This is accurate. And only time will tell if this is a lasting change but for now it all seems very normal
The other thing we need to recognize and resist is the creation of an echo chamber (more than we already have). It should not go unnoticed that most of the people who have been discussed itt would be right of the median UP poster. Itās human nature to be more sensitive to those who donāt share our views. Iām self aware enough to recognize Iām no different, as the only poster Iāve discussed itt was Sabo.
This is all not to say these people canāt be trolls and worthy of banning, just that we should do some extra self reflection when deciding on a ban to ensure we are banning them for actual trolling and not just having views we donāt agree with.
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Is it just me or is it not possible to ignore someone whose profile is set to private?
Itās just you. 
You canāt ignore them from their profile. You need to go to āPreferencesā (click on the three lines next to your icon) then select āUsersā and you can add them to ignore there.
I see a list of users but still no option to ignore.
Aha, thanks. On the three-lines menu thereās also an option for āUsers,ā which just lists users. That explains my confusion.
ProTips:
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Start typing in the name you want to Ignore and then click on the name with your mouse from the list presented by the system (for whatever reason the system seems to not correctly add the name if you simply type in the full name)
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Remember to click on Save Changes after you click on Add
I feel like this has been discussed a lot in the past, but weād all love intelligent, thoughtful, introspective right-wing posters to come post on this site. The issue where every single argument they have is done in bad faith sucks though. It doesnāt matter how much info they read about topics like voter fraud, theyāll still come back with āI just think elections would be more secure if everyone needed a picture ID.ā And thereās literally nothing gained in discussions with people who post in bad faith. literally nothing
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I know people who can pretend to discuss those subjects from a GOP viewpoint, but none who hold those positions sincerely and do not suffer from a lack of empathy and critical thinking skills. Even the books from seemingly intelligent people are pages and pages of baseless claims, outrage, and propaganda. Sometimes the people ARE quite smart, but I often find the very premises upon which they engage with existence to be batshit. My go-to example this week is trying to talk to a person who begins from the assumption that the moon is made out of cheese, therefore we should vote for Trump. Attempting to find someone who can have an intelligent version of that conversation is a foolās errand.
Like you, I am open and eager to encounter an exception, but given what right wing American politics has turned into, Iām skeptical it will happen. And if I am being honest, if a person explicitly aligns themselves with a party urging America to honor slave owners, what is there left to talk about? We arenāt on the same team, and I see no value in rehashing why racism is wrong.
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If there were intelligent thoughtful conservatives looking to discuss politics rather than just troll people (not saying there are), they wouldnāt post here.
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Thing is that debate with people on the other side canāt be done unless a common ground can be reached on what is true. When one side has their set of facts and the other has theirs, youāre not really arguing more than trying to establish a shared sense of reality. If people canāt come to terms with that, then debating is impossible.
Unfortunately, right-wingers have their facts that they perceive to be true and that they are incapable of accepting that they may be wrong.
The only way to effectively engage with a conservative is to do so at a deeper level. Finding out what they value and why they value is more interesting and effective than arguing over unarmed black people being shot by cops. When Iāve done that, I hit a spot where either the conservative has a broken/non-existent moral compass or hasnāt actually formed a moral foundation and canāt really explain why they believe what they believe. The latter is best as it makes the person malleable to change while the former is just set in stone.
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The closest youāre gonna get to that is by debating the ācentristsā and we all know how they are treated here.
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Part of the problem is there use to be such a thing as a reasonable republican. There still are in the general population. In the RNC, or among the elected, there are no republicans anymore just trumpkins. There is literally no such thing as a reasonable trumpkin. They simply donāt exist.
They ceased being reasonable, if they ever were, when 98% of them voted for Trump.
My point exactly. He has completely taken over the party and removed any last shred of reason or logic. In fact, the removal of reason and logic is their defining characteristic now.
Maybe.
This (the picture ID) was one of the first politics thread in the old site - I was then a doc and honestly had NO IDEA that some adult living in the 21 century couldnāt get a DL/state idea because I couldnāt see how you could function in any sort of society. Big event for me in terms of how a fair number lived in an area completely new to me.
Of course what the information make use of it is another thing entirely.
MM MD
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Voter ID is quite popular. In 2016 anyway it polled at 80%. Itās not really very difficult to explain how it affects election results because on average poorer people, young people and minorities will less often have IDs, but some people will have none of that and not go beyond āthey should just get IDsā.
I just had a 30 minute argument with someone who was freaking out that the link when you click on donate to BLM redirects to āactblue.ā They were saying it was a ploy by democrats to funnel money to their presidential campaign.
I had to spend 25 minutes of the argument trying and failing to explain what a payment processor does and how it functions, and was finally asked for āproofā that the money actually goes to BLM and not joe bidenās pockets.
Thereās no debate to be had with people who, at the most basic level, are actually stupid.
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I mean, they donāt exist, so itās certainly a false hope. If they did, Iād certainly have more hope for the world, but weāre going off the cliff because people are driving straight for it, because they truly want to believe thereās an invisible bridge.