Poll of the Day > When did Poll of the Day become so political?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've been around in one form or another for a while, and every now and then I would see a thread about some sociopolitical issue. Like when DADT was repealed. But it was never as dominant as it is now.

Why do you all care? Wouldn't you rather talk about anything else? Anything at all?

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VioletMassacre posted...

Nobody likes the politics board.

So this is a byproduct of the Politics board being created, people not liking it, and deciding to come here?

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Because the world has rapidly become way more political in the last 10 years.

Cruddy_horse posted...

Because the world has rapidly become way more political in the last 10 years.

But when was the turn?

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Pretty easy to ignore topics that don't interest you, bud.

And if there's no topics on this board that interest you, there's literally thousands of other boards to visit

And if there's still no topics that interest you, there's literally thousands of websites and forums to choose from all over the internet

But sure, bitch about a couple topics on this board

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I always remember politics being discussed here, even when I was 13 in 2004.

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Far-Queue posted...

Pretty easy to ignore topics that don't interest you, bud.

And if there's no topics on this board that interest you, there's literally thousands of other boards to visit

And if there's still no topics that interest you, there's literally thousands of websites and forums to choose from all over the internet

But sure, bitch about a couple topics on this board

I never said I was upset about the politics, I am, but I never said I was. I'm just wondering when the turn for the political came about. Because it's not just PotD, it's much of the Internet.

And so it's intriguing to me how it is that so many places throughout all the Internet, who at one point weren't this political, suddenly decided to be this political.

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it's always been political here, there's just a couple people who are way more polarizingly opinionated (like jen and zeus) so it's easier to see

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June 16, 2015

agesboy posted...

it's always been political here, there's just a couple people who are way more polarizingly opinionated (like jen and zeus) so it's easier to see

But not this political. You mention Jen, last time I was really here she was the only one who was really sociopolitically minded. The hot topic topics were there, but they were rare. Now it's several every day.

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Most of the so called political topics I see on here is just clickbait outrage nonsense posted by duckbear aka Full Throttle. He posts the exact same topics over on Politics board. There's hardly any serious political talk on this board.

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People here think they are smart and that their opinions matter

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If I had to pin down a specific point, it happened around Trump's rise to power. He emboldened a lot of people with stronger right-wing viewpoints to be more vocal about it (bearing in mind that his term was the first time there was a Republican in office since social media took off, in addition to him being particularly brash), leading to more arguments about political matters.

Obviously, it's more nuanced than that, but my personal impression has been that there have been more polarized political discussions here in the last 5 years than before. Of course, it also doesn't help that politics in general has been getting more polarized in that time frame, which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Trump (if anything, I'd say he's more a symptom of that than a cause).

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Probably 2015. I remember things were pretty tame in 2012 and a lot of people were stanning Gary Johnson

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ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

When did Poll of the Day become so political?

When all the children grew up and started talking about adult things. Unfortunately, most of them still think like children, so all of their opinions are hot garbage and all of their "discussions" turn into arguments, like monkeys flinging feces all over the board.



Cruddy_horse posted...

Because the world has rapidly become way more political in the last 10 years.

It really hasn't. It's more that you've become more aware of the world in the last 10 years.



Far-Queue posted...

Pretty easy to ignore topics that don't interest you, bud.

Less so than you'd think, considering certain people have a tendency to spam the board with political topics, and never bother using the Politics flair that might allow people to filter them out. And some people have a tendency to go into completely non-political topics and turn them into political arguments, so it's kind of like a sewer pipe has broken and is leaking shit all over our nice furniture.

It's honestly reached a point where even if a topic starts out well with an interesting discussion about something totally unrelated, if it suddenly seems to acquire a lot of posts in a fairly short period, I just assume one of the dipshits has turned it into a BS slapfight and stop going into that topic. Because that's almost always what's happened.

People have mentioned Jen and Zeus, and honestly, they may be the two worst people on the board for that sort of thing, but they're hardly the only ones.



MeteoricBurst posted...

Most of the so called political topics I see on here is just clickbait outrage nonsense posted by duckbear aka Full Throttle. He posts the exact same topics over on Politics board. There's hardly any serious political talk on this board.

At least in Duckbear's case, it's incredibly easy to filter out his BS just by blocking his account. He doesn't really go into anyone else's topics so he never really derails anything.

