Can we clarify again? Are politics allowed on EDS forum?
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free skin care · Wed Sep 10, 2008 11:52 am

Interesting.... a thread about the merits of evaluating a candidate for President was just removed. Are we not allowed to discuss anything OTHER than skincare, makeup, health and beauty here on EDS?

Or do we have to limit ourselves ONLY to politically correct political discussions where we're not allowed to make any reference to the religious views of a candidate that may either prompt us to support them or run away in droves?

Thank you in advance for your assistance,

Athena

free skin care · Wed Sep 10, 2008 12:06 pm

I guess so much for "freedom of speech".

free skin care · Wed Sep 10, 2008 1:18 pm

What was written. This is such a hot topic, that I would think it would be hot here too. It is important.

free skin care · Wed Sep 10, 2008 1:30 pm

athena123 wrote:

Interesting.... a thread about the merits of evaluating a candidate for President was just removed. Are we not allowed to discuss anything OTHER than skincare, makeup, health and beauty here on EDS?

Or do we have to limit ourselves ONLY to politically correct political discussions where we're not allowed to make any reference to the religious views of a candidate that may either prompt us to support them or run away in droves?

Thank you in advance for your assistance,

Athena

Here is the description of what you are (and are not) allowed to talk about...it doesn't seem to exclude politics or religion. Maybe they should change the description?

EDS Lounge
Discuss anything that does not fit into the other forums. Relax and talk about whatever your hearts desire. Please exclude any customer support inquiries or self-advertising.

free skin care · Wed Sep 10, 2008 3:32 pm

I think the part about "basic good manners" was missing in that thread.

free skin care · Wed Sep 10, 2008 3:35 pm

fawnie wrote:

I think the part about "basic good manners" was missing in that thread.

Ah...I'm glad I missed reading the thread in that case.

free skin care · Wed Sep 10, 2008 3:40 pm

Hi fawnie, I did see ONE objectionable post accusing someone who wasn't drinking the koolaid of a certain candidate of prejudice, which was completely unjustified. The one accused of being prejudiced expressed HER POV with dignity. Then a couple of complaints and requests to delete the thread and poof! It's gone. Why should those complaints have been the only ones listened to in regard to this thread? If those who complained didn't like it, they didn't need to participate.

We care about many things other than skincare and makeup, about issues affecting our future and should be able to talk about them but I guess we have to go elsewhere for the meaty discussions. It's a shame....

free skin care · Wed Sep 10, 2008 4:14 pm

Politics and religion generally make for some very fiesty discussion, with varied opinions on each end of the spectrum. I enjoy reading and learning about each persons views, and am always open to the possibility of changing my mind when good points are made..

..Sadly that thread was yanked long before anybody had the benefit of learning anything new. I don't believe it was pulled because of the content, because everything that was said by 'everyone' was very relevant to our lives and worthy of debate.

.. In my opinion, the personal attacks and name calling are what has caused the demise of yet another very interesting thread..

Very sad... Sad

Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:49 pm

Very sad indeed. Thread was removed because it did not pass our Forum Guidelines.

In EDS Lounge we can "Discuss anything that does not fit into the other forums. Relax (my bold Smile

) and talk about whatever your hearts desire." but from my experience politics almost always did not make a great topic and never fitted perfectly with the overall atmosphere and tone of our Forums... not mentioning Forum Guidelines because as I can recall it was not the first thread about politics that got out of hands too soon.

free skin care · Wed Sep 10, 2008 8:31 pm

I believe the only way to be able to carry on a topic regarding politics and/or religion is to not do the following 3 items.

1. Do not address any member by their user name.

2. Do not use the quote button.

3. Do not use the word "You".

JMHO

free skin care · Wed Sep 10, 2008 8:39 pm

There's a ton of message boards on the 'net where one can discuss politics at a local, state and national level.

