ATS front page Political hijack. A return to civil discourse and all good things ATS..?

Dear fellow ATS member,

As we approach the end of this contentious and controversial election Presidential election cycle, please don't let all your biases and hatreds tarnish our future civil discourse.

And the voice of opposition, if it's worth hearing, must be the voice of higher reason if we wish to speak truth to power.

Don't give in to silly hyperbole and demagoguery.

Just shaking our fist at the world and bemoaning the sins of others hurts us all at some level.

I think we all want the best and are generally doing the best we can (or think we can) with the resources available to us, but we can do better than this devolution in civil discourse, imho.

I for one will be to first to admit that I've gotten a little carried away at times.

You wanna know one thing that I am looking forward to?

When the front page of ATS is covered in threads about Aliens and strange and wonderful things like it once did, instead of all this Trump/Hillary-related back and forth.

What fun we could all have again when this election is all over! What new things, new forms and possibilities we can create together, Republican-Trump or Hillary supporter, or neither as we're not all Americans who visit here even though many of us feel as if we do have a stake in this particular upcoming election?

It gets tense and no doubt the stakes are high, but I invite you to consider something greater and more awe inspiring than either of these two candidates could produce on their own.

What is our own production, what are we making and doing to make the world a better place? Isn't that more important that devoting all our time and energy and thought power in the direction of what amounts to a duality?

I think that our creative production is sinking folks (I know mine is or has been) with this preoccupation and I think that we've all got to pull our heads out of the sand (starting with my own self) and recognize that we have the power and that our own creative potential must be given expression within a framework and a context that we are responsible for generating.

It won't be the end of the world, either way. Life will go on.

But what kind of people do we want to be, and how shall we treat one another?

We cannot let this dialectic drag us all down.

We cannot I don't think allow ourselves to become jaded and cynical, or we lose something very fundamental and precious in any community whether a virtual community like ATS or any other form of community.

Something's starting to go wrong and get too crazy. I feel it.

It's time to pull back and reevaluate what's truly important and vital and get back to work exploring that together, I feel.

I'm not trying to constrain anyone's freedom though, just asking or inviting you to consider another paradigm outside of this box of crazy that we've all been drawn into hither and thither.

We don't want I don't think to give them that much power, whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, and especially not the power to divide us and set us against each other as if to burn the other guy at the stake along with Hillary Clinton as nothing but an evil witch.

Is that our heart?

I think that projecting evil is a dangerous and foolish thing to engage in, whether at a demonized individual, or even the devil himself.

It's unhelpful, unkind, and unloving.

Think whatever you like about Hillary Clinton, or Donald Trump, but think again about the real game that we're participating in here, that completely and utterly transcends that political circus side-show.

And please make wonderful threads about Aliens and all manner of mysteries and curiosities and points of common interest.

But oh how I long for the day when I can visit ATS again and not see it's front page completely and utterly dominated by contentious political discourse that isn't pursuing the highest aim for everyone's sake ie: where all the FUN is.

I've grown sick and tired of this election stuff and cannot wait to put it all behind me, behind us.

Thanks for listening to my "rant".

Best regards,

Ankh

Not everyone is "loving." Some people are just nerdy or whatever. But I get the picture. I myself wish to see something more constructive that leads in a you know, direction.

Btw I've often wondered if it was the board format..

Your rant is right on and precious. Oh, to go back to the days of innocence; is it even possible?

This internet that has brought you and I together has also opened our eyes to the tremendous evil that we are altogether experiencing.

Our fears have collided into nauseating finger-pointing and absolute ridiculous and unbelievable stories-my eyes and ears will never be the same.

But myself, and others are here because we want the truth and ATS lets us discourse where in our "real" lives it isn't possible-or we would lose every friend, co-worker, neighbor we have. This is our safe place. Thank God (or?) for ATS.

Granted, angst will lessen after this "election."

But, again, I am grateful for the many opinions, education, and craziness here.

Let's do hope for more "fun" on ATS soon.

I am ready for a change of the front page. That is why I lurked so long and finally joined. It wasn't politics.

originally posted by: breakingbs
Not everyone is "loving."

Nor are they all lovable, but it's the unlovable that most need to be loved, to help them to laugh and love again, even if they're nerdy or introverted, or an outright jerk.

Maybe we've all gotten just too carried away from what our heart tells us is true, that's my concern.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

Nahh. Try to love someone who doesn't want it and they'll just get all annoyed.. People don't always seek love 24 hours no offence if you do..

a reply to: breakingbs

I didn't mean the feeling of love, but the work of love, or put another way, civility and mutuality and funness.

More of an antidote to what is unloving in the face of what might be considered to be abusive or just plain silly or stupid or childish.

The capacity to forgive and make friends of perceived enemies or adversaries.

The work of love.

Traditional notions about love I think are all wrong. It's not a feeling, but the will to give of one's self for the sake of one's own and another's spiritual growth and well being. It's a choice and an act of the will.

Some comments I find to just so distasteful and ill-informed and the desire is to react and to hate in a way, the other, which really only hurts ourselves.

I think that when everything that's unreasonable is take away, that love and the reason of love is all that remains.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

Ah ok. I think what turned me off is the repetitive use of the word "love." It strikes me as nlp which has a poetic ring that thuds right against my two inch skull and falls like a dead insect. The rest of your post I agree with tho.

a reply to: breakingbs

You'll note perhaps that I changed my salutation in the OP from "with much love" to "Best regards"

Don't want to get too gushy, especially not when trying to bury an axe, doesn't go over well, damn bleeding heart liberal leading with his chin! lol

a reply to: AnkhMorpork





It's all good..

Oh yeah, you don't have to change your entire OP or way of being, you do you, I got the message..

We can't use this message board as, you know..a message board. So it all gets stuck up there forever as some monument to our persona and "genius" with people competing for stars (likes) and everything being a big poignant commentary on...da da daaaa!: LIFE. Not good for someone who gets up dusting cherios from his boxers. People analyze and over analyze what it all meeeeans and not just "means."

There is a lack of DOING as opposed to just being literary. No one directs you to a place that might be better, people are all in competition for status, and no one bothers to say "you're right, hey I got this suggestion for ya" in any other way but to be a knowitall.

Okay I'm done with that

But seriously. It's kind of an issue..

a reply to: breakingbs

Yeah that's sorta the gist of what I was trying to convey and to take a stand for, because it's worth it, even if you might take some flak in the process just for being on target.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

Some bells cannot be un-rung.

a reply to: DBCowboy

Well I hope I'm not on your #list.. ?

Couldn't agree more. This place used to be so fascinating.

I think the problem a lot of us have is the fact so many are acting like if one, or the other, is elected it is the end of the world. So, we lash out against the notion, which only feeds the monster.

a reply to: IsntLifeFunny

People used to put so much effort into making great content, using ATS as a type of instant Internet publishing medium, and everything is spiderbotted up on Google right away, so we're definitely leaving a trail in cyberspace.

I've even done unrelated searches on Google for a series of keywords and among the links are often found ATS threads.

In many ways, for better or worse, the public discourse and civility, or lack of, that's displayed here, creates a pattern and generates a certain field of awareness that influences or infects as the case may be, the minds of the next generation of up and comers, who see these patterns of conduct and behavior among warring participants and that's their Internet social cue, to the degree that some of it may be derived from what they encounter either as a member or a visitor or lurker/reader.

removed - civility. (I said something stupid)