Said this for years and why I never wanted this fred. Again worth pointing out that the busiest board on this entire site doesn't allow politics.
In fact, now this little set-to is done, shall we just close this thread down. I don’t think it adds any value to a bunch of football twits chatting.
We had a poll not that long ago I believe? Within the last year or two? It's undoubtedly made the forum a worse place and has done for a long time before Os's descent into madness.
I actually think that this thread should stay. I appreciate that some of the negative aspects have spoiled things. In my opinion it would be worthwhile reading back through the last 6 months as i think you will find alot of inteiiligent comnentary. Posts from Loading , Laces, No 7, Badger Jabbo , karl Marx , etc always post sensible comments or links to other articles. I love the intelligent aspect of this thread. It is really educational and quite thought provoking. I will miss Os's nonsense yet feel his lack of humility is what caused the issues in here. The football has been truly dreadful this season and it is nice to have other threads that offer a diversion. I enjoy the football chat too yet think the absence of the politics, music , books and cricket threads would make this room poorer. One final thing. There is a reason why the Southampton board gets so many contributors here is the quality of the posts people make. Please do not do anything that changes this. Banning Os was necessary but i hope he learns his lesson and can return in future. I have never knowingly met anyone in here but i really appreciate the informed coments in here. I have learned loads and consider the people in here to be friends . This is an appeal to the Mods not to change the format and perhaps allow Os a period to cool off and reflect. Cheers Ian
"ostracism (no pun intended)" that's a pity because it would have been a good one. Regarding your post. Firstly and most importantly, Osvaldorama didn't get banned because he broke any forum rules. Apparently he had "ruined the level of debate". The level of debate on a thread where fish and cheese puns are regarded as hilarious wasn't exactly a high bar in the first place. But if everyone can be honest for just a minute, we can all see he has really been banned because his views went against what the majority on here want to hear. A thread that was started under the guise of hearing different political opinions has become intolerant to dissent. The result of that is what we have seen today, censorship pure and simple. There is no doubt, going by how other posters are excused, that if his views were on the left he would still be posting. As for taking over the thread, have a look at who posts all day, every day and seems to consider themselves the mouthpiece of not606, you might come up with a different name(s). You're right in the respect of if there was no politics thread this board would be more harmonious but at the moment it's more entertaining than the football. Interestingly, I never used to post on here but it was a comment by Thumwood a few years ago that provoked me into replying. You can blame him for that.
You are framing this as a left v right issue but there are posters that have said that are right leaning that take issue with Os' extreme views, Tom and No7 and I believe the latter when he claims that he knows a racist thug by the way they express themselves as he has dealt with them all of his life.
I am partly in agreement. I don’t think Os should have been banned. However, he is one of a sect of people who refuses to do more than introduce an idea and then sneer at those who reply. It really isn’t so hard to engage in debate, is it?
I've no doubt that it is most definitely left v right that's behind the squabbles on here. It goes both ways but it's Osvaldorama's manner that gets picked up on. There are one or two posters from the left whose style is confrontational to say the least but they seem to enjoy a privileged position when it comes to what offence is. I have a lot of time for No7, I don't know him but feel he is a good egg. I don't want to get into a conversation with him about what is and what is not racist, it can easily lead to acrimony that I don't want. Having said that, I haven't seen anything that justifies calling Os a racist thug. I have no opinions about Tom.
I think if you went through Os posts and compiled a list of posts about testosterone and punching people in the face, rights to armed revolt etc you could say he advocates violent and thuggish action. Similarly if you looked for posts which cast non-whites in a negative light and that excuse or validate far right hate groups you could make a case that he was promoting racist views. Whether you want to say he is a racist thug or not is up to you but ignoring or excusing the content of his posts or simply liking him doesn't make a case that he's not. To put it another way. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck don't be disappointed that people think its a duck.
You have to be more specific if you want me to comment on his posts. The testosterone jibe is an ongoing joke that some people find hard to take, maybe it's hit a nerve. "Punching people in the face" and "rights to armed revolt" I'm not aware of those, you'll have to give more detail. "you could make a case that he was promoting racist views" sums up how people go about forming a posts to suit their purpose, trying to make a case. Some like to make out that any criticism of immigration is based on racism, it's a well used method to take the high ground and shut people up at the same time. As our immigrants are mostly brown or black skinned it's pretty convenient for those who like to throw the racist accusations around. There are some other posters who have spoken of their concerns about the effects of immigration and also problems with the muslim population in the UK. There was no mention about how you could make a case that they were promoting racist views. Osvaldorama has consistently criticised how immigration is controlled in this country. It's other people who have connected that criticism to skin colour in order to make their case. If you can show me an example of where he has been overtly racist, not perceived or wanting to believe he is, then I will accept you are right. (Visions of lefty saddos desperately scrutinising Os' posting history hoping for a result). Until then I don't consider him a racist thug. I say again, left v right is the foundation of this witch hunt. If it walks like a witch, and talks like a witch don't be disappointed that people think it's a witch (hunt).
I disagree actually. As I’ve said previously, there’s plenty of things that I agree with Os on. But he posts in a deliberately inflammatory way and then actually won’t engage in any sensible way on the point itself. It’s not the content of the point, it’s the tedious “roll in a grenade, run away” stuff. And then the lack of acknowledgment or any sense of having learned something new when it is shown up as being nonsense. That shows that you’re dealing with somebody who is largely only interested in provocation. And after a while, that really is very boring.
Twitter/X has been overrun by people who think like Os. So have some parts of this forum (not this board though, thankfully). It’s symptomatic of a toxic and infectious mental condition; allowing hate to spread in the name of free speech is a threat to decency and democracy. Silencing the haters is a public duty imo.
Is it board specific though Tom? I don't know if that's possible but I genuinely don't think he should be banned from the football stuff. I can see that he winds people up and I think he's doing that on purpose but his posts on Saints are decent.
I’ll pick up on the race issue as it is a difficult topic. I agree that any mention of immigration is delicate for a white person to bring up, as things can get misconstrued so easily. I have experienced overt and casual racism for over 50 years, so I am quite a good judge of what is and what isn’t meant IMO. A common tactic used by racists is that “you are over sensitive”. I’m not. I am very thick skinned as I have had to be. It is basically a get out of jail free card. Also, the “I’m not racist, I have lots of foreign friends, but…” is another. “I’m not racist, I’m just standing up for my country” is another. And so on. I say to Mrs No7 that as a white blonde English woman, she just doesn’t notice the nuances and underlying themes and things said by people. And why would she? She hasn’t had to live with prejudice and the looks, sneers and threats of physical violence (with those with testosterone!) for years. I am not going to trawl through O’s posts, but so many of them have this casual racism in them. These are the posts that tell you more about a person than the “**** off home paki” comments. The posts are full of (until I called him out on) ‘The white British person’ and every post was trying to prove that any non white was bad. He also once posted that I was the problem as I was being tolerant of brown people as I was one of them! This isn’t even subtle. On this whole forum, he or she or whatever they are, is the only person that I picked up on these types of things. Others may have the views, but either suppress them here or genuinely are open to debate so the views aren’t deep rooted.
And that’s the key point. Although I don’t post, I do find it very informative & like some of the debate. Unfortunately, mainly MAGA & the like have sucked it down the toilet.