Frankly, I enjoy the EDS boards because I can take a break from such discussions. Of course such discussions/debates are important, and some people can participate without getting heated, but often such threads degenerate into defensiveness and attack-mode where emotions rather than concrete info rule the day.

I currently feel saturated with political stuff 23 hours a day, between what I read and research, what's on TV and radio, and what my friends and I discuss - it's frequently quite stressful.

For me, EDS is one of the enjoyable places I can escape that—briefly—take a break and lose myself in the hopeful world of hunting for the best skin care ingredients, the most recent scientific advances in skin care technology, who hates which mud mask and why, and how I can save money learning to strengthen my bullshit radar when it comes to cosmetics marketing.

I love how generous and helpful and non-judgmental this community is, and I'm so grateful to have found it, and to EDS for hosting it. IMHO, seeing political threads here feels like biting on tinfoil. Razz

free skin care · Thu Sep 11, 2008 9:01 am

I believe there is a mistaken belief here that the discussion was nuked due to differing political views or as so colorfully put, not drinking the kool aid of choice. Additionally, as mentioned by a prior poster, the question of whether one has to be "policially correct" or as I'd prefer to think of it, considerate to your fellow board members who are not of a Western European background. I guess I'd like to think of it as respecting the cultural backgrounds of all forum members. One way to be respectful is to avoid ethnocentric remarks such as making fun of a particular name or equating said name with undesirable traits, ie, in this case, the dreaded and feared T word in this post September 11 world. Intimating a particular name is synonymous to fanatatical, terrorist beliefs is not just politically incorrect but it's harmful and hurtful and just plain wrong, no matter which candidate you prefer. Bigotry is ugly and it has no place on this forum. I personally believe that politics can be discussed in a rational, spirited manner without the ethnocentric put downs.
Kimberly

free skin care · Thu Sep 11, 2008 12:00 pm

Bluehearts: I hate politics but at the risk of making this thread "political", the reason some use racial slurs and fear mongering is that it works. Look at Hitler, this is the classic "strong man's" ploy. ( I was going to use the word demagog but didn't because originally that was a leader who represented the "people's view".)

free skin care · Thu Sep 11, 2008 5:51 pm

http://attacked911.tripod.com/

On this 7th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001, my thoughts and prayers are for the families of my cousin and brother-in- law who were lost in the rubble of the twin towers, and anybody else who lost a loved one on 9/11 because of hate.

I continue to pray for peace in the world, and the safety of the innocents.

free skin care · Tue Sep 23, 2008 5:42 am

You might all enjoy to have a look at this thread that's simmering away nicely at the moment:

http://www.essentialdayspa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?tid=30659

free skin care · Tue Sep 23, 2008 6:38 pm

Here is a test for those that have a few minutes.

http://barackobamatest.com/

free skin care · Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:04 pm

If I were to have a vote (and since it is the EDS forum, I don't--only EDS does) I would vote to ban politcal discussions from the forum. It's almost impossible to have reasoned debate in an Internet forum, unfortunately. Someone inevitably posts something that presses somebody else's buttons, they respond in kind, and pretty soon it's an allout flame war. Flame wars are bad enough when they break out over skincare, but when it is about something as important as politics, all bets are off. And what inevitably occurs is--people feel insulted or disrespected or unwelcome, and some forum members will lose respect for those who behave badly. Accusations of dishonesty or distortion of position or stupidity follow in short order. Nobody wins.

In my opinion, it isn't an issue of freedom of speech. Forums like this one are a private resource that EDS generously gives to us, and they can condition its use on whatever terms they like. Freedom of speech doesn't give anyone a right to say whatever they want, wherever they like. Forums are like a party--the host always has the right to control the atmosphere of the party and to toss out an unruly guest who spoils the tone of the party as set by the host. Freedom of speech means that you have the right to set up your own party with your own rules if you want. That's why people set up their own blogs--that way you can say whatever you feel like saying to those who feel like hearing whatever it is you want to say.

