Posts
841
Joined
12/30/2018
Location
Sacramento, CA
US
Edited Date/Time
7/12/2020 5:41pm
Vital did a wise thing when it banned the endless toilet of political debate from a board about motocross. Now everywhere I go on Insta or Twitter I seem to find one another political argument going on with people in the moto industry and/or fans. I think I can speak for many when I say this sucks, it's just a downer and leads nowhere good. For one, nobody's mind is getting changed. It just creates division when someone whose moto commentary and knowledge you really enjoy turns out to be the polar opposite about politics.
To put in bluntly "I just wanna hear the motocross stuff," not because I don't respect your point of view-- I go to moto media to escape all the blather of the social media/political landscape. (I'm in a media job myself in a space far from moto and I leave my politics out of my social media, because it's my own business and nobody else's). Why not unleash on each other in group texts and keep the social media stuff social? That's how it used to be.
To put in bluntly "I just wanna hear the motocross stuff," not because I don't respect your point of view-- I go to moto media to escape all the blather of the social media/political landscape. (I'm in a media job myself in a space far from moto and I leave my politics out of my social media, because it's my own business and nobody else's). Why not unleash on each other in group texts and keep the social media stuff social? That's how it used to be.
If i'm a bricklayer, should all my instagram posts be about the lastest happenings in the bricklaying industry? Should i only gossip about bricks and brick related topics? Or am i allowed to post about my political leanings, my trip to the beach and my moto interests as well?
In most cases these are personal accounts so they can post how and what they like. If you dont want to see them then unfollow the account and stick the the Vital/Racerx/Swapmoto accounts instead which will have plenty of moto and moto only in my experience.
on all these feeds, you can unfollow any time you like
The Shop
Clipping comments if they get personal is all that should happen.
People being afraid to express ideas and being brave enough to listen is a major shortcoming of society today.
(Cox is running for office, so talking him politics on his feeds should be a give in)
Okay nothing to see here, move along....
But yeah it sucks. Hopefully it dies down after the election.
I think that most would agree that going to the library, standing on a chair, and yelling "You gotta fight, for your right, to paaaar-tyy" would be frowned upon. At the Beastie Boys concert? No problem. We just have rules in our society that we have to abide by, in order to live together in a civil manner. This place is no exception.
Sure, the concept of politics overlaps with many things and you can't completely avoid it when discussing any topic.I think the mods just have to make a discretionary decision on where to draw the line of where things go too far, and I believe they do a decent job at it.
Been with many of this group for more than 20 years....damn I'm old, geezus....
I used to talk everything on here, I'd do the politics, I'd call idiots out and I've been known to do a little legal research and out people who sue an MX track and lie and hide it from everyone.
I was also pretty bad at times, because i'd be like a dog on a bone with some topics.
But I had to stop, because when on Freshdirt/Motodrive and early days here, I could post as "Me" and not as "My business" and we were a tight enough group where we could all talk shit, haze noobs (ahhh...the good ol days) and people were able to separate me from my company.
Then as Vital became more and more popular, and more new folks joined, people seemed to forget or not care about allowing someone to be themselves, and just be a friend or fan, but had to attack or threaten their job or business because they disagreed with their position or opinion.
I am not alone, there were other industr(ie) people on here, but the same thing would happen to them, so like me, they left. I only recently decided to peek in and participate occasionally, but I do keep it to a minimum, keep it non-political and keep fairly neutral on things.
I have to, or people say shit about my business, or threaten to.
I guess my point is, all those people listed in the initial post, Matthes, Anton, ML, Ping, Cox, etc....are just people too. We're just regular folks like anyone else. We vote, we have opinions, we watch TV, we read, we read the news, we read all kinds of topics and subject....just like anyone
and we want to talk about it, like you.
But as this very thread shows, we can't.
We can only discuss our jobs, the thing we think about all day, every day, as our jobs.
Apparently, we can't do like y'all and break away from our jobs and discuss the things effecting our lives, like you can do in yours.
We can't have open, honest conversation with our peers, other people with similar interests, motorcycles and motocross.
Sorry for the long winded response, I'll return to my hole and little private corner of the internet I had to create for myself.
