Dave, it's not about free speech. It is, of course, a constitutionally protected right to say and think whatever you want. But it being a protected right doesn't mean exercising it is always wise or prudent.

I understand that discussion on these topics is good, and if respectful, can even be healthy and productive. Unfortunately, the trolls seem to take over fast and ruin any chance of a productive conversation and reduce everything to the lowest common denominator. Especially when people start throwing out blanket terms like liberals, conservatives, socialists, fascists...etc. and following that up with a snarky phrase or insult.
Firstly, it makes no sense because it is an impossibility for all liberals or conservatives to think, act, and believe the same thing such that they can be typified by the insult.
Secondly, adversarial language like that is not language that seeks a solution, it only seeks conflict, and usually finds or creates it.
Thirdly, most of the major complaints of the "other side" are largely imagined, misunderstood, misinformed, or misrepresented. We're fundamentally, on a global scale, a nation of centrists that spends more energy than anyone else deciding whether to lean slightly left or right (with a small percentage of outliers, of course, that polarize the conversation).
So while speech like that is protected it isn't productive.
I'd love to just focus on the music, but I remember when it got so heated on here with some threads that the whole atmosphere got a little toxic.

I just thought I'd make the request to avoid political discourse as the election season ramps up because, as we know, this stuff is so quick to pull people into opposite camps. The motto of this site is that "we're all in this together."

I just wanted to voice my concern that polarizing political threads aren't an effective way of achieving that goal.

Like Mike said...music is a challenging enough subject to tackle.