Abolish Stock Chat During Extreme Societal Crisis

[SirRumpole]

People need to get off the left/right binary tribalist bandwagon. It's boring. What's missing in nuanced discussion and debate. What we get is predictable left/right mudslinging.

Left/right politics is all played out. Life isn't black and white, neither is politics, but (some) people argue like it is.

I practice politics is not binary because most legislation goes through Parliament with at least bi-partisan support, but for the voter you can only give your first preference to one side, so it's binary in that sense, but again preferences decide many seats so you end up with politicians that the least number of people dislike rather than than the ones people really want.

In principle, for politicians winning is the only thing that matters which is why you rarely hear politicians praise the policies of the other side so at that level politics is pretty binary which is why you get policies at either end of the spectrum in the run up to elections (which is really all the time), politicians don't like looking like a shadow of the other side.

 

[Smurf1976]

for politicians winning is the only thing that matters

Nailed it.

The problem is that it's one thing for professional politicians to use that approach but it's something different entirely when the general public starts doing likewise and sadly that's the point we seem to have reached. Win the argument at all costs and to hell with what's actually true has become a mainstream approach.

That approach is pretty much the exact opposite of what anyone would sensibly aim to do when it comes to investing their money or indeed anything else of a practical nature. You want the truth, the facts, or at least to understand what the plausible scenarios are. Last thing you want is some ideological "win at all costs" approach which leads you straight up the path of outright nonsense and loses you money.

Therein lies the problem. Politics in its current form and the manner in which even the general public now discusses such issues is incompatible with the reason anyone comes to a stock market forum.

In the offline world I do know a few who are willing and able to discuss any issue from a neutral perspective and to thoroughly explore whichever view they disagree with. Suffice to say some interesting discussions have been had most certainly. I won't go into details otherwise some algorithm will flag the thread as inappropriate......

It seems that most are unwilling or even unable to take that approach however and are rusted on to one side or the other. A discussion with those who are rusted on won't achieve much unless you're simply wanting to hear that one sided view expressed, something that's useful only if you haven't previously heard it.

It's best for this forum if we steer of that sort of thing and boost the number of stock posts I think. Or if people are going to post other things then stick to harmless stuff that doesn't have the rusted on, one side or the other aspect which just gets people upset and drives them away. Links to a few music videos in the music thread aren't going to upset anyone and with it all in a single thread it's very easily ignored by those not interested.

That said, there are certainly some things in General Chat which do have relevance to investing. If someone can't spot any relevance in the occurrence of a pandemic, new technologies or something like a gas shortage well then fundamental investing perhaps isn't for them. No problem, stick to a technical approach, but there's some use in that sort of information and discussion for those so inclined. It's not out of place on this forum in my view but there's no point in taking a political approach to it.

We're not having a real political debate here - ASF isn't the place where decisions about whether or not to lockdown a state or whether to build a train line will be made. To the extent there's value in discussing it, the value's in understanding what decisions governments or companies could make and what the implications of those are in terms of investment potential etc. The value's in understanding that if it goes ahead then it means this for company xyz and it means a $ billion contract for someone else and it means whatever. The value's in beating the market with understanding the implications of it being a yes / no decision and being ready to jump accordingly. We're not actually making that decision here.

Politics and religion are different to other subjects since they're the things which do attract that rusted on sort of view. Hence it's not unknown in some places overseas, US in particular, to find a "no politics or religion" sign in a pub and they mean just that. Chat about anything you like but if staff overhear mention of either of those then you'll be thrown out pronto and yes they mean it. They don't care which side you're on - no talking about politics or religion.

 

[frugal.rock]

Have we forgotten the 3 pub rules?.

No talking about politics, religion and can't remember the third...must be taxes because as @rnr points out, I know nothing about taxes.... (was very happy with my accountant of 15 years who decided to retire...)
Pub days are long gone for me, until I get to the Hilton Hotel in a monkey suit with an array of darts... love a good drink and smoke... 23 days and no smoking... it's KILLING me !

Had to watch "Wake in Fright" on ABC Iview to relive the early days...

 

[Smurf1976]

23 days and no smoking...

Smoking is old fashioned, obsolete and no longer required.

 

[qldfrog]

Smoking is old fashioned, obsolete and no longer required.

The same label often tagged to to our older generation..
This is the thread for it

 

[SirRumpole]

Politics and religion are different to other subjects since they're the things which do attract that rusted on sort of view. Hence it's not unknown in some places overseas, US in particular, to find a "no politics or religion" sign in a pub and they mean just that. Chat about anything you like but if staff overhear mention of either of those then you'll be thrown out pronto and yes they mean it. They don't care which side you're on - no talking about politics or religion.

Yes, but it's pretty difficult to avoid politics when discussing say tax policy which affects us all and as we found just before the last election the political sides have widely different ideas on tax.

So should we ban discussions of tax policy because it might involve politics ?

Politics, tax, economics are unfortunately inextricably entangled.

Maybe we should discuss quantum entanglement instead.

 

[moXJO]

mmmm don't read general chat if you don't like it.
You literally have the power to ignore, but you are all like junkies unable to stay away from the pure high of righteous posting.

