal threads, and ignore the ones you think change nothing. I will be taking my family to the protests on June 30 and donating and doing whatever I can so this country doesn't slip away.
From what I understand pretty much everywhere is the same way. Twitter is the only social media I browse because I can do so anonymously, and those I follow have been more political while reducing the number of posts spent on stuff that's enjoyable or funny and not sad or infuriating.
Taking a break is good and I do that from time to time but I enjoy talking to people over the internet about my hobbies and what I like, as well as about their hobbies and what they like and are like.
I think the solution is to post in political stuff less (though still being informed about current events and engaging with your community) and in stuff that is enjoyable and makes you happy more, while still understanding just how important it is you take action and work towards making the world a better place.
Taking a break is good and I do that from time to time but I enjoy talking to people over the internet about my hobbies and what I like, as well as about their hobbies and what they like and are like.
I think the solution is to post in political stuff less (though still being informed about current events and engaging with your community) and in stuff that is enjoyable and makes you happy more, while still understanding just how important it is you take action and work towards making the world a better place.
They're "intended" to make you angry? A lot of times it's just reporting the news.
These are not normal times, and I think we are all having a hard time coping and adjusting.
On one end is people who want to cut off all bad news, the other end is people who are completely entertained/enraptured by it. The "healthy" balance is probably somewhere in the middle.
On one end is people who want to cut off all bad news, the other end is people who are completely entertained/enraptured by it. The "healthy" balance is probably somewhere in the middle.
User Banned (1 Week): Long history of downplaying and dismissing serious concerns
Yup. People just seem to only post negative shit.
"One random person who isn't famous or relevant called someone a racist word". Better post this article
"Put my dog to sleep today" better tell everyone.
I wish we could have a Social issue/political issue sub forum to get all that crap out of the way of my entertainment news.
I started putting people on ignore who make race bait threads and trump threads. My ignore list is wonderful. But then I got banned for not responding to people in a thread and I'm not sure if ignored people can respond to me?
"One random person who isn't famous or relevant called someone a racist word". Better post this article
"Put my dog to sleep today" better tell everyone.
I wish we could have a Social issue/political issue sub forum to get all that crap out of the way of my entertainment news.
I started putting people on ignore who make race bait threads and trump threads. My ignore list is wonderful. But then I got banned for not responding to people in a thread and I'm not sure if ignored people can respond to me?
I'm pretty left leaning, so that doens't bother me really. Other than threads mostly being boring as there's seldom any real debate as most people generally agree and the few that don't either get shouted down or seldomly post because of that. I don't want to see any far right nonsense on here, but threads with little real debate are pretty boring to read through. Evenmore so when I agree with the majority on here as it's not like it's causing me to rethink things or reconsider my viewpoints so I gain nothing from them.
But more generally it's just that I already spend a lot of time reading newspapers, browsing news sites, listening to NPR and podcasts, discussing news and politics with my wife and a couple close friends etc. etc. That just doesn't leave me wanting to spend more time on news and politics and I just browse Etcetera for the movie/tv/sports thread and some amusing random life threads.
It seems like many others do the same, so it seems a simple solution would have been to just have a News/Politics sub forum of Etcetera when they set the site up. There's clearly enough discussion of those things to support a sub-forum and plenty of the other types of threads to keep this one active with those threads moved elsewhere.
Fuck this script.
Some of you would have nuke flying and not care as long as there is netflix, and when that goes down too, as long as there is a puppet show made of clothing debris to see.
So you think families being torn apart is just "crap"?
This is one of the worst posts in this thread.
"But I just want to meme in peace!"
A lot of the politics is really important right now but I do agree that people go overboard with posting bad news stories that are just local things that have not been made a national issue. I think those are the only times people should share those kind of stories otherwise it becomes too much negativity even for me who wants to discuss the issues.
Nope. Not at all. It's heartbreaking. Hence why I think we need a new sub forum. I read the news thank you.
No new sub-forum is required. It's 100% better to keep this stuff on view as much as possible.
This is the world we live in, we all need to pay attention to it.
I have never posted all that much be it here or back at the old site. I am going to post this tho. Bullshit. I have see a metic ton of people banned in political threads over the years and its for good reason. If you are garbage you are told to kick rocks. Evil is not a "opinion" that deserves acknowledgment.
