I'm done. I'm just done. I really can't take it anymore

[CapnAwesome]

I lurk here almost every day. What you are saying is just not true. If you look at the political discourse in these forums and see reasoned and rational discussion, then I really have no reply. I could go over the discussion going on in the non- Min created threads on the front page point by point if you want and tell you how I interpret it.

I can also tell you that I am a centrist and personally get attacked on here politically for being right wing (even though that's not even true) viciously enough that it makes me lurk more than participate. I also have privately talked multiple people who either quit talking politics here or quit the forums altogether because of it. I'm not even a conservative, but to be one here you would need a very thick skin.

Huh? There's either a bunch of people just agreeing with each other or there isn't. Which is it? I'm not arguing that there's a bunch of reasoned debates going on. I'm arguing that it's not a bunch of people agreeing with each other, that we have people from all angles in these discussions.

People who want to talk politics should have thick skin. If they couldn't take being criticized, then I'm personally glad they don't participate. I've been called liberal. I've been called right wing. Yadda yada. To be fair, you're not exactly a fainting flower in your interactions here, so what's your problem with other people being dicks too?

What I'm saying is true. I've been on these forums for a very long time. The conservatives I know here also have been. We've also had conservatives in the past who wouldn't back down from the liberals here. I find it bizarre that you seem to think this is a mostly left-wing forum. We have a lot of socially liberal leaning people, but I think that's because we're mostly atheists. We don't have god to excuse our shitty treatment of minorities and not-straight folks. Maybe you define left wing differently. *shrugs*

politically there is very little disagreement on here

This. This is not correct.

Guys, I never said there isn't a liberal lean. I said there isn't an absence of conservatives and disagreements.

So there is another thread trying to relate between conservatives and whether or not they have lived in the same place their whole life, that poll came up with 19 progressives, 9 centrists/unaffiliated and 2 conservatives (I think I can guess who they are). It's impossible to say that things are 'discussed from every angle' when a whole side of the argument is pretty much absent or that it's not a mostly left wing forum. Of course it is! 19 to 2 is not just a liberal lean.

Also you make it sound like the random conservative who wanders on here is just in risk of having his ideas criticized. In reality he's going to have a barrage of insults and slurs thrown his way almost immediately. That's if he doesn't just peruse the titles of the politics thread and decide 'Yeah, I don't want to interact with these people.'

I don't think it's necessarily a problem with Atheist forums in particular, but as the other poster pointed out rather with forums in general. They create as atmosphere which can lead to a bubble very quickly.