Putting the responsibility on someone else because you don't have the internal fortitude to stop peeking, or engaging in ridiculous conversations is on you.

 

[Barry2020]

Exactly. Use the ignore function otherwise pull out the popcorn as Sir Gumnuts does and have a giggle.

 

[frugal.rock]

Smoking is old fashioned, obsolete and no longer required.

Butt out

 

[Smurf1976]

Yes, but it's pretty difficult to avoid politics when discussing say tax policy which affects us all and as we found just before the last election the political sides have widely different ideas on tax.

So should we ban discussions of tax policy because it might involve politics ?

From a purely personal perspective I've no problem with any subject whatsoever, indeed I think society has become far too conservative and easily offended over all sorts of issues. You won't find this Smurf getting upset because a word has multiple meanings and I've chosen to deliberately misinterpret something to be offensive. Nor will I be offended if some preacher tells me that I'll be sent to whatever place for ignoring the rules of their god. And so on.

Reality however is that we're in a world where many do get rather upset about the use of words with multiple meanings. Others become irate if someone mocks their religion or whatever. Personally I think they're taking it and themselves a few orders of magnitude too seriously and really need to lighten up.

They don't agree with that view however and there's the problem. They take their religion, politics or whatever rather seriously and get upset if someone ridicules their beliefs even if it's only a joke. Someone innocently says something that most wouldn't see as offensive and then it's kaboom! They're offended.

ASF is a stock market forum and is funded by advertising revenue. As with any business based on that model it needs an audience and the more the better. There's the problem - someone comes to ASF, sees content they disagree with because they deem it offensive, and leaves never to return. Keep doing that and ultimately the forum ceases to exist.

My view that it's best to not discuss politics and religion is thus a pragmatic business one which goes against my own ideological view that "anything goes". I'm trying to put myself in Joe's situation and consider what's best for the forum? More members and more stock posts yes. Getting tripped up by Goggle's algorithms no.

I say that as someone who's made plenty of posts in the past which in hindsight haven't been overly helpful.

Personally though, well I do think rather a lot of society needs to take a few steps back and stop being so damn serious about all this. Some more humour would do a lot of good in the world right now.

 

[Smurf1976]

Butt out

Not smoking in the first place renders that idea old fashioned, obsolete and no longer required......

Seriously, smoking can indeed be rather dangerous. I've seen someone light one using an electric radiator once. The old kind with the exposed (electrically live) wire wrapped around the porcelain rod. It did the job, a tad warm in the face though no doubt.

 

[SirRumpole]

Personally though, well I do think rather a lot of society needs to take a few steps back and stop being so damn serious about all this. Some more humour would do a lot of good in the world right now.

Absolutely right.

Maybe we can ask whether we can make money by offending others or being offended ourselves. Maybe start a web site called we.are.offended.com , where everyone who is offended by something can lay it all out there. After all, this should rank high on google searches as it's so obviously politically correct that Google will positively promote it . Should be great for all those ethical businesses and their woke shareholders.

 

[frugal.rock]

Absolutely right.

Maybe we can ask whether we can make money by offending others or being offended ourselves. Maybe start a web site called we.are.offended.com , where everyone who is offended by something can lay it all out there. After all, this should rank high on google searches as it's so obviously politically correct that Google will positively promote it . Should be great for all those ethical businesses and their woke shareholders.

Well, your in luck. You can start
WatchMeRant.com
Available web address seemingly.
Rumor has it, Bunnings Karen, as a living woman, might start it as is her right.

 

[Barry2020]

I don't mean to break this little love-in up, but can you guys get back to the other general chat threads and rerume posting CCP propoganda, Guardian articles, conspiracy theories and generally getting all righteous at one another, its prime time viewing hour.

Does Bunnings Karen post here - is there an antivaxx thread?

 

[SirRumpole]

I don't mean to break this little love-in up, but can you guys get back to the other general chat threads and rerume posting CCP propoganda, Guardian articles, conspiracy theories and generally getting all righteous at one another, its prime time viewing hour.

Does Bunnings Karen post here - is there an antivaxx thread?

You can start it off if you like.

 

[Barry2020]

You can start it off if you like.

I like to watch. OK netflix it is. Not sure if I'll watch the orignal or the sequel

 

[frugal.rock]

I don't mean to break this little love-in up

hmmm, Garpal and you going for a private room?
Bring back the biff and the days when footballers and cricketers had real and normal day jobs.
Not this overpaid show pony claptrap shenanigans...

 

[macca]

I don't mean to break this little love-in up, but can you guys get back to the other general chat threads and rerume posting CCP propoganda, Guardian articles, conspiracy theories and generally getting all righteous at one another, its prime time viewing hour.

Does Bunnings Karen post here - is there an antivaxx thread?

Please do not go there, anything anti vax is censored

 

[Barry2020]

Bring back the biff and the days when footballers and cricketers had real and normal day jobs.

Real Footy

 

[Joe Blow]

OK CCPRob.

Dona Kebab posting in the General Chat. What has the world come to?

Hey Barry, how about you drop the name calling and refer to others by their correct user names.

My troll detector is giving me positive readings when I point it at your posts. That's a bad sign.