Whom did the LetsRun.com visitors vote for in the 2020 US Presidential Election?

That is surprising to me that it's so unbalanced.

Can we have a political sub-forum where all this trash is funneled to going forward? I'm all for free speech but I don't want to read these lunatics endless ranting, that goes for both sides.

Ace_of_Base wrote:

Can we have a political sub-forum where all this trash is funneled to going forward? I'm all for free speech but I don't want to read these lunatics endless ranting, that goes for both sides.

The good news as a SC member is you can filter out all non-running threads. On the right hand side of the forum index page, where it says "Currently Viewing - Main Message Board" you can change it to it says "Running Only Forum." Or just click on the link below.

PS. I'll also share with you all our secret politics moderating strategy. George Malley - the longest-serving volunteer moderator - tries to keep the politics discussion down during the normal part of the year and is really strong about making sure there aren't multiple threads about the same topic. However, when the election comes, he purposely doesn't delete ANYTHING other than objectionable content from the Friday before the election to the Thursday after it. Everything goes. He hopes that people get it out of their system and then he cleans it all up.

So normally, he'd start enforcing it today but since the election isn't decided, I'll have to email hiim and ask him what he's going to do about it.

People definitely prefer to live in their bubbles. There are so many people in California, where I live, that want to move or have moved to a more conservative state because they can’t stand the liberal tendencies here (this is ignoring the fact that there are actually large amounts of conservatives in CA).

So they only are in their comfort zone, around like-minded individuals which creates polarization. This reinforces their beliefs and even makes them more extreme. Bubble living is, in my opinion, the main reason we’re in our current political climate.

Open discussion is crucial. Contradictory ideas to your own need to be heard. Get out of your comfort zone. That’s the best way to grow as a person and a community.

That is good to hear regarding the moderation @rojo.

@EvanJagerBomb

I didn't vote in the election. This is not a political statement, but I am proud to live in Florida (a swing state typically) where we seem to be free-er than most of the nation regarding covid restrictions right now. I've been able to race in live events Oct 17th & Nov 1st as well as have a marathon coming up on Nov 29th. Perhaps those leaving CA aren't looking for a bubble to enter but to restore some freedoms they used to enjoy.

So how many electoral votes is LRC worth? Have you forwarded the results to John King, Rojo?

Thank you for the information on how to filter content on the MBs.

I had two main reasons for joining LRC as a subscriber. First and foremost, I just wanted to support the work that you guys do, which I enjoy. But second is the ability to at least partially filter out some of the junk (and covid misinformation) on the boards.

The voting is over. The percentages stayed amazingly the same even though thousands of more votes came in.

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2020/11/whom-did-the-letsrun-com-visitors-support-in-the-us-presidential-election-click-here-to-find-out/

This isn’t surprising. Look at marches for liberal causes vs the pro trump parades. Dems walk miles on end together. Republicans are so lazy they just sit in their cars and drive around together. If you’re not willing to walk a few blocks for a cause you’re passionate about, you sure as hell aren’t a fan of running.

zxcvxzcv wrote:

Rojo, the reason people think Letsrun is far right is that 1) highly motivated amateurs or paid professional right wing posters dominate the threads and flood then with posts and 2) one or more of your moderators, probably including yourself, primarily delete threads from the left and retain threads from the right. Your poll results really reinforced the cognitive dissonance of seeing the apparently right wing message boards while knowing that most runners are not right wingers.

This sounds about right to me. The political posts are dominated by right wing points of view. Could be that the left wing stuff is deleted more often, or it could be that the right-wingers are louder and more persistent. But Rojo, there is absolutely no denying the large number of right-wing/conspiracy-ish posts that regularly dominate the message board. Pointing to this poll as "proof" against that is disingenuous.

Please understand, it is absolutely the right of LRC to moderate however they want, but if this poll is accurate, you are turning off a large percentage of would-be traffic/ad-revenue. I said in another post, I am exactly the sort that would likely sign up for the "supporters club"; it's my jam and I have the disposal income. I don't sign up because of you, what you support, and what you allow here. I don't want to support you specifically.

This^

I've been on here since 2004, yet am now "banned forever" for whatever reason. Using a VPN to post is too much a hassle, and this weird year has just had me re-evaluate most I do, and I've found that I have much better things to do than hang out with what I now know are a small minority of supported rightwing posting pros.

Strangely, though, my running has improved tremendously. I'm likely to be someone that someone mentions on this board very soon, and I won't be here to see it!

Rojo, I don't think we should have to be supporters club members to be able to filter out political threads. This site should be for running first and foremost, but in the past few years it's been getting clogged with endless piles of political/non running troll threads to find good tidbits on running. It shouldn't be an issue to put all the political/non-running threads into one subforum.

Working Stiff wrote:

zxcvxzcv wrote:

Rojo, the reason people think Letsrun is far right is that 1) highly motivated amateurs or paid professional right wing posters dominate the threads and flood then with posts and...

This sounds about right to me.

No. The worst offender when it comes to single-handedly ruining threads by flooding the thread with spam posts is Armstronglivs who is a rabid Woke SJW. Any thread about anything like BLM eventually becomes ruined when Armstronglivs comes in and makes 20 posts in a row turning the entire thread into nothing but Armstronglivs rants. None of the right-wing posters come even close to that level of spamming and single-handed thread-ruining.