While I think people are sometimes given odd bans, I usually understand why many are banned. I'm one of those crappy moderates that folks are always on about and it's obvious to even me when many of those banned posters are being disingenuous or are on that "just asking questions" bullshit. I can't really fault the mods here for being a bit strict on that. Especially when folks are blatantly arguing in bad faith.
I keep myself well abreast of the news of the world in a variety of ways. It's not discomfort. It's beating yourself over the head with the same thing constantly.
Unless this is causing you so much distress it's causing you significant harm that needs addressing (in which case get off the internet and go see a professional), you can take it and we NEED to be able to take it.
Well that's how I see it. A lot of the threads that report on US happenings seem to focus on the negative aspects, or at least the things that users tend to get riled up about.
Maybe that's not their intent and it's just people being angry that keep the threads on the front page for longer. I don't often go beyond that.
I really can't sympathize with this mentality. Me personally, the least I can do is read a headline. No one is forcing me to actually enter every thread and get sad.
Yeah. There's been quite a few helpful resource posted on here.
Yeah. There's been quite a few helpful resource posted on here.
If I could hide all Trump related threads I would. It's just the same shit over and over again. He was a prick when people voted for him and big surprise he's still a prick now.
I understand, but you will need to step away yourself if it becomes too much for you to bear. At the end of the day, it's not the posters' fault that the world is so miserable. I would very much welcome a megathread for the current handling of migrants by the US in addition to all regular threads.
People creating an experience they want to read about on a forum isn't something you should critisize.
People have different interests and not every topic, serious or not, is going to interest them. I'd be hard pressed to critisize someone for choosing or not choosing their subjects of discussion and you should be too.
I'm not so hard pressed to criticize people that choose to close their eyes to what amount to internment camps for TODDLERS inside US soil, but hey you do you and I am not calling for bans.
Fuck this, if you want to close your eyes go ahead, but don't compartmentalize reality in a neat little box called "angry people". This shit affects us all.
There is a useful plugin that lets you hide every thread you don't wanna see :)
Get out with these kind of responses, everyone has their own problems to be looking at negativity in the world when OP just wanted a fun moment in OT browsing fun topics. If you are eager to be involved in politics why even post here instead of marching out there? Stop with the keyboard warrior thing.
Get out with these kind of responses, everyone has their own problems to be looking at negativity in the world when OP just wanted a fun moment in OT browsing fun topics. If you are eager to be involved in politics why even post here instead of marching out there? Stop with the keyboard warrior thing.
OT is for current events, sure. But the admin team could also easily create a political sub-forum right now if they wanted.
But they would be foolish to do so, for reasons I stated above.
Name these people.
Thankfully BrexitERA is all encapsulated into a single thread that I can comfortably open and get depressed with when I feel mentally prepared.
The moment Trumps run for president became legitimate is when things started going to shit(forum post/morale wise) at Gaf and that carried over here.
It's no surprise with how left leaning the members are and how things have gone to shit in the US, that a majority American site would reflect the country's current reality.
I have no problem with it because of i need to step away, I can. You people that have a problem with it can too, the forum shouldn't change so you can not be bothered by current events.
It's no surprise with how left leaning the members are and how things have gone to shit in the US, that a majority American site would reflect the country's current reality.
I have no problem with it because of i need to step away, I can. You people that have a problem with it can too, the forum shouldn't change so you can not be bothered by current events.
It would be easy for me as a straight white dude to just ignore everything, but it's hard to just turn a blind eye, and as someone who considers myself ally to LGBTQ+, people of color and minority groups as a whole, it would be incredibly irresponsible. I ache for what these people go through on a daily basis and it gets so bad that I feel like throwing up from the anxiety I get. I cannot fathom how some people can be so hateful. Same thing on the gaming side, for example. When shit comes out about a dev, I drop them. I don't care if you made games that had a huge impact on my childhood. I'm not supporting your fucking product because the well-being and exclusivity of others, as well as any possible trauma they experienced is more important that some fucking piece of media.
I'm not saying you gotta bathe in the horrible shit going on in the world. But I recommend staying in the loop. Ignoring things and trying to brush it under the rug is so harmful, especially if you care about the folks who are truly affected by these goings ons. Escapism is good and all. We all need it. Just don't run away.
I'm not saying you gotta bathe in the horrible shit going on in the world. But I recommend staying in the loop. Ignoring things and trying to brush it under the rug is so harmful, especially if you care about the folks who are truly affected by these goings ons. Escapism is good and all. We all need it. Just don't run away.
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