NSG, extraordinarily liberal?

[New Albian]

My friends in business and political organizations think I'm fairly liberal but on this site I feel like a conservative, lol.

Can anyone relate?

I'm fairly new here and would kinda like a casual go around about what NSG is like and what I can expect from my view points.

I'm business friendly, socially liberal (excluding abortion and feminism), and pretty much what my sig says so yeah.

What's NSG like?

[Romalae]

The conventional wisdom is that NSG is typically left-wing. I think that's true to some degree, but the right-wingers here are also very vocal, especially lately. I think it's a 60-40 split, whereas when I first joined four years ago I'd say it was more like 75-25.

[Khorsun]

You've heard correctly. Liberals, trolls, and liberal trolls describes 90% of the crowd here.

[Godular]

This is an international website, so we get viewpoints from all over the world.

The United States is extremely right wing in comparison to a goodly portion of the rest of the world.

[Miletos]

It's a spectrum. You'll find all sorts of ultra-liberal people socially (on both the left and the right), as well as convinced socialists (*waves*) all the way to convinced neo-liberals, minarchists and anarcho-capitalists. You'll find right-wing conservatives, left-wing conservatives, right-wing social libertarians and left-wing social libertarians.

To repeat myself again in another different way, it's a melting-pot of all sorts of different social, political, economic and religious beliefs.

[Cyrisnia]

I'd say so. But we do have an active right wing group. We've also got some communists (extreme left), socialists, anarchists, and on the extreme right we have some fascists.

They never last more than a week here though.

You've heard correctly. Liberals, trolls, and liberal trolls describes 90% of the crowd here.

This'll turn out well.

[Diopolis]

You would probably be considered center-right here.
NSG, like most of the internet, is left-leaning. However, it has a much broader political spectrum than most of the world- I'm a far-rightist reactionary monarchist and I'm not the most conservative on the site, and there are plenty of far-left anarchists around. Sure, the average NSer is probably a leftist social democrat, but at least in NSG, they really do want to have a conversation on what they believe, so as long as your views are grounded in actual reasons and you take care not to flame anyone, you should be fine.

[Cyrisnia]

You would probably be considered center-right here.
NSG, like most of the internet, is left-leaning. However, it has a much broader political spectrum than most of the world- I'm a far-rightist reactionary monarchist and I'm not the most conservative on the site, and there are plenty of far-left anarchists around. Sure, the average NSer is probably a leftist social democrat, but at least in NSG, they really do want to have a conversation on what they believe, so as long as your views are grounded in actual reasons and you take care not to flame anyone, you should be fine.

^^This.

It's a spectrum. You'll find all sorts of ultra-liberal people socially (on both the left and the right), as well as convinced socialists (*waves*) all the way to convinced neo-liberals, minarchists and anarcho-capitalists. You'll find right-wing conservatives, left-wing conservatives, right-wing social libertarians and left-wing social libertarians.

To repeat myself again in another different way, it's a melting-pot of all sorts of different social, political, economic and religious beliefs.

Couldn't have said it better.

[Baitskhan]

The most vocal group on this site, indeed, all social internet sites though would be the liberals.

[Cyrisnia]

The most vocal group on this site, indeed, all social internet sites though would be the liberals.

Does /pol/ count as Social Internet?

[New Albian]

You would probably be considered center-right here.
NSG, like most of the internet, is left-leaning. However, it has a much broader political spectrum than most of the world- I'm a far-rightist reactionary monarchist and I'm not the most conservative on the site, and there are plenty of far-left anarchists around. Sure, the average NSer is probably a leftist social democrat, but at least in NSG, they really do want to have a conversation on what they believe, so as long as your views are grounded in actual reasons and you take care not to flame anyone, you should be fine.

I've noted people tend to not consider the opposing viewpoints much, at least that's what it seems like. My experience from the abortion debate I was just having sort of led to the vibe that people are not here to academically debate at the very least, and most do not come away with new perspectives :c

Or is this just a defense mechanism in terms of retaining your values? Unsure tbh.