There are so very many places to talk politics or religion on the Net, and so few of them are pleasant or civil places. I'd hate for the EDS forum to go down that path.

free skin care · Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:17 pm

I don't know Flitcraft. I do hate the way political things spiral out of control due to shear hate but think it's important bcause it;s a microcosm of what is going on in the USA today. I say two portions of Sara Palin rallys where the crowds were exhorted to consider him a terrorist, people in the audience were chanting "kill him" (this is not politic as normal this is scary). There are wackos who all they need is a hint from Sara to go off the deep end. If this crowd succeeds in killing Obama (whose only crime seems to be working in a social services job instead of a fancy firm and having a wrong middle name) then this country will have ( and deserve) the worst race riots yet (more widespread than 6 Cool

. No matter what side you are on you've got to see tht nobody would win through this.

Please vote the issues and calm and of your friends or aquintances who feel the need to shout about a presidential candidate being a terrorist. It is an extremely evil thing to doand inherrently racist. I've served on panels with extreme racists (who I certainly did not get along with) and with exteme liberals s)ome I did and some I did not get along with). To be painted with the brush of these peoples opinions is just ludicrous. What scares me most about this election is not so much the presidential condidates as waht a large fraction of people are potentially acting with such non democratic and anti-intellectual idea. Pure emotion never leads to anything good.

Nowis the time to act cooling possibly buying stock is now good. Acting with controlled optimism is more useful than inciting trouble. As I said before only truely bad people use these tactics use the web TO LOOK BACK IN HISTORY TO SEE WHO PLAYED THE /RACE/RIOT/FEAR CARD (NOT A MORALLY GOOD BUNCK.

free skin care · Thu Oct 23, 2008 12:53 am

Interesting.... a thread about the merits of evaluating a candidate for President was just removed. Are we not allowed to discuss anything OTHER than skincare, makeup, health and beauty here on EDS?

Or do we have to limit ourselves ONLY to politically correct political discussions where we're not allowed to make any reference to the religious views of a candidate that may either prompt us to support them or run away in droves?

Thank you in advance for your assistance,

Athena

I guess so much for "freedom of speech". – sigma

I don't know Flitcraft. I do hate the way political things spiral out of control due to shear hate but think it's important bcause it;s a microcosm of what is going on in the USA today. I say two portions of Sara Palin rallys where the crowds were exhorted to consider him a terrorist, people in the audience were chanting "kill him" (this is not politic as normal this is scary). There are wackos who all they need is a hint from Sara to go off the deep end. If this crowd succeeds in killing Obama (whose only crime seems to be working in a social services job instead of a fancy firm and having a wrong middle name) then this country will have ( and deserve) the worst race riots yet (more widespread than 6. No matter what side you are on you've got to see tht nobody would win through this.

Please vote the issues and calm and of your friends or aquintances who feel the need to shout about a presidential candidate being a terrorist. It is an extremely evil thing to doand inherrently racist. I've served on panels with extreme racists (who I certainly did not get along with) and with exteme liberals s)ome I did and some I did not get along with). To be painted with the brush of these peoples opinions is just ludicrous. What scares me most about this election is not so much the presidential condidates as waht a large fraction of people are potentially acting with such non democratic and anti-intellectual idea. Pure emotion never leads to anything good.

Nowis the time to act cooling possibly buying stock is now good. Acting with controlled optimism is more useful than inciting trouble. As I said before only truely bad people use these tactics use the web TO LOOK BACK IN HISTORY TO SEE WHO PLAYED THE /RACE/RIOT/FEAR CARD (NOT A MORALLY GOOD BUNCK. - sharky

Thank you for athena, sigma, sharky, and others for putting my feelings out there so well on this deleted post.. It was fun, while it lasted, to get to know all of your opinions.
I enjoy catching up on the latest moisturizer or HG as much as the next EDSer, but really enjoyed our political discussion as well...

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