Lets think of this as a cocktail party. People are mingling and mixing. Having a good time, meeting others, having private discussions in small groups.

A few people start talking about a topic. Some people overhear this discussion and join in. They have very different opinions on this topic. Maybe they start to argue. Maybe the argument remains civil, maybe some yelling begins.

Other people in the room overhear the discussion... maybe it is still being discussed without yelling but strong emotions are being expressed. Some of those others go to join in the conversation. Some ignore it and go back to their own conversations. Some people are upset by the conversation and so leave the room. Maybe someone in the group takes it personally and gets very upset. Maybe others become uncomfortable and begin to leave the room. After a while everything settles down and the conversation moves on to other subjects.

Every individual circumstance described above is normal and acceptable. As people have said, they are all adults, and are free to discuss however they want, free to ignore it, free to leave the room if it upsets them.

And the same holds true here. EXCEPT that there is a unique "feature" in this place that says, because of the nature of this board... no one should ever feel like they have to leave the room. People are supposed to feel safe here. I'm not talking about individual threads or individual posts, I'm talking about subjects and attitudes that pervade the room.

Politics and Religion are two subjects that are proven to provoke this kind of reaction. They are not banned from ever passing our lips here (or fingers) but we don't want them to become subjects of debate, even healthy debate. People DO react to this, people DO complain that they are upset by such things if and when they become arguments. People are upset by this very thread, so maybe I shouldn't even be posting here anymore, but I am human too.

This place is NOT like other environments where adults mingle and meet. Many people here are very fragile and often have baggage that is easily touched upon even inadvertently. The rules are to try to keep this place a safe environment for as many people as possible.

People are always going to get bristled, to have disagreements. The only way to stop that would be to stop people from talking altogether. There is no "perfect solution". However with regard to Religion and Politics these subjects have always shown themselves to be magnets for anger and bad feelings. It is not a perfect solution to consider them "banned" topics but it is a compromise that overall works well for most people.

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