The private pilot community is very small relative to other interests among the population so the same people tend to congregate in just a few forums. And these people get together in real life, have real relationships, so saying, “if you don’t like a policy just go elsewhere there are forums to talk about politics,” does not apply. It’s not an interchangeable set of strangers.

It all started around 1998 or pretty much the beginning of forums in general, when the first forums were started by real life friends and lovers even. Amongst these, there became a division between people who want to discuss politics (on both liberal and conservative side) and people who do not, and those who do not include a subset who want only aviation discussed. The attempt to contain political debate of the first group by the second group has been happening ever since, and it evolved over the years to become ever more restrictive until finally, on the AOPA board 2.0 (the Red Board) the subset who wanted only airplane talk won. That board banned ALL subjects not related to aviation and as a result slowly withered and died.

It was a progression starting with complete freedom of speech and ending with very tightly controlled speech. So pilotspin came full circle back to where we started, with the first group of people who want complete freedom to say anything. And from here, we are watching the PoA board like a replay of history, as it becomes ever more heavy handed in restricting what other people can talk about. And ironically the PoA board had spun off from the AOPA board when it became too restrictive. It’s like watching the United States become autocratic after we spun off from King George.

And it is all an outgrowth of real life relationships. It does not matter that technically so’n’so owns the board so they can set the rules. It’s like this: Picture a family get together. Some like to talk politics but others do not. After dinner they congregate in separate rooms. Daddy and some relatives who want to talk politics are in the living room while mommy and those who don’t are in the kitchen talking about casseroles or whatever. Little Johnny is in the kitchen and says, “President Trump came to my school today!”  And mommy says, “You know the rule Johnny, no political talk in the kitchen!” And she puts him over her knee and spanks him.

Mommy might set the rules in the kitchen but she is still being a controlling bitch. Daddy cares what happens in the kitchen because he used to be allowed to talk politics in the kitchen but now mommy has changed the rules. New people marry into the family and side with one or the other so the groups evolve over the years, but the core dynamic is the same: mommy’s group wants to control and limit what daddy’s group talks about. Remember, in the very beginning there were no separate sub forums. “Mommy’s” group wanted to control speech everywhere. That is the historical source of what you sense we won’t let go; we rightly remember that these people are actually control freaks. That’s why their moderation tends to grow tighter and tighter with time. We’ve run this race before and we’ve seen how it ends. Mommy is never happy until daddy is kicked out of the house and nobody can talk about anything except casseroles.

I answered in the musical thread because you asked a very specific question about music causing a special change in your life and that was very true for me. It’s a good thread.

 This is exactly what you alleged:


 The highlighted part of your post is pure bullshit and more of your hyperbole.

I asked the questions above several days ago. Is there a reason they were just ignored?

I really don’t think that talking about POA is any different from talking about any other subject.

There are some interesting things about POA as they relate to our experiences there and here. It’s kind of interesting that basically, on POA, you can’t talk about POA and its policies and posters, but on Pilotspin we can talk about POA and its policies and posters freely. That’s a sweet irony, and pointing out irony is interesting.

We have some friends who are smart, interesting conservatives with whom we always have great conversations about ANYTHING AT ALL. No limits. We call ourselves “sanctuary friends.” We even invented a holiday that we celebrate together called “Sanctuary Friendsgiving.” Our conversations include pointing out now and then how we feel about the liberals in our lives and in our country. We point out the direction things are taking, and how we feel about it.

Similarly, it’s interesting here to point out things we notice about POA, such as their startling policy (that I had never noticed before) of removing locked threads entirely. Deplatforming and silencing those who dissent from The Narrative in many venues is a disturbing sign of our ever tightening media bias and control, and it is .... interesting to talk about.

We are all here because POA shut down the Spin Zone, and we wanted to continue freely conversing about anything.

I will posit that it is absolutely vital for human flourishing to have the freedom to talk about anything, including your ability to talk about anything. Change my mind.

By the way Sooner, I love your music thread thread on POA! I listened to quite a few of the songs shared there the other night. Many artists I hadn’t heard of before.

The number of threads is completely irrelevant.  "chastising" and "ridiculing" aren't the same thing as "whining".

To use your own words, I'm not sure where/how it's getting lost in translation.

Eppy, 99 times out of a hundred, I agree with you.  But occasionally, I think we see something differently.

The way I see Sooner in this exchange is, he doesn't care what POA does, and he is curious about why so many people here seem to care so much.

I disagreed with their decision to get rid of the spin zone.  So I came over here to do essentially the same thing. 
Most of the people over there seem to like it over there.  So I too am curious about why some people here still seem to hold a grudge.

"Pass the gravy, please"

"Fucking TRUMP!!!!"

Did you really get that SoonerAviator was "bent out of shape"?  I think that's kind of a stretch from what he said.

I find it curious that PS spends so much time critiquing and criticizing POA, but I am certainly not bent out of shape about it.  In fact, I participate in it occasionally when I have something to say on the matter, but they have their rules and that is fine.  If I want to say something that violates their rules, I come here.  No big deal.