[Reploid Productions]

I wouldn't call NSG extraordinarily liberal. Left-of-center, certainly. I think it's actually skewed just a hair to the right in recent years. (Of course, with the 2016 US Presidential election circus about to kick into full swing, who knows?) Aside from the majority however, there's a fairly decent scattering of other viewpoints, running the gamut from extreme right to extreme left, though the more extreme the position, the harder it is for adherents to argue it in a way that doesn't break the site rules. Certainly seems like our conservative posters don't get dogpiled nearly as badly as they did circa 2012 or 2008, anyhow.

Then again, I also think our users aren't firmly all liberal/all conservative in their viewpoints, either. We've got users who are socially liberal while fiscally conservative and vice versa. Anti-gun control players who are also pro-LGBT. And so on and so forth. There's a lot more variation than the black-and-white polarization some people would try to shoehorn everybody into.

[Skappola]

NSG is actually more balanced than you'd think, as shown in the polls. Depending on the day, it is anywhere between ultra left-wing and centrist. Left-Wingers generally seem to dominate the conversations in the comments, for whatever reason. I have a feeling a number of them would claim that this is because they're the best debaters - though loudest may be a better description.

I guess since this is an internet forum, loudest wouldn't really work. They're the most frantic typists, I suppose.

[Republic of the Cristo]

I wouldn't call NSG extraordinarily liberal. Left-of-center, certainly. I think it's actually skewed just a hair to the right in recent years. (Of course, with the 2016 US Presidential election circus about to kick into full swing, who knows?) Aside from the majority however, there's a fairly decent scattering of other viewpoints, running the gamut from extreme right to extreme left, though the more extreme the position, the harder it is for adherents to argue it in a way that doesn't break the site rules. Certainly seems like our conservative posters don't get dogpiled nearly as badly as they did circa 2012 or 2008, anyhow.

Then again, I also think our users aren't firmly all liberal/all conservative in their viewpoints, either. We've got users who are socially liberal while fiscally conservative and vice versa. Anti-gun control players who are also pro-LGBT. And so on and so forth. There's a lot more variation than the black-and-white polarization some people would try to shoehorn everybody into.

I don't know, the Paraguay abortion debate, it was me versus literally 11 other guys with the occasional pro-lifer speaking in as help. Also, I haven't really meet an actual fascist on this site yet, have ?

[New Albian]

NSG is actually more balanced than you'd think, as shown in the polls. Depending on the day, it is anywhere between ultra left-wing and centrist. Left-Wingers generally seem to dominate the conversations in the comments, for whatever reason. I have a feeling a number of them would claim that this is because they're the best debaters - though loudest may be a better descriptiom.

I must challenge the status-quo then, looking through some of these older threads though I've seen some pretty well educated conservatives though.

[Miletos]

You would probably be considered center-right here.
NSG, like most of the internet, is left-leaning. However, it has a much broader political spectrum than most of the world- I'm a far-rightist reactionary monarchist and I'm not the most conservative on the site, and there are plenty of far-left anarchists around. Sure, the average NSer is probably a leftist social democrat, but at least in NSG, they really do want to have a conversation on what they believe, so as long as your views are grounded in actual reasons and you take care not to flame anyone, you should be fine.

I've noted people tend to not consider the opposing viewpoints much, at least that's what it seems like. My experience from the abortion debate I was just having sort of led to the vibe that people are not here to academically debate at the very least, and most do not come away with new perspectives :c

Or is this just a defense mechanism in terms of retaining your values? Unsure tbh.

Abortion tends to be one of the issues, especially amongst those who have been arguing it for years, on which people become extremely dogmatic, because it is emotive for some and of great ethical and/or religious significance.

Basically, if you have people who believe in an absolute right to bodily sovereignty, then that naturally leads to a view that anything flying in the face of that is wrong.

Issues which are more about politics than medical ethics (foreign policy, history, domestic policy, the role of the state etc.) tend to be a bit more dynamic than the "YOU'RE WRONG!" "NO, YOU'RE WRONG!" that characterises a thread like one about abortion where both sides have fixed, immovable and mutually exclusive positions.

[New Albian]

I wouldn't call NSG extraordinarily liberal. Left-of-center, certainly. I think it's actually skewed just a hair to the right in recent years. (Of course, with the 2016 US Presidential election circus about to kick into full swing, who knows?) Aside from the majority however, there's a fairly decent scattering of other viewpoints, running the gamut from extreme right to extreme left, though the more extreme the position, the harder it is for adherents to argue it in a way that doesn't break the site rules. Certainly seems like our conservative posters don't get dogpiled nearly as badly as they did circa 2012 or 2008, anyhow.

