Political Posts Are Prohibited

[MJDeMarco]

As the title states, political posts are not allowed in any part of this forum with exception to political funnies in the Fastlane Funnies section (Political cartoons, jokes, etc) and even that is subject to moderation.

Violation of the policy will result in your prompt moderation or banishment.



Thank you and enjoy.
MJ

[Allthingznew]

So what's with the political ads on the forum? I saw a John McCain ad in the thread about oil being in a bubble. Is it Google? It takes you to his site, but looks like it could have come through Google syndication.

[MJDeMarco]

BTW, FYI for the users and mods ... political oriented news posts by "Fastlane-News" is OK as long as the thread is closed immediately. Politics has an impact on all of us and none of us should be in the dark with government legislation. I am allowing the posts to stay visible for people to view, but not to discuss.

That said, if you come across a political news story posted by our good-ole News Scavenger, please CLOSE IT, but keep the story intact.

[Russ H]

Thanks, MJ. Will do.

I really like the absence of politics, MLM, and SPAM on these forums. Makes for a cleaner, happier place.

I've only had one member who has skirted the political post thing a few times- intentionally posting political photos and seeing if he can bait others into responding.

I think he just has fun f*cking with us and seeing how far he can go.

Thing he doesn't realize is, he's p*ssing me off, wasting my time as I have to deal w/his posts and all of the other members reporting him.

Someday, he'll just wake up banned.

-Russ H.

[mtnman]

Geez Russ, get your feathers ruffled? lol

No Howard, that's not a hint for you.

[ramy98]

Hi MJ, can I use a quote from a politician within my signature ?

thanks

[MJDeMarco]

If the statement is party neutral. If you have any doubts, PM me.

[memenode]

I'm not hoping for this policy to change and I intend to respect it, but I just want to express one disadvantage that I see with this sort of policy.

Business and economics is not something you can isolate from any or all other fields of endevor, including even politics. A successful business person would, I expect, evaluate all forces which affect his business and his decisions, including unfortunately the political ones. A lot of the times understanding the political climate is probably going to significantly factor into the success or failure of a business.

But by banning all discussion of politics we are essentially cutting off a discourse which could generate the valuable insights and ideas regarding the interrelation of business and political forces. So a significant portion of the whole of the fastlane set of concepts and ideas seems incomplete, because this big part of what affects a would be fastlane traveler is not being considered. It's like trying to speed on a fastlane without considering the effect traffic lights and road cops will have on your journey.

It's ironic I say this though since my "political philosophy" is actually totally apolitical, that is, the ideology itself sees no place for politics in the world whatsoever. That's why I see this need to deal with it quite unfortunate, albeit necessary, as it's not what I envision for a better world.

I wish the world was what this forum aspires to be, an apolitical free market, but it's not, so it's something we can either ignore or deal with.

[hakrjak]

I have to agree with MJ here. On some other places I frequent like Facebook, there have been so many political posts that the enrionment gets pollutted. Especially on facebook, I can't log in now without seeing 10 of my "friends" posting articles about how much they hate Sarah Palin, or how Obama is the second coming of Christ. LOL... The fastlane is a welcome retreat from all of that double talk.

Regards,

- Hakrjak

[andviv]

...
But by banning all discussion of politics we are essentially cutting off a discourse which could generate the valuable insights and ideas regarding the interrelation of business and political forces.

memenode, great point you are making here.

However...

The problem is that most of the times the discourse is just about offending the political rivals, attacks others for their political views, or as Hakrjak mentions, say how much you hate this one or love the other one.

But that does not enrich this place.

I think it is great when the discussions benefit the members. Political or religious discussion generate passionate "conversations" that will not lead us anywhere.

We are welcome to discuss how a policy affects us both positively or negatively in business or investments.

[memenode]

Ah how right you are... In my view examples you noted are a good sample of why politics sucks. It's essentially all about controlling other people's lives instead of only your own. Who can then blame people for sniping on political rivals when they are the ones who will have to swallow their rules and regulations.

Yet that's the BS we have to live with each day in real life and business.

To be honest, I wish this rule was adopted by the whole world, not just this forum, then my point would be moot.

Cheers

[MJDeMarco]

We are welcome to discuss how a policy affects us both positively or negatively in business or investments.

Exactly. If capital gains taxes are raised to marginal tax rates, it is irrelevant if a Democrat or Republican initiated the action ... the real question is "What do we do and how do we respond?"

[unicon]

I have asked this question to others in an attempt to get a factual objective answer!

Can anyone define the definition of Politics?

