Can you have a totally apolitical ski forum?

[fatbob]

Or indeed any forum related to any hobby? Cars certainly not given the political tinkering which goes on with incentives, fuel taxation etc etc.

The ski town living thread being shut down brought it home to me. Do we really want it to be reduced to a sport for the elite, people who've been good capitalists and banked enough to be able to afford it or should it be more open to all? That's a rhetorical question BTW not a starter for an argument.

I understand the intent of pugski in avoiding the political asshattery of other ski forums but given it is a climate reliant sport that involves consumption of resources, access to public lands and has some marked demographic differences in ski town populations it seems a very difficult line to tread.

I don't think It's unique to skiing by any means - take road cycling - what gives the few the right to inconvenience the many for the sake of their preferred leisure activity, while at the same time why should your need to get to Starbucks drive thru 1 minute earlier endanger my life.

I'm more interested in how useful and informative debate and opinions can avoid getting shutdown under the political red card. After all if people with different perspectives can't engage in relatively respectful debate surely that heightens division rather than helping bridge gaps or offer solutions.

 

[pais alto]

I'm more interested in how useful and informative debate and opinions can avoid getting shutdown under the political red card. After all if people with different perspectives can't engage in relatively respectful debate surely that heightens division rather than helping bridge gaps or offer solutions.

^The second sentence addresses the first one. Lack of respect for the others' POV, often the result of a closely held ideology, tends to destroy 'discussions.'

Respect - give it to get it.

 

[crgildart]

If we could then untracked trails would be allocated in a more equitable manner on powder days.. Handicapped people riding SitSkis would get special access and lower income skiers would have subsidized lift tickets and accessible transport to the mountain at the same time as early birds with AWDs.

We live in a society that rewards winners more than participants, even when winners take mostly legal short cuts not available to other participants.

So, not really.. Nope!

We can chat all day about how things are and how they are changing around us but the minute we begin to discuss why or what to do about it the whole thing breaks down to finger pointing and what is quoted above.

Politics and social justice hat off... I'm out

 

[Large Squirrel]

depends on how you define "apolitical". if you mean refraining from having discussions that pertain to government (fed, state, local), then yes i think one can. but, if you are referring to the ebbs and flows of social status of the discussion forum participants, then no i don't believe that you can. those are my two cents.

 

[Fishbowl]

"Totally apolitical" would require level of moderation that would censor many of the popular subjects into oblivion. Of course there is no reason a ski forum can't focus on the technical aspects of the sport rather than it's social implications. There is no mandate to have to discuss every ski related subject in infinite detail.

 

[tch]

I'm more interested in how useful and informative debate and opinions can avoid getting shutdown under the political red card. After all if people with different perspectives can't engage in relatively respectful debate surely that heightens division rather than helping bridge gaps or offer solutions.

Re: "apolitical"...I don't think it's possible. Almost all of life (food, housing, transportation, recreation - esp. expensive recreation) is affected by political decisions -- either yours or the society's. I used to have to educate my politcs-hating students at a state university about this: they often didn't grasp that the very reason they were even able to attend college was because of political decisions made about the value, and then funding, of public education.

I'm more interested in fatbob's point: we need to get over the idea that politics and political argumentation is always adversarial, personal, full of stereotypes, and threatening to one's values. I'm not looking for a Kumbaya utopia, rather a recognition that discussion of politics can be an enlightened way to achieve a goal of clarifying and acting out values. If we never question the politics of others or consider our own, we are doomed to suffer under the mistakes of either our own views or theirs.

 

[Bill Talbot]

ALL politics is crap... it's that simple. Far left all the way to far right and EVERYTHING in between. It's designed to be divisionary and keep the masses eyes off what/who the real problem is...
Just ignore it, maybe some day it will go away

 

[Started at 53]

ALL politics is crap... it's that simple. Far left all the to far right and EVERYTHING in between. It's designed to be divisionary and keep the masses eyes off what/who the real problem is...
Just ignore it, maybe some day it will go away

I doubt it is going away, but a bit of tolerance would go a long way!

 

[Guy in Shorts]

Political discussions rarely get overheated when limited to a chairlift ride. In fact all the world’s problems seem smaller when you are outside enjoying the snow.

 

[KingGrump]

Political discussions rarely get overheated when limited to a chairlift ride. In fact all the world’s problems seem smaller when you are outside enjoying the snow.

Skier reportedly pushes snowboarder off Aspen Highlands chairlift
Wonder what happened there.

I make it a strong conscious effort to stay out of the political stuff.

I have been to a few gatherings. I usually know the most of the skiers' handle and some time their real first name. Sometimes the skis they are on for the day. Nothing much beyond that.
Real world occupation and political views are usually off limit for me. I'm there to ski and talk skiing only.

 

[Chris Walker]

I don't know but let's keep trying. As another poster on another thread said, skiing is what unites us. Let's focus on that. In my opinion, political attitudes in the US have become so entrenched that there is no possibility of productive debate. You don't have meaningful discussions of ideas, you have tedious recitations of ham-handed talking points. It's a huge problem and it needs to be fixed but I don't think re-hashing the talking points on a ski forum is the way to fix it.

Sorry if I offended anyone.

 

[Mendieta]

I am closing this thread, since we already had to remove posts. I think the Pugski rules and polices are quite simple in this regard, let's please move on.