I'll state it squarely. I think the political subforum has become extremist and there are certain socially dominant posters who have a high level of social control here and are leading down a path of group think.
Who would those posters be?
Maybe everyone arrived at the same conclusions individually?
I don't really see anyone being led around by the nose here. It just looks like the people who still talk here happen to be on the left side of middle (well, as far as USA goes -- it has been noted our "leftists" in this country are close to centrists).
I post in this subforum occasionally but remain mostly indifferent to discussing it, as I feel like I'm just trying to survive day to day. I probably gripe most about stuff related to religious factions (evangelicalism and Southern Baptists) because those groups are relevant to my life and had a huge impact (for good or bad) on me personally. But I take credit for my own opinions on those matters, they are based on my life experience and I don't give a shit what anyone else here thinks about them honestly. It is what it is, for me.
I am pretty far to the extreme of Left politically
Are you? By what standard?
but I think the subforum is out of control.
I think it's been the most stable it's been for years. Albeit in part that is because most of the hardcore right-wingers are no longer around.
I think that anyone with any Right leaning is devolved in the eyes of that *group to be either Alt-Right or Qanon in the subtext of discussions. Yes, those two groups are mind-numbing and frustrating, but there are a great many people who fall outside those categories who still have conservative political philosophies.
On this forum? "great many people"? Is that actually true? How did you measure this?
I think that exists in real life, but the large frustration of this subforum in the past has been that we just got the extremists / hardcore cases that had nowhere else to call home. I grew up conservative, voted Republican until my 30's, and didn't really see a lot of the respectable conservative opinion expressed on the forum as often as the fringe. The loudest folks seemed to be the extremes. In part this could be because the middle doesn't care to get involved in that and just goes elsewhere / talks one-on-one privately when there's just a public war in the politics subforum, but typically the people shooting off in this subforum were not the middle.
This seems reflective of our culture as well. If there are actual conservatives out there, they are doing a terrible job at combatting the crazy on the right. I think we did see some positive contributions during the election, to rein in the voting shenanigans, but I don't think that will save our country the next time. How are we supposed to believe there's a huge body of mature conservatives out there with something substantial to contribute to our country when they have seemingly lost control of the right?
I am not personally even fighting for conservative views as I have stated I don't hold them personally, but there are reasoned positions on all sides of the political spectrum which are not allowed here. This is a crude way to say it but it feels like a cyber-gang bang with dominatrix overtones when it gets going really good. The overt manipulation tactics practiced there bleed onto the rest of the forum.
I think the only part I can relate to (and I really don't go on about this much) is that I consider myself sympathetic to causes on the left and would like to see things keep moving left (just as I came from a conservative religious background but seem to find myself moving left further and further with age), but probably expect it to be a much slower pace than I see being demanded. I'm not even sure I have an issue with those demands because you need an awful lot of force to dislodge this country from where it's been stuck, but it has definitely made me reluctant to actually discuss what I think (like here or on FaceBook) because I'm afraid I won't be far enough left for some particular individual in how I state my opinion, so then I'm going to get dragged for it and don't have the energy to engage to such a degree. I'm already kind of exhausted just making this post, honestly -- my health has sucked.
I feel like I had some left cred in the past (especially with my particular background) but I don't feel left enough in social media, at least.
The posts I recently made I do not expect everyone to agree with them, but they were so diplomatic for BOTH sides, that that to start any sort of gang up seems beyond absurd. I have liberal extremist family who thought it was great. That particular exchange is nearly irrelevant to this discussion because the main problems occur in discussions I avoid, so if people want to dismiss it I will simply agree with you and dismiss my interactions as well. The absence of extremist Right posters like Disco Biscuit has left a fighting void, so that the people who enjoyed that conflict and derived energy from it now are searching for new enemies and they are willing to extend their fighting tactics to rather benign disagreements. The dynamics is not healthy and it is extremist.
Maybe I simply missed someone criticizing you for something here, because I have little idea what is being talked about. If so, I'm sorry. I don't really monitor this subforum as much, I'm more interested in my blog and the Arts & Entertainment area...