By the way, it's been suggested that I and others in the industr(ie) should make up pseudonyms in order to participate, what fun is hiding? I don't want to hide. I do know there are some riders and industry folks among you who are hiding, that you talk shit to and dismiss (Hell, apparently I have done it and I'm guilty of it) and that does suck, because you are getting inside information, exclusive to Vital forum readers, but you don't even know it and you dismiss it because that insider has to hide from you.
Have a good day
Stay safe (meant in a neutral non-political manner)
I'll go away again, sorry
Is this really a moto thread?
I totally understand what some of you are saying, and agree to an extent, but there are a couple things to discuss.
I signed up for Twitter long before I had a full-time MX career. That people started to follow it now because of what I do for a paycheck is nice, but it's never been a purely MX page. Might be music that I'm listening to, videos or posts that my brother and I send to each other, what I see as a super fan of sprint cars/MotoGP/F1, shoes and clothes, and so on. It's a 29-year-old's weird inspiration board.
At the same time, politics and social issues are something I've been into my entire life, in school I took every history and social class that they'd let me. To say that I have to completely mute one whole part of my personal interest, despite never causing any sort of harm through it, because someone thinks it's annoying is absurd.
I could understand that if I was straight-up attacking people of different beliefs and calling them every name in the book like some do, but I don't. Have never gone to someone's page had a full meltdown on them, but have had plenty of people come at me and tell me shit like my dad should have busted on the curtains instead of in my mom. Hell, there are a handful of "mystery" accounts that have made me the center of their shit-talking, but it's part of it, so whatever. Says more about them than me, really.
I'll admit, I have been very openly anti-Trump, but on multiple occasions, I've explained that I think any and all politicians are the scum of the earth (Obama's "good' acts don't override all the shit he did in the Middle East and the way Cheney got Bush to sell the War on Terror was criminal), but because that was before anyone "followed" me, no one remembers seeing it. They just see me going after their guy now and think I'm some liberal that's trying to get on Soros' payroll. I'm of the belief that no person of power cares about the common man and think anyone who feels they "are the chosen one to lead the public to prosperity" is a fucking power-tripping lunatic that can't be trusted. But that's just me.
This is where the double standards in MX are on full display. Multiple riders and others in the industry have said pro-Republican things, follow very active-decisive political pundits, or worn Trump merch to the races, and they get celebrated for it. Why are they allowed to do so, but the media guys can't voice our opinion on something similar online? Are we not fast enough? Or is it because it's not the same message people want to hear?
None of you really know me and it's a bit fucked up. I really, really appreciate the fact that people want to read or hear what I see when I'm at the races, it's an honor for a guy that literally made MX the center focus of his life. I know that there are racers who have different viewpoints on life than I do, but I don't hold it against them when I'm talking to them, and never, ever have I brought a topic up like that in my coverage (a write-up on Malcolm winning his Heat Race in SLC with the shot I had of Big James celebrating in the stands amid massive civil unrest would have been great, but I never typed a word about it because I know the firestorm it'd start). Sadly, a lot of everyday people don't give us the same chance and freak out any time we bring up something that didn't happen at the track. We all see the crackpot theories some of you in here come up about MX with and just let it go because tearing someone apart isn't the fix, it just leads to more tension.
Pit Row
I’m afraid this is only going to get worse until November 3rd.
At times they couldn't avoid it, but they never went into it headlong
JT is more conservative than me, but he is reasonable and respectful.
I mean, even with Steve, it is like 98 percent motocross talk. And when he talks politics, he's respectful and reasonable as well.
I don't know, I am not a fan of the "shut up and dribble" mentality. Politics impacts us all, and sometimes the sport directly! So it's fine if people want to talk about it a bit. These people have done a ton of hard work to build a show and a following, and it is theirs to do with what they like. To be honest, I dig when Matthes says things I agree with, and I enjoy when JT say things that I think are wrong / not totally right, but are still reasonable and respectable points of view.
For me, I am hoping we get someone boring in the White House who doesn't completely dominate the news cycle every single day. That's the real solution to having politics invade our lives so much.
Post a reply to: New trend of politics in moto media that's bugging me (For Matthes, Anton, Ping, Cox, DBo, JT and whoever else...)