I was planning to take a couple of months’ time out and then return to posting purely on noncontroversial subjects but I’ve been told no. So this is me saying goodbye
I really don’t think you should continue to contribute to this forum at all Warwick. There’s too much baggage around your history in the Brexit thread for you to be warmly accepted or for the conversations to suddenly become civil.
Guess this is just what happens when you live dangerously. 
Smell ya later.
I think it’s a shame but I do feel you need to grow as a person Warwick, does not matter how old you are, not too late to change your mind on things.
Not saying you’re wrong or i’m right, just that your approach is flawed and the fact it’s come to this highlights that there is a problem.
This whole saga has made this place weird recently. I know I played my part in it, but don’t feel Warwick should leave - just needs to argue properly - like a debate.
So much drama, I feel like we should all do some steady breathing. Might post in the shed thread to calm down
Come back in 10 years and we’ll hold a referendum on you rejoining.
Ok that’s fucking killing me hahahaa.
Yeh it’s got a bit weird. I don’t think he actually said anything that offensive. I think that there’s cognitive dissonance in liking skateboarding and being pro-brexit, culturally conservative or right wing in this community. It goes against accepted or expected values in this subculture. Excluding him instead of just ignoring him or not letting yourself be affected by his perspective would be a more robust approach if you don’t agree with it. Banning someone or excluding someone because you don’t agree with them only encourages the idea of a censorious, ‘cancel’ culture. It might be appropriate to ‘cancel’ someone in instances of hate speech or incitement to violence but none of his posts, to my knowledge, have contained these. He just holds opinions that are, by the looks of it, not acceptable in this community.
You’re right. There may be more to it than what I know. But just going on what I’ve seen it doesn’t seem like a proportional response. He may not have been banned but has been excluded hasn’t he?
I ain’t meant to be posting, so apologies. But to be clear, I’ve been told by an admin that it’s best if I stay away. See the message quoted above.
I dislike group mentality, I hate ganging up on an individual and, as an often unintentional contrarian, I am never keen on there being an accepted narrative without the opportunity for polite discussion.
With this in mind I would have gladly seen Warwick stay had he engaged in discourse with those who actively challenged him on a factual level. Sadly he had a seemingly predisposed reliance on disingenuous hyperbole, meaning comments were often left like the proverbial steaming bag of shit in a game of knock-a-door-run. Because of this genuine political conversations were nigh on impossible and usually quickly descended into all out anger, simply due to his refusal to engage properly.
I don’t post here very often. I visit every day and start writing comments before regularly deleting them - I know I am guilty of a number of the personality charges leveled at Warwick in the other thread. I know my views on certain aspects of skating antagonise many and understand that means my commentary on other subjects can be somewhat unwelcome. But I know I sometimes have something to add and because of this I try; I try to stick to threads on actual skating, I try to be well reasoned and I try not to make it all about me and my opinion (fucked up on this post!) - sadly Warwick doesn’t seem to, despite his protestations to the contrary.
Who knows, perhaps we’ll see him return as a less contentious and polarising figure - my advice would be read more, post less and really put some effort in to being less of a professional antagonist.
I think the fact that everyone has been stuck in lockdown is probably adding to these sorts of wars of words. Cancel culture or whatever you want to call it, it’s generally the better option to just tolerate differences of opinion in a civil way or just ignore someone if you don’t agree with something they’ve said instead of saying you can’t contribute. It makes this forum look quite fragile that it can’t cope with different points of view when that is what makes for more interesting discussions.
I think people were quick to take offence to quite innocuous things too. You’re right that at times he was clearly winding people up. I think some people have to take a bit of responsibility in allowing themselves to be offended so easily.
I genuinely don’t remember what comments he said about race that were offensive. I can see that people assumed he was racist because he was vocally pro-brexit and there is a common assumption that the two positions go hand-in-hand.
I think more than anything else insulting everyone’s problems in the mental health thread is the big one.
He’s pretty divisive isn’t he? He makes these statements about ending lockdown and that the NHS isn’t fit for purpose that are callous and designed to cause outrage. I also don’t think his tirades about Black History Month made any sense and just looked petty. I do think he makes some interesting points in interviews such as with hoover institution (I can add the link if you’re interested). I don’t know enough about him to be honest to make a sensible assessment. But I find these clickbait articles which say he is far right or a fascist is a bit ridiculous too. I’m writing as someone who’s not followed his career very closely. I doubt that he is this cartoon villain that he is depicted as in some media outlets.
What did he say exactly though? I didn’t mean to be patronising but it looks like a commonly held view to draw those associations between those two positions. Similarly, you just made the assumption that voting leave means you’re stupid.
Will continue another time. I gotta get up early tomorrow for work. Anyway, goodnight.
