One caveat is that it would need to be heavily moderated in order to be useful, and the moderators will need to be willing to swiftly ban people who derail from the topic or are using it to politicize the event. Normally, EA’s freewheeling norms are enough, but that’s only because very little politics enters the EA forum, and EA itself is mostly apolitical, so the most severe forms of motivated reasoning are less problematic. Given that it’s a political topic, there needs to be much stronger moderation if it’s to be useful.
Another caveat is to display trigger warnings. Normally, I don’t think trigger warnings are necessary, but in this context, where real politics are being discussed, and usually the worst forms of political topics to discuss, it’s almost a necessity to make sure everyone is aware of that problem.
This conversation can be useful, which is why I support it, but there are severe problems that need to be addressed in order to make it a reality.
One caveat is that it would need to be heavily moderated in order to be useful, and the moderators will need to be willing to swiftly ban people who derail from the topic or are using it to politicize the event. Normally, EA’s freewheeling norms are enough, but that’s only because very little politics enters the EA forum, and EA itself is mostly apolitical, so the most severe forms of motivated reasoning are less problematic. Given that it’s a political topic, there needs to be much stronger moderation if it’s to be useful.
Another caveat is to display trigger warnings. Normally, I don’t think trigger warnings are necessary, but in this context, where real politics are being discussed, and usually the worst forms of political topics to discuss, it’s almost a necessity to make sure everyone is aware of that problem.
This conversation can be useful, which is why I support it, but there are severe problems that need to be addressed in order to make it a reality.