Good points, Vineyards. Thanks.

I think it's important that members are able to voice their opinions to Admin/Moderators in private so that they can keep their political/religious standpoint private. Many people on the site don't mind others knowing this information but some people do and have worked hard to keep it private. I hope members will agree that everyone should have the right to give their examples, if they have them, in confidence.

OK , we might say the loud voices of the past may have no problem in posting such information publicly. However, there will be many who simply follow the threads and don't get involved because they have not felt comfortable (whichever viewpoint they have). This does not mean they don't have an opinion about whether or not some members have been anti-whatever subject has been discussed. So, these are the members that may wish to remain in the shadows, but put forward their point of view in confidence, via pm. After all, whether they join in political and religious based topics or not, they are members and they have a right to give their views to Admin, in confidence.

Would we, as citizens of our respective homelands appreciate our government requesting that we tell them openly who we voted for in elections? I doubt it because we have a right to keep such information personal to ourselves. Similarly all TC members have a right to vote in private or refrain from voting at all if the poll is on the public forum (so figures may be wildly inaccurate to date, whichever way the swing might be). They also have a right to resist posting their views (whatever persuasion they are)on the public forum. Silence does not mean agreement one way or another, it may simply mean apprehension that they will be judged.

I once heard some one say . . . well as usual I can't remember the exact words, so I hope someone will help me . . . I think the quote went something like this:

"There are three things one should never discuss with friends, religion, politics and . . ." Ha ha I can't remember the rest of the quote and there may only have been 2 things . . .

Well if this is advice for friends, then there's no hope for acquaintances and strangers

It's sad that perhaps we sometimes see ourselves as belonging to a particular " group" on the site because once we get into that senario it's easy to draw "battle lines" . . . that's a little strong but I can't think of another phrase, I'm sure people understand what I mean though. By "group" I am thinking more of friendship group rather than political or religious group. I guess we are all guilty of this and by the same token there have been some great differences of opinion between friends too.
When we have these debates with our friends though, we tend to forgive and forget (that belies the quote I gave earlier I think ).

Well, Catwoman, I was not referring specifically to you in that post. I did not imply that anyone is limiting anyone's freedom by criticizing him/her. Nonetheless, I did say such criticism is indeed fruitless. I seperately explained that believing is a personal freedom. You of course do not limit any personal freedoms by indicating your opinion. Nonetheless again, if criticism turns into a fight and causes people to take sides and if restrictions are imposed upon people barring their freedom of speech then all the balance is suddenly deranged and people think badly of one another. If you (literal) criticize someone, you (literal again) should let that person criticize you back. In doing so, you (not literal this time) should try to remove any obstacles that may prevent that person from indicating his/her opinions freely.

The inevitable outcomes of this choice are fighting and then more fighting, and then more and more fighting followed by still more fighting and sadly no conclusion.

If we want to improve something, we should determine our scope carefully. We cannot solve all the problems in one go because we are ourselves both the sources and the victims of the same problems.

Thanks Karpusqueen. I like Peter Ustinov...
I know my English is a bit old fashioned but I like it this way.

Vineyards looks like a white Michael Jordan actually...