Amazing how one of the busiest corners of the site is always the political soapbox. Not travel, health, finances, food, or nightlife. Nope, it is the endless political arguments. The same two or three dozen blokes grinding the same gears every single day, writing essays about governments on the other side of the planet while sitting in a rural house or a condo somewhere in Southeast Asia. Half of them left their Western countries years ago, some decades ago, yet they still wake up every morning desperate to argue about politicians who have absolutely nothing to do with their daily lives.

The real reason that section is so popular is pretty obvious if you think about it. Most of the soapy diehards are older guys who have quietly run out of enjoyable things to do. The sex drive has evaporated, social circles have greatly shrunk, and hobbies faded away twenty years ago. So what is left? Politics. The perfect topic because it never ends, never resolves, and never requires anyone to agree on anything or admit they are wrong. You can argue about it forever and still feel like you are doing something important while actually achieving nothing at all.

So the soapbox becomes a kind of retirement home for restless whiners. No solutions, no progress, just endless circular debates about leaders, policies, and practices at least a 12 hour plane ride away. Meanwhile the sun is shining outside and the world is full of things to do, but instead the day gets spent refreshing the threads and firing off another angry paragraph about a country they no longer even live in. It is not really about politics at all. It is just the last remaining spectator sport for people who forgot to replace the things that once made life interesting.

10 minutes ago, SoCal1990 said:

Meanwhile the sun is shining outside and the world is full of things to do, but instead the day gets spent refreshing the thread and firing off another angry paragraph about a country they no longer even live in.

I think you'll find most of these guys to be Brits or Aussies.

So they're firing off another paragraph about a country they never lived in.

3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I think you'll find most of these guys to be Brits or Aussies.

So they're firing off another paragraph about a country they never lived in.

Excellent point. The majority of the politics being discussed is American politics and the majority of the guys discussing it aren't American.

10 minutes ago, SoCal1990 said:

Excellent point. The majority of the politics being discussed is American politics and the majority of the guys discussing it aren't American.

Such a bizarre thing to see.
I don't know many Americans who give a squat about anyone else's Gov. other than to laugh at them

39 minutes ago, SoCal1990 said:

You can argue about it forever and still feel like you are doing something important while actually achieving nothing at all.

Political scientists describe this as political hobbyism. The function of the discussion is to fulfil the emotional needs of the spectator of politics rather than to actually do politics.

American politics is particularly satisfying as a spectator sport (especially so for non-Americans), because it is unusually divisive because it is multicultural. This multiculturalism ensures that since there are only limited shared foundations, the politics takes on a religious flavour.

Real politics, as the book above outlines, is extremely tedious. To the extent that even politicians and political journalists tend to avoid it and spend their time watching the structure of it (watching it like watching a horse race: who will win, who is getting promoted, who is losing) rather than the contents.

There's one guy that constantly opens threads no one else even posts in, and then appends to them. I doubt he's ever been to Thailand.

24 minutes ago, Gaccha said:

Political scientists describe this as political hobbyism. The function of the discussion is to fulfil the emotional needs of the spectator of politics rather than to actually do politics.

American politics is particularly satisfying as a spectator sport (especially so for non-Americans), because it is unusually divisive because it is multicultural. This multiculturalism ensures that since there are only limited shared foundations, the politics takes on a religious flavour.

Real politics, as the book above outlines, is extremely tedious. To the extent that even politicians and political journalists tend to avoid it and spend their time watching the structure of it (watching it like watching a horse race: who will win, who is getting promoted, who is losing) rather than the contents.

I agree that politics has turned into a spectator sport for some, a replacement for religion.

33 minutes ago, Real Name Hidden said:

There's one guy that constantly opens threads no one else even posts in, and then appends to them. I doubt he's ever been to Thailand.

Those are bulletin board threads.

The OP mentions 'writing essays' on politics. My first social media presence was as director NGO/501c3 during the Twitter 140 character max days.

And per Hamlet: Brevity is the soul of wit.

I also used to post on legal websites where you submit your post and it has to be approved by a moderator before it gets posted online.

