In ten months, the election of 2020 will be over. All the Representatives will have been elected. Thirty-three Senate races will be done. And, of course, the Big Kahuna, the Presidential Race will be over. We’ll have have the current occupant another four years or his replacement.
I have a lifelong interest in politics, but some months ago, for a variety of reasons, I decided to engage in a self-imposed gag order on my own political talk. I’d say I’ve been rather successful at it. Except for an occasional outburst here or there, I rarely comment on politics here on Slope, and I certainly don’t do posts about it. (I don’t follow the same rule-set on my Twitter feed, but I consider that realm to be the wild west anyway, and not my own forum).
At first, I kind of resented not talking about politics. Rather deeply. But, after a while, I found the whole thing to be rather a relief. More important than that, I think we need to collectively realize a few things.
- No one is going to change anyone else’s mind. No one arguing politics is “on the fence.” They feel strongly about whatever it is they are discussing.
- It’s just going to cause discord. Why spend time and energy on something which not only will not achieve a goal (the aforementioned changing-of-mind) but will just cause sour feelings in general?
- It isn’t why we’re here. As has been often pointed out, Slope is a website devoted to charting, trading, and discussion about finance in general.
Indeed, if you are itching to talk politics, there are all manner of sites dedicated to it. I present to you three of them:
Thus, I pledge once more to keep my yap shut about my political points of view until after the election is over (at which time I may or may not allow myself a brief interlude). My hope is that you’ll do the same. This isn’t some kind of ban – – as I’ve said, I can’t stand censorship – – but I’d like to try to infuse into the culture here a sense of proper subject matter, and I am hoping some form of leadership on my part will contribute toward that end.
