Welp, 2025 started off even more awful than expected with yesterday’s attack in New Orleans (and I’m sure other incidents less close to home). First, my best wishes to anyone and everyone struggling right now and my hope that this year brings good things despite, well, everything.
The Mods have been kicking around some thoughts regarding the PT, and this seems like a good time to put them out there. I’ll preface this by saying that I really appreciate the PT; it’s where I spend most of my site time these days, and it’s because it makes me feel informed and included. So the notes below are Mod guidelines to be sure, but also just suggestions for showcasing what makes this thread, this site, shine:
- Let’s try to be more than “All Trump / Elon” all the time. We encourage the community to talk about their local politics as well, especially as a way of demonstrating resistance and resilience in the face of cruelty and oppression. If you volunteer, if you see good things happening in your community, if there is a way for people to engage politically, share those! You never know who you might encourage or inspire. That’s not to say that local politics is (are?) always rosy, but moving the discussion beyond Trump and his ilk does help us connect in a national and international network of lives and events that don’t revolve around the worst of us.
- Bad takes from nobodies and/or article headlines without links should be contextualized if at all possible. Just because you saw that someone said something awful on social media, even if they are a public figure, does not mean you’re duty bound to re-circulate it here, especially if it’s potentially hurtful for community members to see. We already know that there is no limit to the hate and idiocy of these people (hence the Owens / Cheong / Garrison / Shapiro / etc. moratorium on which the PT has largely agreed), and it would be nice to not have a constant reminder. In particular, it’s good to be outraged on other people’s behalf, but, for instance, trans people don’t necessarily need to see every instance of transphobia out in the world. We’re not asking anyone to police what is and isn’t newsworthy, but instead to be considerate of what is important, actionable, or need-to-know versus what is simply something that falls under “I saw this and hated it, and now I want you to see it.” To mitigate the damage to our collective mental health, the PT should not be a dumping ground for bad takes or outrage bait. For example, Musk saying something that may inform immigration policy could be posted with commentary, but maybe think twice about posting an awful meme he spits out on “X.” The commentariat here is generally thoughtful, informed, interesting, and empathetic – so let’s tap into that even when presenting things that are not that.
- Please make an effort to explicitly frame comments as “this is how I feel,” not necessarily “this is how you should feel” or “this is why how you feel is wrong.” While it is possible (and helpful to the community) to push back on language or an attitude that bothers you in someone’s post, try not to turn it into a wholesale referendum on someone’s character. We’re a community here, and that means that we should extend benefit of the doubt as much as we hope for or expect such grace ourselves. Remember that it’s possible to respond, agree to disagree, and move on, even if we feel misunderstood or misinterpreted.
- Please remember that threats or hopes of violence are not only against site rules, but also against Disqus rules, and, you know, FBI rules and such.
- One thing that PT denizens have often noted is that the PT is a welcome respite from much of the Internet vitriol surrounding current events. Let’s remember that for some people, this place might be a primary source of support in trying political times. Whether that means sometimes going elsewhere to vent in ways that aren’t productive or welcome here, logging off when getting too het up by an Internet argument, or simply remembering that there’s another human being on the other side of the keyboard, let’s just, in the immortal words of James Dalton,
Or, perhaps more accurately, be kind, Avocados.