Therein my objective was to post sufficiently succinctly so that someone would finish reading my post before they realized that they wished they hadn't read it.

1 hour ago, SoCal1990 said:

Amazing how one of the busiest corners of the site is always the political soapbox. Not travel, health, finances, food, or nightlife. Nope, it is the endless political arguments.

It's because politics is way more complex than the other issues and lends itself to more discussion and debate. You can't debate nightlife. And I don't even go partake in nightlife anymore. I don't see the point. Restaurants, yeah. But endless discussions about restaurants would be silly.

Even if its happening in another country, people are expressing their discontent with wars and govt policies. Seems perfectly natural to me. Would be unnatural to pretend it's not going on.

That's called ... INDIFFERENCE.

Impotent, dim wttted rage appeals to impotent dim witted rageoholics. Who knew?

It cracks me up how insubstantial it all is, just a lot of regurgitated blather and butt hurt posturing on complicated issues by complete know nothings.

I enjoyed it recently when some moron was waving off the economist as a bad source. The odds that this miscreant has ever read an issue of the economist are zero.

1 hour ago, Real Name Hidden said:

There's one guy that constantly opens threads no one else even posts in, and then appends to them. I doubt he's ever been to Thailand.

He lives naked in a refrigerator in Chiang Mai, surrounded by three of every home appliance known to mankind. He never goes outside because that would mean putting clothes on, which seems like a lot to ask. His silicone consort (he calls it Susan) could probably use a little peace and quiet, maybe even a moment alone, but at this point the chances of that are slim.

A lot of it is just untreated autism.

Arguing with them is 100% pointless given that fact.

Everyone here knows explicitly who I am talking about, but he is not alone.

It does affect your life - price of oil, tariffs, effect on markets, psychological effect of wars and other events, are are real things.

Sometimes better to vent here on one's opinions than in a bar or to a long suffering thai wife.

I used to post political stuff a little bit but now certain posters are so trollish and seemingly intentionally post in bad faith that it's not fun. It was always the way though that each side makes their point - then each new day they make the same points afresh often ignoring facts brought to their attention multiple times. After a while you see the same posters with the same old chestnuts.

There are some posters that I like to look at it who have interesting things to say and add some humour. Lets face it world events can be a bit of a downer or quite interesting and it can help to see that there are like minded folk who feel the same.

10 minutes ago, Prubangboy said:

A lot of it is just untreated autism.

Arguing with them is 100% pointless given that fact.

Everyone here knows explicitly who I am talking about, but he is not alone.

I can think of a few people around here who fit that description. I do not think there is any fixing their OCD. AN is probably as good as it ever gets for them. When you think about the next ten or twenty years of their lives it is a little sad. The three I have in mind all seem to operate the same way. Very high post counts each day, lots of short, snarky sound bites. High volume output, all low quality.

46 minutes ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

It does affect your life - price of oil, tariffs, effect on markets, psychological effect of wars and other events, are are real things.

As I write, Brent crude up to 116 dollars, Asian stock markets dropping. Nikkei 225 down 7%, Korean Kospi index down 8% etc.

1 hour ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

It does affect your life - price of oil, tariffs, effect on markets, psychological effect of wars and other events, are are real things.

I don't use much in the way of oil, it's price is irrelevant to my life.

A post trolling about some other members has been removed.

2 hours ago, BilllyGOAT said:

I can think of a few people around here who fit that description. I do not think there is any fixing their OCD. AN is probably as good as it ever gets for them. When you think about the next ten or twenty years of their lives it is a little sad. The three I have in mind all seem to operate the same way. Very high post counts each day, lots of short, snarky sound bites. High volume output, all low quality.

I just saw it in another thread

Rain man Stuck like a broken record asking how much is a can of Coke over and over again.

But I’m not here for empathy, I’m here for laughs.

If they want empathy and understanding for their mental deficiencies, they should be in the Special Olympics, not here.

5 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I think you'll find most of these guys to be Brits or Aussies.

So they're firing off another paragraph about a country they never lived in.

According to happiness surveys the least happy people are centreists followed by lefties. