Political Topics Are Coming Back Home
The four-year long
experiment that attempted to create a separate environment for
political topics is ended. Despite an
honest effort to create and promote a
well-organized stand-alone environment for political issues and debate, the "AbovePolitics.com" website and its forums are languishing in
obscurity.
Politics and Conspiracy Theory
It has become clear to us that, to the people who visit ATS, conspiracy theory and contemporary politics are intertwined to such an extent that
segregated forums may actually hamper productive discussion and issue examination. While conspiracy theorists may loath the political system, they
tend to be much more politically aware than the general public, and understand how political intrigue provides fuel for conspiracy speculation.
Conspiracy Theory and Politics
More than any other time in global political history, those who are politically active or otherwise paying attention are aware of the myriad of
politically-motivated speculation that fall into the "conspiracy theory" category. With nearly daily news on everything from candidate stories that
don't make sense to electronic voting issues, contemporary politics is riddled with issues that raise the attention of conspiracy theorists.
Political Awareness
Part of our motivation for creating the separate domain was a growing irritation of the intensely divided political us-verus-them mentality that found
its way into a wide range of ATS threads. I'd like to think that we have matured over the past four years, and as conspiracy-minded people, have
become increasingly aware that the divisive tactics of contemporary politics (especially in the U.S.) is a disruptive tactic of those who wish to keep
the populace distracted. As we continue to speculate on events we believe to be "conspiracy theories," it behooves us to be aware of, and even
expert in the political motivations and maneuverings behind these events. Such awareness and expertise will temper our discussions, shape our
theories, and make us better equipped to find the truth.
The Re-Integration of AbovePolitics.com into AboveTopSecret.com
With all this in mind, it makes sense consolidate the the politically-focused forums and bring them back into the ATS environment. We'll be
consolidating most of the forums, removing three, and creating a new one: "Above Politics." The AP forum will be dedicated to political discussion
and debate that is elevated well-above partisan issues and seeks to dig deep in a productive and meaningful way. The two hosts of our
"AbovePolitics" podcast extension of ATS MIX will be the Forum Subject Matter Experts, and this forum will also be their "sandbox" to discuss
issues from the show as well as get new ideas for show segments.
The reunification plan for the forums is as follows:
new forum ---> Above Politics
new forum ---> Regional Politics
- - - integrate - - - U.S. Politics
- - - integrate - - - U.k. Politics
- - - integrate - - - European Politics
- - - integrate - - - Canadian Politics
- - - integrate - - - Other Global Politics
new forum ---> Political Issues
- - - integrate - - - Politics of War
- - - integrate - - - Mid-East Conflict
- - - integrate - - - Medical Issues
- - - integrate - - - Social Issues
- - - integrate - - - Environment Issues
- - - integrate - - - Economic Issues
- - - integrate - - - Military & Security Issues
- - - integrate - - - Energy & Science Issues
- - - integrate - - - Religion In Government
new forum ---> Political Ideology
- - - integrate - - - General Political Ideology
- - - integrate - - - Conservatism
- - - integrate - - - Liberalism
- - - integrate - - - Socialism
- - - integrate - - - Moderate
- - - integrate - - - Other
new forum ---> Politicians
- - - integrate - - - Political Figures
- - - integrate - - - Candidate Advocacy
keep forum ---> Breaking Political News
Eliminate Forums:
- - - kill - - - Head-2-Head Political Debate (moved to ATS debate forum)
- - - kill - - - Slugfest
- - - kill - - - AbovePolitics Decision 2007
Civility and Decorum
As we attempted to promote (and tolerate) political debate on AbovePolitics.com, we became more lenient of intensely passionate posts, and applied a
slightly more lax standard of management than what would be typical on ATS. This generally will not longer be the case, the discussions within the
newly reintegrated political forums will be held to the same standard as all forums on ATS... with one minor exception, the
Political Ideology
forum. Within the Ideology forum, intensely critical posts of political positions will be allow, so long as the posts are not personal attacks on the
political positions of members.
We're beginning to work on this reunification, and we'll update this thread with actual timing as we know more.