The politics/off-topic thread has served as a useful depository for such posts for some years.
However, lots of people have asked for the politics thread to be deleted in its entirety. It does have a lot of stuff which many people find nasty. Politics threads are tricky anyway because participants get labels attached to them and then lots of people avoid answering their questions.
But if it was deleted, you would have lots of posts disappearing, on a daily basis. And I would get lots of stick for deleting posts, and be labelled a nazi, fascist, etc, etc.
Same with other non GA content which is currently topical e.g. the Russian occupation of Ukraine. There are many people here who (mostly silently) support Russia.
What are peoples’ views on all this?
I come from Czechoslovakia so predictably I am not a leftie 
and I believe in freedom of speech, but not if it destroys our community. Most other forums either ban these topics or people just get beaten up (particularly if supporting Ukraine).
I think the politics thread is an important safety valve. Also, whenever a “proper” discussion derails, the posts can be moved to the politics thread without starting a meta-discussion about moderation policies.
to answer your question Peter, yes, we should continue having non-GA topics.
Aviation is anyway heavily dependant/involved in all kind of politics, the more so here in Europe where everything is over complicated and expensive.
People like me that are not interested in non-GA stuff just don’t click on those… it’s like soccer/pro sports in my daily newspaper, I just flip to the next section. Pity on the waste of paper though 
As someone in a similar position as Peter is, I can fully appreciate the problem.
As far as this group is concerned, in my own eyes it is the only group I participate in where I feel like I am amongst friends. I don’t use the term lightly either.
Friends are people who from time to time bicker, who joke, laugh, stand for each other and respect each others opinion. This is the case here more than anywhere else I participate.
So who do you discuss stuff with that you are passionate about if not exactly a group like this? There are enough fora which are full of hate, where people genuinly despise each other for what they write. Here, I still think that even with diametrically opposed opinions, we respect and in my case like each other. I tried going without this group and I miss it the moment I stopped.
We live in divisive times, we live in a society which grows apart rather than together. But in this forum, I don’t feel that way. It is the only platform where I know that these discussions will not turn into name calling and nastiness, because we all have a common ground called aviation and we all come from more or less similar aiation backgrounds.
I will accept whatever decision is taken re the politics thread. I would feel sorry if it had to be shut down but I can understand that it is an issue, particularly if those discussions take up more volume than the actual forum topic. In most fora I frequent politics are banned, primarily because they indeed destroy forum climate so to speak. I did not have the impression that this is the case here. But if it’s for the good of the forum, so be it.
This is practically the only forum I visit. This has been the case for some time now. I think it’s great to have some politics. I remember at Vans AirForce. All politics are banned except support of the US armed forces Seriously. Writing favorable things about the US armed forces was “support”. Writing unfavorable stuff was “politics” and got deleted right away. The obvious extension of this was of course that badmouthing China, Russia etc also was “support” In essence not a very healthy place except when sticking to aviation stuff.
Besides, the politics in here has always been about relevant world issues, like Corona and the war in Ukraine. Or stuff that do affect flying in some way or the other.
I have no problem with the politics section of euroga, but I rarely go or post there. Honestly, if you have different views from me on politics I don’t want to know, just like I don’t want to know your porn or religious preferences.
Just my two centimes. :)
+1 on what MD wrote. Like him I believe we have people here that may have pretty opposing views but it results in good debates which sharpens the mind, at least mine. And like Dan says, nobody forces one to participate in political debates. I doubt we lose valuable aviation-contributing members because of political threads.
Agree with @A_A and @M_D. Keep it. I find the non-aviation (or only tangentially aviation related) threads on here informative and useful. Keep them.
eurogaguest1980 wrote:
porn or religious preferences
That’s some serious comparison
I agree that it is a great safety valve, as Airborne_again says.
For those who want to discuss politics, it moves the discussion to a separate room where they can bicker while everybody else keeps enjoying their beer. And it does so without antagonising them.
I also like that there is a single “politics and off-topic” thread, with the occasional big topic such a the current Ukraine war because that makes it easy for those who don’t want to engage to ignore them, like eurogaguest1980.
And everyone can move between them as they wish.
Frankly, I don’t think anything needs changing.
