ToxicSlurpee posted:

One of the issues is that you have a hell of a lot of people right now who don't want to debate and discuss but rather cast out anybody who disagrees with them and then sit around and screech about how everybody but them is an abhorrent monster. This is why I've mentioned my criticisms of the "anything that even looks potentially vaguely racist is bad" stuff. It definitely seems like the forum orthodoxy is some pretty extreme far left views. Instead of arguing against the actual substance of everything to the right of that there's a mad rush to create an inquisitorial attitude looking for anything that can be argued to be bigotry of some sort. You see this every time somebody declares literally every Trump supporter is automatically a bigot of some sort. Sorry but that just isn't true; yes every white supremacist is probably a Trump supporter but not every Trump supporter is a zig heiling KKK member. That just isn't the reality of the situation. This is also why I deliberately asked "is voting for Trump in 2020 a racist act?" It's very telling that no yes or no answer was actually given. I suspect that the answer for a lot of people is "yes, ban literally every Trump supporter." You've even seen posters have exactly that opinion here. You see this overall politically in the left right now where everybody to the right of Marx gets labeled alt right, alt right adjacent, a collaborator, or whatever. If you aren't 100% on board with these extreme left views then they scream pejoratives at you, go on the attack, and look for any reason they can possibly come up with to label you a bigot and therefore a bad person who should not be listened to. Instead of arguing it's shouting pejoratives and circling the wagons.

That is not debate; that is an inquisition. You especially see that when you have people saying "you're really concerned about that. Are YOOOOOOUUUU a Trump supporter? Hmm? Hmm? Hmm? You sound like a Trump supporter" while they finger the punish button. This is why I don't post much in D&D anymore; it's gone completely insane. This is why it's incredibly bad that nobody will give a clear definition of what racism is. What happens if we end up with a moderator who believes that anybody who has ever cast a vote for any Republican politician is automatically a racist? They'll be breaking the rules by registering and making any posts at all. I find that unacceptable.

Of course now people are immediately going to accuse me of being a Trump supporter. I'm neither American left nor American right at the moment; I'm thoroughly disgusted with the behavior of both major parties as well as America's political system in general. I've always leaned left but the American left is so far left right now it's lost me entirely.