Boards platform for radical opinions, a future consideration?

javaboy wrote: »

AH replicates public opinions and pub conversations to a certain extent. In fact it mirrors society in general in many ways. Leaving out the obvious nonsense threads and the trolls, it's probably a better barometer of public opinion on general topics than any other forum here.

So if the general public has racists, you can bet AH will have racists. Blatant racism is not allowed obviously but some people are better at voicing racialistical opinions while not exactly breaking the letter of the law. Those cases are harder to police.

I'm happy to say that AH reflects society warts and all. That society contains some ****ty people is society's problem. The nastier elements of AH are just a symptom.


As for the rebuttal thing, look at it this way: If a bunch of lads said something inaccurate to each other down the pub and nobody who knew better was there to correct them, then they'll never get corrected. On Boards, there will always be someone there to correct them even if they do come late to the party. 5 pages late is better than never.

In fact we sometimes get necro threads dragged up so someone can refute a particular point.


Anyway I've rambled long enough. What the hell does this have to do with the Boardscast? Nothing. That's what. But thanks for the feedback.

P.S. My question which was probably the most trivial and stupid of them all got asked. \o/ Also I want royalties for that Nice 4 thing.

I'm going to attempt a "deep" post, something that I rarely do on boards, mainly because I type slowly, like an old lady, and I get frustrated. I'd ask people to not to make fun of my spelling or grammer, but to respond seriously to my post as this has been bugging me since Monday.

On Monday I was watching Questions and Answers, and they were discussing Pamela Ivezbekhai (link: http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0330/qanda_av.html?2517363,null,230) and her case - in particular the revelations surrounding her documents. Simon Coveney came out (the Fine Gael representative), and said that out of concern for her children, she should be allowed to stay. The rest of the panel, bar an accountant and Mary Hanafin agreed with him, as did all but one of the audience.

It got me thinking.

We have been living in fear for a long time. A fear of being called racist.
After what happened with the Holocaust, and later events, it became unnacceptable to be racist, or xenophobic, or just bigot-lite. Those that were were shunned, and the loud racists only safe line of work was driving a taxi. That fear, that guilt, was used, not to address these concerns of a significant portion of society, not to excise them, but to suppress them. To make even admitting to having these concerns an object of shame.
There are even groups that seek out and beat anyone who admits to being a nazi.

That repression was enforced by a hemogeny of politicians, media, general celebrities, the elite few, who denounced or denied coverage to any who stepped out of line. To any people who were racist. The hegemony that DeVore complains about in his boardscast, is the same hegemony that stopped the expression of racist views, that prevented even those views so mild as to be acceptable in After Hours, from being broadcast.
All those men and women, bitching in the local pub, feeling people out with careful questions to see if they can be honest about their feelings, those people never had a voice.
Until now.

Boards is breaking that hegemony, and suddenly those unhappy, scattered numbers are going to realise that they are not an insignificant minority.
They are not a negligable number.
They are legion.

And suddenly the blackouts in the Irish Times et al are going to look cold and elitist, and politicians looking for a new constituency to court are going to have to nod to them, and when that happens, the repression of racism in our society is over.
Racism becomes, as it was in the past, a legitimate, albeit distasteful belief.

I believe in freedom of speech, I fully belief in dragging ideas into the sun, and watching them wither and die, or florish and grow. I have always believed "The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. "
However, I suddenly fear that boards is going to engender a change in Irish society, and public debate, very much for the worse.

How out of touch with public feeling was Deputy Coveney?
The vast majority of After Hours have little or no sympathy for Pamela, and neither do most of the other forums. Yet, no-one dared object, even on such an egregious example as this (where there is legitimate concern), to voice a real opposition to her staying, to represent the views of those on After Hours (and I am by no means saying that everyone who thinks she should be sent home is racist). As Boards grows, and people become more accustomed to the public expression of these beliefs, for how much longer are they going to tolerate being ignored by a few, liberal elitists?

I've just begun to worry that Boards is going to create a very different change in society then what the Admins originally had in mind, or what they desired.

By destroying the hegemony at the top (which I agree with, all things considered), I feel that we will bring back into the public sphere so many negatives which have been banished into private mutterings - and I don't like the possibilities this raises.