Quote:
Originally Posted by Rococo
A schism implies that a group that was once unified under one umbrella split into two or more groups. The current politics forum and BFI are not the product of a such a split. BFI draws more finance types. Those people are less likely to favor Democratic, and especially progressive, policies. Politics forums, on the other hand, are more likely to attract Democrats. And to a degree, groupthink is a feature of any forum, no matter the politics of the forum. That's all you are observing. There are many regulars in the politics forum who have little or no history of posting in BFI (and vice versa).
4-5 years ago, the politics forum was much more progressive than it is now, which directly contradicts your argument. 10-12 years ago, it skewed significantly in the direction of libertarianism and AC-ism.
To a degree, there was a schism between the current Politics forum, and Unstuck. But that was less of a partisan division and more of a division around how the forum should be moderated.
While i might agree with a preponderance argument I do not believe either finance nor Politics are so overwhelming left or right that you do not get a good mix of people from all political sides in discussions.
The BFI guys regularly referred to the entirety of the Politics forum with great disdain and suggestion of it being some crazy out of touch leftist bastion. It was clear they had no desire to post here feeling they would get no objective treatment.
Similarly there is a pretty near complete avoidance of the BFi, and in particular Tooths catch all thread, the covid thread, by most who post here. Hard to say all the topics there just don't appeal to anyone here over it being they don't want to engage or associate with most over there.
So while I thought I was told there was some great fight and agreement that certain people would stay out of this forum and threads and vice versa, it may well just be self isolations following very partisan lines.
But I think the divide and lack of engagement is deliberate and a thing. Why it exists (bans or voluntary) is less important.