Miscellaneous What is “Politics”?

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What is politics? I don't know. Politics should lead me in a democratic direction. It's all turned to a more ritual thing.

I live on the countryside in south Sweden, Scania. To be frank, I don't care so much for politics In US, UK ..... I just keep me informed. It's diffent with the politics that is closer to me.

I joined Cafe Saxophone for many years ago. I like to talk about saxes and the music we create with our saxophones.
 
There is an older public domain first person action game I like to play that is based on Quake called Open Arena. In its primitive A.I., one of the characters upon being temporarily terminated will quip that so-and-so is a politician, with another character replying, "I need no government, I govern myself"; "Do you really need someone telling you what to do?"; and so forth.

Back in the 1960's, schools had classes on debate. What it was teaching us was how to discuss controversial topics without as we used to long time ago say, "Getting one's" - "panties in a wad", "kickers in a twist", (getting emotionally upset). Build tolerance in discussions, learn to use facts to support claims and to kindly point out the lack of validity of the opponent's talking points, and etc.

It is when we cannot or rather some cannot simply discuss topics without some form of tantrum tirade with insults inserted as if they had something valid to say. In essence they just disqualified themselves from the discussion.

It seems even benign topics such as "mouthpieces" and descriptions of "timbre" become politically charged. (And no, I don't need you telling me what I need to do if I am happy with what I am doing.) 😉
 
skeller047 said:
The fact that you, an obviously intelligent person, misunderstood my post just highlights the problem that Pete and Jeanette struggle with daily.
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Oh, I don't try to be the smartest person here. Just the funniest. It wasn't you putting a red hat on anyone, but you did ask if something was political. I was showing you it most definitely was; however unartfully.
 
Touchy discussion, obviously.

I steered away from a well known saxophone forum for several reasons.
The most important ones ?
1. Political ads in banners
2. The reaction of the moderators. OK, but what’s the problem ? We aren’t in charge anyway…

This made me realize once more that we might place the cursor quite differently depending on our cultural, geographic …. and political background.

I tend to be more relaxed with politics in discussions than banners. You can avoid the discussions. The banners are firm statements, targeting you.
 
dexdex said:
This made me realize once more that we might place the cursor quite differently depending on our cultural, geographic …. and political background.
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It also changes over time. Just over 20 years ago I started work at a scientific research establishment which primarily focussed on epidemiology. It was owned by the British government, but operated independently, created its own income and published all research. There was (and remains) a rigorous ethics and scientific approvals process, to ensure all the science it promotes is both ethical and of genuine research quality. At that time, no-one considered science to be a political matter. That's changed, and science in general, and healthcare science in particular is regarded as a highly sensitive political area. Although globally the safety and efficacy of medicines is rigorously scientifically tested, many people regard them as issues of politics, particularly vaccines. The emotional and political response to vaccines is massively greater than it was a couple of decades ago. Personally, I think this is both tragic and ill-founded.
 
These sorts of discussions are incredibly useful to us in our aim to foster interesting discussion and polite debate, but without causing inflammation and conflict that can make the cafe a disagreeable or toxic place.

I have redrafted the politics rule with some examples that I hope make things a bit clearer and allow people more freedom without too much worrying about "walking on eggshells."

Our policy is to moderate without fear or favor, and wherever possible base moderation on actual rules not unwritten rules so I hope this helps.

- I'm open to suggestions.
  • No political canvassing, discussions, or political references in avatars, signatures or profile info. This may include (but not limited to) anything which appears to be encouraging such posts or topics. This includes anything that may have recently become "political" due to controversial political debate and/or legislation. Note that not everything is considered political in all territories but is included due to the international nature of the forum.
​
Not OK for discussion including (but not limited to):​
  • Gun control legislation
  • Hunting
  • Climate change denial
  • Holocaust denial
  • (Anti) vaxxing
  • COVID mask mandates and unproven remedies*
  • Economic or environmental policies pertaining to specific political figures, parties or administrations.
  • Links to articles that would obviously result in political debate, especially with controversial headlines
OK:​
  • Discussion of economics in general but especially in regard to Cafe topics, e.g. tariffs on instruments and accessories.
  • Discussion of historical events that may have been political at the time but no longer are inflammatory. e.g. slavery (unless condoning it!)
  • Factual references to historical political figures that do not contravene the above
  • Quotes by historical political figures that are not political. e.g. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few - Winston Churchill (in regard to Cafesaxophone moderators 🙂 )
*This is included as we did actually receive penalisation notices from Google at one time.
​
​
 
Targa said:
That explains the red shorts.
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Well that's me. Going for a laugh even at my own wedding:

DSC04646.webp
 
Ghr9204 said:
If you were only wearing a kilt instead of the red shorts, might have found a spot in a few hearts here, after all, this forum originates from UK. 😉
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Well, we got married in Bermuda, so I just did what the locals would do. You wear Bermuda shorts and knee high socks; even for formal events. Our cab driver that morning was pleasantly shocked and told me that I looked like a proper Bermudian businessman. He was a great guy too. Though we were formally married in the government office's "beautiful wedding room", he took us to the top hotel where we crashed the gate (or better put, tipped the guard) and took a variety of photos as if we got married there. You should have heard the cheers from the guests!

But red shorts/trousers are very common where I live. It's a sailing thing.
 

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