Then again, I also think our users aren't firmly all liberal/all conservative in their viewpoints, either. We've got users who are socially liberal while fiscally conservative and vice versa. Anti-gun control players who are also pro-LGBT. And so on and so forth. There's a lot more variation than the black-and-white polarization some people would try to shoehorn everybody into.

I don't know, the Paraguay abortion debate, it was me versus literally 11 other guys with the occasional pro-lifer speaking in as help. Also, I haven't really meet an actual fascist on this site yet, have ?

I would help you there, I'm pro-life for secular reasons :c

[New Albian]

I've noted people tend to not consider the opposing viewpoints much, at least that's what it seems like. My experience from the abortion debate I was just having sort of led to the vibe that people are not here to academically debate at the very least, and most do not come away with new perspectives :c

Or is this just a defense mechanism in terms of retaining your values? Unsure tbh.

Abortion tends to be one of the issues, especially amongst those who have been arguing it for years, on which people become extremely dogmatic, because it is emotive for some and of great ethical significance.

Basically, if you have people who believe in an absolute right to bodily sovereignty, then that naturally leads to a view that anything flying in the face of that is wrong.

Issues which are more about politics than medical ethics (foreign policy, history, domestic policy, the role of the state etc.) tend to be a bit more dynamic than the "YOU'RE WRONG!" "NO, YOU'RE WRONG!" that characterises a thread like one about abortion where both sides have fixed, immovable and mutually exclusive positions.

I get ya, that's actually a really good analysis of it.

[Republic of the Cristo]

I don't know, the Paraguay abortion debate, it was me versus literally 11 other guys with the occasional pro-lifer speaking in as help. Also, I haven't really meet an actual fascist on this site yet, have ?

I would help you there, I'm pro-life for secular reasons :c

That's okay, a lot of people are. It is what most on our side believe to be kind of a universal thing.

This was just pro-life dialogue, between only me and him, lets try and not start flaming yet.

[Atlanticatia]

NSG has become more right-leaning and authoritarian lately, but I'd say a majority of NSGers lean left and are socially liberal.

[Republic of the Cristo]

NSG has become more right-leaning and authoritarian lately, but I'd say a majority of NSGers lean left and are socially liberal.

I have only been here for a few months, but I haven't really noticed much of an authoritarian movement?

[Skappola]

I've noted people tend to not consider the opposing viewpoints much, at least that's what it seems like. My experience from the abortion debate I was just having sort of led to the vibe that people are not here to academically debate at the very least, and most do not come away with new perspectives :c

Or is this just a defense mechanism in terms of retaining your values? Unsure tbh.

Abortion tends to be one of the issues, especially amongst those who have been arguing it for years, on which people become extremely dogmatic, because it is emotive for some and of great ethical significance.

Basically, if you have people who believe in an absolute right to bodily sovereignty, then that naturally leads to a view that anything flying in the face of that is wrong.

Issues which are more about politics than medical ethics (foreign policy, history, domestic policy, the role of the state etc.) tend to be a bit more dynamic than the "YOU'RE WRONG!" "NO, YOU'RE WRONG!" that characterises a thread like one about abortion where both sides have fixed, immovable and mutually exclusive positions.

I don't even bother arguing about abortion any more on these forums. Back when I was pro-life, I would get cusses and insults hurled 24/7 at me. I would literally be getting notifications from people digging through the thread, quoting my week-old comments, and giving me semi-profane replies on why I was wrong.

Then I turned pro-choice, and found the exact same thing on the other side of the debate. Sad that people can't discuss the issue in a normal manner. Admittedly, I was the same when I first came to the forums, so I can't really fault anyone for it. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

[Geilinor]

Socially, yes. Otherwise, we have a large and diverse spectrum.

[Miletos]

NSG has become more right-leaning and authoritarian lately, but I'd say a majority of NSGers lean left and are socially liberal.

Having come back to serious NSG posting after a break that, bar minor interruptions, lasted for the best part of two years, I'd be inclined to agree with this. Lefties and liberals are still in the majority, but the conservative voice is a lot more noticeable than in 2012-3.

[Republic of the Cristo]

How does one start, join, and actively participate in a party.