Wednesday's Most Active Threads

For the third day in a row, the most active thread was the thread about the school shooting in Tennessee. Since I've already discussed that thread, I'll move to the next which was titled, "Republican controlled states - Limiting college students’ voting rights" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. Most of the most active threads yesterday were political in some way and several posters suggested this one should be moved to the political forum. But, since the original poster, who discussed Republican efforts to prevent college students from voting and anti-abortion moves, asked whether these developments should affect college choices, I decided to keep it in the college forum. The responses that I read concentrated heavily on the posters' personal experiences with voting during college. Those who voted in their hometowns by absentee either implicitly or explicitly suggested that other students should do the same. Those who voted in their college towns argued that such voting was proper because they spent most of the year there. Several posters opposed students voting because they believed it would be easy for students to also vote at home, thereby voting twice. Regardless, this dispute misses the point of the thread which is whether efforts to prevent voting, as well as lack of access to abortion, should be reasons to avoid such states. Many posters agreed that these states should be avoided and several said that they had avoided them during recent college searches. Nevertheless, most of the responses ignored the intent of the thread and focused on the issue of students' residency, addressing such issues as where students obtained drivers' licenses, where they paid taxes, or how long they lived in the state.

Next was a thread posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. Titled, "My relationship advice: get an education, date only with an eye toward marriage, marry young (22-27)" the original poster offers the advice included in the title, adding "AND no kids until you’ve been married for 5 years". Very few posters welcomed this advice and almost every element was disputed. One poster said that she had basically followed this advice and her marriage had not turned out well. On the other hand, there were posters who thought that the original poster offered good suggestions and some said they had done what she advised with good results. Most of the thread is simply posters explaining their own personal experiences which either supported or refuted the original poster's advice. I really don't have much to say about this thread which is too long for me to read and so all over the park that I can't easily identify trends to describe. But, I think it is mostly pages and pages about why the original poster is wrong with posts about financial status thrown in just to confuse me.

The third thread that I will discuss was titled, "What do we need to do to stop mass shootings?" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The original poster is upset that politicians don't do anything to solve the ongoing problem of mass shootings and she wants to know what can be done about it. Posters suggest various ways to reduce guns or restrict access to them. Of course, no such ideas are likely to gain traction in today's political environment. As such, many posters agree that the situation is hopeless and that our country has accepted mass shootings as a normal aspect of living in America. There are also suggestions to harden schools and improve mental health. Some posters blame the media, either traditional or social media with at least one poster supporting a ban of TikTok. There are several calls to vote for Democrats and get rid of Republicans who are the main obstacle to gun control. The basic division in all of these threads is between those who believe guns are the main problem and those who think just about anything other than guns is the problem. One argument that I see being made more and more often is that there are already so many guns in circulation that gun control is futile. I wonder what these folks would do if a water pipe in their home burst and water was gushing into their house? Would they rush to turn off the main water valve and stop the flow? Or, would they raise their hands in resignation saying, "well, there is so much water here now that there is no reason to stop more from coming in"? Then, I guess they would grudgingly propose background checks and mental health evaluations for anyone wanting to use water as the level continues to rise around them. At any rate, the thread soon got off-topic and many posts duplicated the discussion in the thread about the Covenant School shooting. So, I ended up locking the thread.

The final thread at which I'll look today was also posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Titled, "Is the GOP worried about its survival?", the original poster notes that the US is becoming "increasingly non-white, unmarried and LGBTQ" and wonders what the Republican Party will do to attract young women. The first poster to respond points to southern Texas as an example of Hispanics supporting Republicans. As so often happens with the first response in a thread, this post colors much of the following discussion. Southern Texas is still being discussed many pages later. Many of the responses simply mimic political talking points. For instance, one poster saying she is a minority but Democrats have not done anything for her and she is concerned about the border, crime, and Democrats being "too smug". Other posters say they will support Democrats due to gun control, abortion, and environmental protection. Several posters point to moves by Republicans that they consider undemocratic such as voter suppression and argue that Republicans know they can't win fairly and therefore plan to win unfairly. I don't have much energy for threads of this sort which tend to be a lot of fury and little substance. As such, I haven't read much of it and can't say too much more about it. I do think that demographic trends favor Democrats. However, I am not convinced that the Democratic Party is prepared to meet the challenges ahead of it. Republicans appear to be more clear-eyed and willing to do what it takes to win. Democrats tend to be professional foot-shooters and world class Chicken Littles who always seem to have a declaration of surrender tucked into their back pocket. I am very pessimistic about whether or not the party is ready to take advantage of anything demographics may have to offer.