The worst culprits tend to turn any topic they decide to post in into a shitshow, though, so even if you ignore them completely their mere existence can ruin otherwise completely neutral or unrelated topics.

PotD would probably be a much better board if political posts in general were made completely off-topic and moddable, but if that happened half the people here now wouldn't have anything left to talk about.
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^^

Was looking to see a post like this for this topic. Short answer is age demographics of this board changes and older adults are more politically engaged.

Also, the more dumb and bigoted the political opinion is, the bigger the response/engagement.

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I like to talk about video games

Because ya know, gamefaqs

Everyone else is a weirdo

I guess we should start calling this board Politics of the Day then.
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A large portion of America had an extremely strong reaction to Obama being elected

For some unknown reason

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LeetCheet posted...

I guess we should start calling this board Politics of the Day then.

Sure, but that's a bit of a mouthful. How about we shorten that first word to 'Pol of the Day'?

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ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

But not this political. You mention Jen, last time I was really here she was the only one who was really sociopolitically minded. The hot topic topics were there, but they were rare. Now it's several every day.

I'm pretty opinionated lol, and I 'came back' to PotD a handful of months back.

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ReturnOfFa posted...

I'm pretty opinionated lol, and I 'came back' to PotD a handful of months back.

I'm talkin' about like the late 2000s/early 2010s. Were you active back then, making constant social commentary threads?

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ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

I'm talkin' about like the late 2000s/early 2010s. Were you active back then, making constant social commentary threads?

I had just graduated highschool, and I was definitely active from around 2008-2011. It might not have been 'the same' as it is now, but I still remember a lot of politically oriented arguments. I only distinctly remember heated discussions (characterized as arguing or trolling by others) with Whiskey a lot. I guess my memory isn't entirely reliable, but I've always enjoyed social commentary, and recall it from then. I'm probably biased.

I do remember a lot more consistency in 'regular' topics like 'rate this movie, rate this game' etc, but there was also so much more activity back then. A lot more user gossip back then too since there were so many more regulars. Remember topics like, "Is the above user a PotD N00b, reg, or l33t?" or something along those lines? I guess the gamer culture was stronger, but I'd say it's still quite strong.

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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Less so than you'd think

I'm not reading all that, but if you're a functioning adult it's very easy to ignore topics that don't interest you. You may get baited by a clickbaity or deceiving topic title, but if that happens simply Topic List the fuck right out of there and be on your merry way

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Also this isnt a potd thing at all. All parts of the internet have become political.

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ReggieTheReckless posted...

I like to talk about video games

Because ya know, gamefaqs

Everyone else is a weirdo

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Mead posted...

Also this isnt a potd thing at all. All parts of the internet have become political.

That's true, but if I can figure out when PotD became so political, I can figure out when the rest of the Internet became so political. Because it happened to pretty much all of the Internet, it's probably because of the same factor.

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ArvTheGreat posted...

People here think they are smart and that their opinions matter

Bingo! Especially when most people here are actually dumb.

ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

But when was the turn?

Social media.

And yeah. 261 is a cesspool and gives me the shits just thinking about going there for five minutes. Even left-leaners here hate it there.

Last time I went there I asked if I missed the AOC abuela threads, and they said Yes. Weve already decided that the right are a bunch of disingenuous assholes (rambling) and then the thread was closed by the time I got back. Lol.

zebatov posted...

Social media.

And yeah. 261 is a cesspool and gives me the shits just thinking about going there for five minutes. Even left-leaners here hate it there.

Last time I went there I asked if I missed the AOC abuela threads, and they said Yes. Weve already decided that the right are a bunch of disingenuous assholes (rambling) and then the thread was closed by the time I got back. Lol.

I mean "when" was the turn.

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ReggieTheReckless posted...

I like to talk about video games

Because ya know, gamefaqs

Everyone else is a weirdo

Agree

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ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

That's true, but if I can figure out when PotD became so political, I can figure out when the rest of the Internet became so political. Because it happened to pretty much all of the Internet, it's probably because of the same factor.

I wasnt joking, its when Obama got elected, things have just been getting increasingly polarized since then

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Mead posted...

I wasnt joking, its when Obama got elected, things have just been getting increasingly polarized since then

I agree. Things got more on steroids when Trump came in, but the general media landscape was already ultra politicized 2008-2016.

/always has been. we're just getting older generally speaking

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ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

I mean "when" was the turn.

Yeah. When social media happened. 2007 for most humans?