But individual trolls and spammers aside, I will explain to you why right-wing viewpoints are disproportionately representing in the LRC forums. It's because LRC is their only outlet. There's nowhere else on the internet where they can voice their opinions without being down-voted into oblivion--because LRC doesn't have down-voting. Down-voting effectively automatically censors unpopular viewpoints, and after you've had it happen to you enough times you eventually stop posting. That's why everywhere else on the internet, you won't see right-wing viewpoints. Or when you do see some intrepid soul peek their head above the parapets they are instantly swarmed and silenced. LRC is one of the last places on the internet where you can post an unpopular right-wing viewpoint without being censored or even outright banned. That's why you see so much right-wing posting here--because it's the only outlet left for them.

Personally I applaud LRC for not allowing the majority to censor minority viewpoints here. I think in the long run if you censor and silence the people you disagree with, it doesn't make the "problem" go away. You just don't see it for a while. But it goes underground, and they grow resentful that they can't speak their opinion without threat of losing their jobs. Then you're shocked when they elect Trump as president. It's because you refuse to allow them to speak freely, so they expressed themselves in the only way they safely could--anonymously at the ballot box.

HLq wrote:

I will explain to you why right-wing viewpoints are disproportionately representing in the LRC forums. It's because LRC is their only outlet. There's nowhere else on the internet where they can voice their opinions without being down-voted into oblivion--because LRC doesn't have down-voting....

Personally I applaud LRC for not allowing the majority to censor minority viewpoints here. I think in the long run if you censor and silence the people you disagree with, it doesn't make the "problem" go away. You just don't see it for a while. But it goes underground, and they grow resentful that they can't speak their opinion without threat of losing their jobs. Then you're shocked when they elect Trump as president. It's because you refuse to allow them to speak freely, so they expressed themselves in the only way they safely could--anonymously at the ballot box.

Fascinating post. I hadn't thought of that.

Fascinating Rojo? Seriously? You like it because it makes you feel better about yourself. It's not fascinating nor is it true. There are plenty of places for right wingers to post on the internet without censorship. Maybe it's tough on Reddit for right wingers but just about everywhere else is fine.

This "we're the victims" crap is absolutely insane from right wingers especially. They're not being persecuted any more than the jerkiest person you went to school with was being persecuted when no one told him about the party. No one wanted to hang out with that guy, he was being a jerk.

It's always funny to think these people are the same that coined the term "snowflake" as an insult then turn around and complain that there aren't any "safe places" for them to voice their opinions without being discriminated against

Right wingers, you are not the victims of anything. Everyone just thinks you're being a jerk. They do here too, it's just that the guy who runs the site is one of you and it's his parents house, and he bought the alcohol, and he has a pool, and his dad is a congressman.

100% true right above my post. This site is left wing and right leaning people are scared to post? Rojo you are delusional. I nearly gave up coming to this site because of how many vocal right wing nutjobs post here with impunity. It's just like the country as a whole, 20% of them are right wing and they post a massive amount of garbage spewing their misinformation everywhere. Look at how many Covid is fake posts there are? Nearly every popular Coronavirus post insinuates or flat out says that it's a hoax. Left leaning people do not believe that Covid is fake. Yet you have countless threads with many users saying all sorts of incorrect and irresponsible nonsense. You tout your site as a place where people have free speech and you allow BS to be posted that is harmful to our country yet you ban people for posting things that harm no one. I'm not trying to bash you or Letsrun, these are facts not attacks. I really want this site to grow and become what it used to be, a place where actual big names in running can come and post and interact with your average runner but we can't have that because as soon as someone like Emma Coburn posts 20000 fools with red hats are going to assail her with all sorts of right wing anti women propaganda. You allowed everyone to get chased off except Canova, how does that feel? Have you even thought about that? Letsrun has been failing for YEARS and you haven't adapted in fact you've leaned into it. I'd really like you to respond to this. Despite everything I just wrote I want this site to work. I can't imagine that you feel good about having one of the most toxic message boards on the internet. You're missing the mark with the majority of the people that come here and that's obvious.

I put in a kindly worded, longer response explaining that I felt the same way in a comment on this thread. Rather than response, my post got deleted.

But the “corona is FAKE!” comments on threads actually started about running live on ....

One of the great things about LR is how you can stumble across almost any topic and speak freely.

Ace_of_Base wrote:

That is good to hear regarding the moderation @rojo.

@EvanJagerBomb

I didn't vote in the election. This is not a political statement, but I am proud to live in Florida (a swing state typically) where we seem to be free-er than most of the nation regarding covid restrictions right now. I've been able to race in live events Oct 17th & Nov 1st as well as have a marathon coming up on Nov 29th. Perhaps those leaving CA aren't looking for a bubble to enter but to restore some freedoms they used to enjoy.

This. I am very much a centrist but when the liberals and the left want to lockdown I’m going to the right.

oops I upped myself wrote:

Runner10287 wrote:

This. I am very much a centrist but when the liberals and the left want to lockdown I’m going to the right.

Good for you. Biden won the popular vote by FOUR MILLION

What does that have with to do with my anti-covid extreme lockdown belief? Screw Biden no matter how many million votes he gets.