Please explain your reasoning in the comments.
Edit: Linked community update for context
Bot accounts and bad-faith political actors have been trying to derail conversations and manipulate vote counts. Certain keywords seem to trigger them to pop in on certain topics. We don’t want this space to continue to be infiltrated by partisan influencers or subjected to coordinated political attacks and brigading. None of the major parties have had our interests in mind or have stood up for our rights as independent voters. They have put barriers in front of independent candidates, limiting our right to equal representation and access to taxpayer-funded election infrastructure. They will continue to do what they want, with or without our input. We need to have our own space to discuss the issues that matter most to our community, outside of their influence.
Bots and partisan influence aside, the quality of discussion has severely declined as we have continued to grow in size. We want to make sure that only people who actually want to participate in good faith enter the community. We hope that by doing so we will be able to have more meaningful conversations with people from across the political spectrum who also believe we need a government that is not beholden to partisan control. We also hope that by improving the quality of discussions, those of you who have not felt comfortable sharing your perspectives in the past or who felt it wasn’t worth the effort because people would mischaracterize you will now feel empowered to contribute to discussions. Together, we can put forward new ideas to find common ground on topics that the parties have been fighting over for decades.
In short, we think banning bots and bad-faith actors after they have already negatively influenced the conversation is more detrimental than simply having the sub restricted and requiring people to make the conscious decision to request to join the community. The platform is already heavily biased toward the two major parties, so it is much more feasible this way to keep bots and partisan actors out. This is a space for independent discussion outside the two-party framework. Respectful disagreement is welcome; partisan campaigning, brigading, vote manipulation, and bad-faith participation are not.
Thank you all for being part of this community.
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We are looking for additional moderators who can help verify new users and bring a wider range of independent political perspectives to the mod team. To be eligible, applicants should be active members of the community by making posts and/or comments that demonstrate sound judgment and respectful conduct when discussing controversial topics. If you’re interested in helping, please reach out to us.
“1 vs 10 debate on Israel, Gaza, Hamas, Zionism, Palestinian statehood, October 7th, and the history behind the conflict.”
I picked this timestamp because it’s a 4 hour video and I think the last 40 minutes gives a good snapshot of the discussion. I would highly recommend watching the full debate from the beginning. There were some pretty crazy moments frankly but also some really good attempts at finding common ground.
I believe Independent voters are the only ones capable of even attempting to have this discussion without it devolving into religious bigotry or baseless platitudes. This subject is part of many peoples politics in America, regardless of where you fall on the topic, I think it is worth watching and considering the views shared.
This is definitely a charged topic so please be respectful in the comments and keep discussion to the video.
“Earth is 71% water, 29% land, and only a fraction of it is useful. Scarcity—and who owns what—drives every economic system humans have ever built.
From Karl Marx writing Das Kapital in deep poverty to the 28-year natural experiment inside divided Berlin, we trace how socialism evolved from a radical economic theory into a system governing a third of the planet—and why central planning keeps running into the exact same problem.
KEY TOPICS
• The Land Ownership Shift: How conquest, feudal estates, and market taxes transformed how humans view property.
• Das Kapital: Why Marx's masterwork thoroughly critiqued capitalism but left the alternative completely open.
• The Role of Prices: Why bottom-up consumer signals coordinate supply chains better than central planning commissions.
• Divided Berlin: A side-by-side look at two grocery stores 20 minutes apart—and the 10-year wait for a Trabant.
• The Nordic Model: Why Sweden, Norway, and Finland are free-market economies with big safety nets, not socialist states.“ -Maxinomics on YouTube
“This video is about the 2016 Democratic Party primary between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. It looks into both campaigns, as well as the DNC's involvement in the campaign.” - Election History on YouTube
We are in a sad state with US politics where we have extremists to the left and right of us who live with horse blinders on, and are so locked into their spoon fed narratives and rhetoric they can't tolerate even a shred of nuanced thinkin. TBH I think it generally is more disappointing coming from the left now because most people tend to have higher expectations of them because they often push education and critical thinking, but now it is just whatever their social media masters tell them and they have become just as tribalistic and cult like as maga. Which is crazy because they literally just lost a national election but feel more emboldened to alienate more and more people.
Seeing people on the left commonly saying things like "centrists/independents are just republicans who are scared to admit it" just shows how warped a lot of them are becoming. They really can't handle the truth that a lot of far left narratives are not popular with the general American public, even people who agree with them on otherwise issues that the left had as easy lay ups(environmentalism, healthcare reform, education reform). It is just the issues where things are a lot more black and white they double down on the aspects where they choose to be more polarizing or they push culture war bullshit that honestly is irrelevant in a lot of the moment. Thins like immigration or fire arms they just take a very black and white stance on, when its clear these topics require more nuance.
Ten years ago, the WikiLeaks DNC emails confirmed what many Bernie supporters believed that the party leadership wasn’t neutral. As someone who volunteered for Bernie Sanders, it was the day I lost faith in the Democratic Party.
This community exists for the millions of Americans who don’t feel fully represented by either major political party. Whether you identify as an independent voter, support independent candidates, or simply want to discuss ideas without strict partisan loyalty, this is meant to be a place where thoughtful conversation comes first.
One long-term vision for this community is to help build a coalition of independent voters, candidates, and civic-minded people who believe our political system should offer more than two partisan pathways. Together we can create an independent primary platform; not another political party, but a shared public forum. Any officially declared independent or nonpartisan candidate is eligible to participate on equal footing, present their ideas directly to voters, debate policy, answer difficult questions, and earn support based on the strength of their ideas rather than party affiliation.
Such a platform could give independent candidates a common stage where voters can discover, compare, and engage with them in one place. It could also help bring the culture of open debate, practical problem solving, and collaboration back into American politics without requiring ideological conformity.
Interested in what you all think about this idea.
Just gonna leave this here..
“We have a competency crisis because for increasingly ideological and insane reasons, employment opportunities, even training opportunities are restricted.”
“It doesn't work anymore and it hasn't produced the utopia it's promised. It's produced a sort of hell on earth from which there seems to be no way out.”