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Pseudo-political or politically influenced discussions are becoming more frequent in Geek Media which has recently led to some threads being shut down (and rightfully so). Is there anything that can be done to reduce these issues in the future?

I'd say it's less the politically influenced discussions and more a specific 3 users who keep starting pages long arguments about what Hollywood star recently hut their feelings. Almost every Star Wars thread is rapidly derailed by one person with enough consistency that I know them by name.

As Ouze said sometime ago, the topic isn't the problem. It's certain posters.

One sees alot of politics in the last jedi, so much so they cant discuss it with out bringing it up. Every thing movie music related is politically related these days in some fasion, i mean am i wrong?

Thats why i only watch old movies when i rarely watch them ( honestly one movie a year is too much mabye ), but when i did last watch a few a few years ago it was all like 1950's 60's 40's stuff, lots of Alfred Hitchcock as well. They are so pleasant and the black and white really adds to the experience of focusing the viewer on the story and the characters rather then stupid flashing lights and CGI bull gak.

 LordofHats wrote:
I'd say it's less the politically influenced discussions and more a specific 3 users who keep starting pages long arguments about what Hollywood star recently hut their feelings. Almost every Star Wars thread is rapidly derailed by one person with enough consistency that I know them by name.

As Ouze said sometime ago, the topic isn't the problem. It's certain posters.

Very much this.

If you're harping on about a political opinion an actor once expressed on Twitter, then you're not actually discussing the movie any more.

It's almost like there is a double standard or something.

The James Gunn thread is inherently political and should have been closed immediately. I even reported it as such but I guess as long as it's approved politics it gets to stay.

Unfortunately nowadays even what cereal you eat is a political statement, so by banning "politics" you basically ban any and all topics of discussion.

Exaggeration and a slippery slope fallacy in the same sentence? Boy.


Science fiction and fantasy, including film and comics, have often been overtly political, using their setting to shine a light on the real world. Discussing eg a movie will involve discussing those themes. If people discuss politely and reasonably most things are fine.

The problem comes that lately some people take ‘political’ to mean ‘whining about films with women or people of colour in them’. That’s not political, that’s your -isms showing, and those same people then bridle and react when this is mentioned. We can’t have a thread on this forum about representation or a female miniature without it being locked due to MRA-level idiocy. It’s a bit depressing.

Yes something can be done, mods can more rigorously enforce rule 1 on posters who attack other posters for holding positions they don't like.

I don't see it as a big deal. The discussions are about the movies themselves, and the political side only comes up with a few movies.

The system aint broke. If the system aint broke don't fix it.

 Frazzled wrote:
The system aint broke. If the system aint broke don't fix it.

When it's functionally impossible to discuss a Star Wars or comic book movie in a forum called "geek media" , it's hard to say that the system is working with a straight face.

That being said, the first Captain Marvel thread - while it had all of the problems accurately described by the OP for pretty much the entire run of the thread - was, at the time it was locked, the subject of repeated in-thread warnings to get back on topic. I bring that up because in the last 2 pages of that thread, I contributed substantially to the thread being locked and would like to take an opportunity to apologize to everyone for my part in dragging it off topic, which I did, repeatedly. I feel quite badly for that still.

Of course, the subsequent thread had all the usual political trainwreck problems that TLJ and the original CM thread had without any off-topic digressions. As Thanos said, destiny always arrives.

 Ouze wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:
The system aint broke. If the system aint broke don't fix it.

When it's functionally impossible to discuss a Star Wars or comic book movie in a forum called "geek media" , it's hard to say that the system is working with a straight face.

That being said, the first Captain Marvel thread - while it had all of the problems accurately described by the OP for pretty much the entire run of the thread - was, at the time it was locked, the subject of repeated in-thread warnings to get back on topic. I bring that up because in the last 2 pages of that thread, I contributed substantially to the thread being locked and would like to take an opportunity to apologize to everyone for my part in dragging it off topic, which I did, repeatedly. I feel quite badly for that still.

