Peter, for now, the majority of posters in the forum are progressive socially and politically, so for the socially and politically conservative posters to expect a miraculous change in that regard seems unrealistic at best, and when the conservative posters start hijacking the threads with invective because they feel outnumbered and overwhelmed, destructive at worst.

While I agree there are problems among a certain group of MC members with low tolerance of people with different opinions from their own being able to effectively articulate their position rather than attacking the person they disagree with, that does usually get sorted out in the course of the thread.

The problems, as I see them, aren't with people holding different political and social views. They are with the ways people react to the people with different political and social views. The problems are with the apolitical and nonpolitical posters hijacking political threads out of boredom and being ignored by those who come here to discuss the political and social issues of the day--that is, discuss the contexts in which we are making our art.

Today's headlines are tomorrow's folk song titles in many instances. The political and social issues have relevance to this particular type of a forum, because so much folk music springs from political and social concerns. Not all folk music. But a good enough portion of it to be a relevant aspect of discussion in a folk music forum.

I'm not, however, convinced of the relevance of William Shatner, Is Cricket Shite, and fart threads. And when the people who are largely here for inane, mindless entertainment not only encroach upon the serious discussions, but running them out of the forum altogether, I think people have a right to be aggravated by that. And to say so.

And then there are all the members who feel justified pulling out their flamethrowers without giving it a second thought, because they feel they have been wronged in the past. If people could just stay in the moment, and keep their trigger finger off the 'Submit Message' button when reading something from someone they disagree with, things wouldn't be quite such an abomination.