In my youth I defined this as an "Excuse for the Truth" - It serves me well today in my search for substance.

Remember you may Qualify your opinion to make it a Fact. Which increases ones credibility.

[hatterasguy]

This always happens around presidential elections. I have been a mod at a pretty busy forum for a long time. Last election things got to crazy, we simply were not ready for the wave and sheer volume of the politcal posts. A lot of the old guard left and in the end we had to shut that part of the forum down for a month! Than when it was reopened we had a strict ban on political threads. This hurt traffic so we lifted it.

This election cycle things are running far smoother. We have selectivly culled the herd and gotten rid of some members who will cause problems. They are all currantly banned until December when its over! My fellow mods and I have been keeping a tight lid on the political threads and surprisingly they are going rather smoothly. Its a ton of work though.

I can certianly understand your descision to do this, and until the election is over its an excellent solution.

Thankfully these things only happen every 4 years!

[memenode]

I have asked this question to others in an attempt to get a factual objective answer!

Can anyone define the definition of Politics?

In my youth I defined this as an "Excuse for the Truth" - It serves me well today in my search for substance.

Remember you may Qualify your opinion to make it a Fact. Which increases ones credibility.

Well according to wikipedia politics "is the process by which groups of people make decisions". The trouble is groups can't make decisions because a "group" is not an individual entity with a single brain. It can't exist without individuals so politics is actually referring to a sort of impossibility and thus in practice ends up being one of the group making decisions instead of everyone else in the group, and as it usually happens, enforces those decisions at the point of a gun.

That's why I'm apolitical, and wish the whole world was. The whole idea of politics is a lie. How can you not then expect politicians to be liers and politics to cause such negativity and backstabbing everywhere it is discussed? I make my own decisions thank you very much.. so no politics for me (and no groupthink either). Unfortunately, most other people seem to disagree, if not in principle then in action, which is why politics, as ridiculous as that is, remains such an inescapable part of life and such an inescapable influence on business world too.

Regards

[unicon]

To be 100% civil "politics" or being "political" deals with gray not black and white. One must be careful labeling all professional politicians as liars. Paradoxically one may label himself/herself that very label, " group decision making" is a good start as a definition but is insufficient. I have never heard of a satisfactory definition.

Politics seems to have an adversarial base which lacks integrity but is time sensitive. Consensus is the ideal approach and encompasses integrity - by its very definition and makes time stand still (when community is reached politics evaporates).

An "Excuse" for the truth does not label one a liar necessarily, but comes close.

Frameworks (like the constitution) are a cure for politics, not laws. Details are not the answer they are only reconciling items. Context is the truth before content.

The excuse for the truth (political decision) is usually made to expedite (rationalize) a bill or move forward. It favors one thing over another. Is this an attempt to be productive??

Another author also stated there are no such thing as "Excuses".

We go full circle!!!

[andviv]

and that is why we don't discuss it here... going in circles is nice if you are a Nascar driver (right, Runum?) but not if you want to move forward with your entrepreneurial and investing activities.

[unicon]

"It" would seem to be more related to the quality of a decision as opposed to a group process.

A political decision could be between two people.

Thus a political decision would be more related to a low quality decision, or more opinion than fact.

Politics or a political decision would then be more often than not a decision about looking good rather than being good, about laziness rather than productivity, about short term rather than long term, about putting a price on what is priceless, about concealing rather than negotiating, about reactive instead of proactive, etc etc etc

It could be said that these are all negative characteristics, therefore what is a positive characteristic of "IT?"

The process of opening dialog?? A politial decision may not allow any dialog and may in fact take away freedom.

Process implies some sort of rules, good or bad. Human behavior determines that process that could be influenced by the group. Only the individual can clean up politics with the word.

When the word exposes the group and the group is transformed is that the point where politics is no longer politics and is now just truth??

A definition would imply some sort of technical cutoff???

[randallg99]

if Obama, Biden, Palin and McCain are all on a capsized boat, who is saved?






































America.

[memenode]

Unicon, I don't think it's really worth racking your brain trying to define something you yourself say has no satisfactory definition, even after centuries of experience with it.

You're probably trying to do that because you still believe in collectivist rule. Fair enough I guess. We need not go into details on why I don't believe in that anymore. I'll just say I'm for self-government 100% and collectivist government 0%. Yep, I'm a pure libertarian (AKA anarcho-capitalist, market anarchist or voluntaryist, all terms apply). Hence my being apolitical. It's more of a philosophy than a political system, one which is about doing away with political systems (systems based on ones forcing their will on another and calling it politics) altogether.

So yay for everything apolitical!