Of course, the subsequent thread had all the usual political trainwreck problems that TLJ and the original CM thread had without any off-topic digressions. As Thanos said, destiny always arrives.

I actually have a picture i had seen on the CSM Codex, and i cant describe what i am talking about or what ever because what i want to talk about is how the picture looks exactly like a certain person who is a politician. It would be cool to just see if others agree if it looks like that person and what ever or if it was intentional picture.

 JohnnyHell wrote:
.

The problem comes that lately some people take ‘political’ to mean ‘whining about films with women or people of colour in them’. That’s not political, that’s your -isms showing, and those same people then bridle and react when this is mentioned. We can’t have a thread on this forum about representation or a female miniature without it being locked due to MRA-level idiocy. It’s a bit depressing.

Now, now, I've been explicitly told that sort of behavior is just a figment of my imagination and doesn't happen on dakka, no matter how many times the usual gang shows up in movie threads to throw a hissy-cow.

 Stormatious wrote:

 Ouze wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:
The system aint broke. If the system aint broke don't fix it.

When it's functionally impossible to discuss a Star Wars or comic book movie in a forum called "geek media" , it's hard to say that the system is working with a straight face.

That being said, the first Captain Marvel thread - while it had all of the problems accurately described by the OP for pretty much the entire run of the thread - was, at the time it was locked, the subject of repeated in-thread warnings to get back on topic. I bring that up because in the last 2 pages of that thread, I contributed substantially to the thread being locked and would like to take an opportunity to apologize to everyone for my part in dragging it off topic, which I did, repeatedly. I feel quite badly for that still.

Of course, the subsequent thread had all the usual political trainwreck problems that TLJ and the original CM thread had without any off-topic digressions. As Thanos said, destiny always arrives.

I actually have a picture i had seen on the CSM Codex, and i cant describe what i am talking about or what ever because what i want to talk about is how the picture looks exactly like a certain person who is a politician. It would be cool to just see if others agree if it looks like that person and what ever or if it was intentional picture.

Is it really political if you say "this character has a similarity to this person", especially if you don't say so in reference to the political connections of that character or person?

nareik wrote:

 Stormatious wrote:

 Ouze wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:
The system aint broke. If the system aint broke don't fix it.

When it's functionally impossible to discuss a Star Wars or comic book movie in a forum called "geek media" , it's hard to say that the system is working with a straight face.

That being said, the first Captain Marvel thread - while it had all of the problems accurately described by the OP for pretty much the entire run of the thread - was, at the time it was locked, the subject of repeated in-thread warnings to get back on topic. I bring that up because in the last 2 pages of that thread, I contributed substantially to the thread being locked and would like to take an opportunity to apologize to everyone for my part in dragging it off topic, which I did, repeatedly. I feel quite badly for that still.

Of course, the subsequent thread had all the usual political trainwreck problems that TLJ and the original CM thread had without any off-topic digressions. As Thanos said, destiny always arrives.

I actually have a picture i had seen on the CSM Codex, and i cant describe what i am talking about or what ever because what i want to talk about is how the picture looks exactly like a certain person who is a politician. It would be cool to just see if others agree if it looks like that person and what ever or if it was intentional picture.

Is it really political if you say "this character has a similarity to this person", especially if you don't say so in reference to the political connections of that character or person?

But then what is the point of pointing it out if you aren't allowed to discuss the political comment that is being made by the artist?

I think a lot of these threads could be saved with a sprinkling of temp bans. For example, there really was only one poster agitating the Captain Marvel thread beyond reasonable discussion, and if he'd had a forced chance to calm down until after the second weekend's box office came out, the discussion might have had time to become ground in discussion of the film's content or role in the MCU.

I think that a lot of movies have clear and obvious political overtones that go beyond highbrow commentary. Girlbusters, Captain Marvel and TLJ are emblematic of that. If a movie has an overt socio-political goal (e.g. CM), I think it's a valid topic of discussion.

Geek Media does not spark joy for me.

we'll bear all this in mind as/when.