Quoting Russell Coker (russell@coker.com.au):
It seems that the meme that politics shouldn't be discussed is mainly advocated by people who have political beliefs that don't stand up to inspection.
I hope this notion of 'inspection' is just a figure of speech - unless perhaps you have self-inspection in mind. Otherwise, the notion of expecting people's views to be submitted for inspection seems a bit extreme. The point is that public discouse is rightly voluntary rather than inquisitory. In that light, your darkly hinting at misogyny concerning Tim Gosling merely because - or so it appeared - he quoted a URL from a hilariously demented 'men's rights activist' Web site comes to mind. You might want to consider being lighter on the guilt by association in the future, nei? ;-> On further reflection, this idea of views not 'standing up to inspection' seems IMVAO[1] problematic, even if it is just a figure of speech: I doubt there is a yardstick for meritorious views on 'political beliefs' as such; if it does exist, I have my doubts about whether you're its designated caretaker.
On some mailing lists vaguely related to technology there is a meme that we shouldn't be unfair to conservatives. That's correlated with the "fair and balanced" media meme which claims that both sides should be consulted for news stories. Really there's usually a right side and a wrong side and the people who are wrong should be written about not interviewed. It doesn't help to have a Playboy model given equal balance to medical experts when vaccines are discussed, or geologists working for oil companies given equal balance to climate experts when discussing climate change.
Above paragraph appears to conflate issues of verifiable fact with 'political beliefs' sui generis - where the latter tend to include large swaths of inherently debatable figurative territory (along with, to be sure, verifiable facts). Conflating those two rather different things does little for clarity, in my view. (I'm sure you don't _intend_ to sound like a doctrinaire nutter, Russell. ;-> ) Anyway, that matter aside, in my experience there's a far more prosaic explanation for the meme that politics shouldn't be discussed: bad history of same. It's a commonplace that most such discussions _do_ devolve into muckslinging. Therefore, the perception that they should be nipped in the bud is quite understandable, without dark suspicions of militant muttonheadedness. [] Like 'IMHO', except 'VA' stands for Very Arrogant. Yr. welcome.