Week after week, I hear the same repetitive statements about Offtopic and the content inside of sub forum from from of the most intelligent and respectable users of the site :
"I hate religious topics. This is why this place is going to shit!!!11111!!"
"I hate politics. STFU"
"These religious topics and political topics are why Offtopic is cancerous."
One of the great things about a message board is that you in no way need to view every thread. If you dislike a certain topic or have nothing to add to the topic simply ignore the topic and move on. For example: I do not care for roleplay threads and as a result I don't read those topics. My Offtopic experience does not involve roleplay.
Apply this same logic to religion and politics. If you don't care don't view it. Everybody who voices the idea that religious topics are destroying the sub forum are just being vocal fools. It's equivalent to a having a library. Inside there are all kinds of books over all types of subjects, but a library goer has a great distaste of mystery style books. Well, is it then reasonable to bitch and moan about the entire library because they hold a few books this goer dislikes? NO!!! The can just ignore the books they don't like. It doesn't affect their experience whatsoever unless they seek out these books.
Now, again let's just apply this reasoning to the sub forum and of religious/political topics: If a user dislikes those topics then they're free to ignore them and not seek them out. Bungie even provides multiple tools to do so, including muting, hiding, and reporting. Even so, those topics are wildly created because users on the site enjoy engaging with each other other these topics. I would't go as far to call it a debate, because there is no God and facts are not up for debate.
What can we conclude by this? Well, if somebody is seeking out something they hate and dislike when they otherwise could not be who do we blame? I say blame yourself. Don't blame me. Don't blame the lax Coc. Blame your -blam!-ing self.
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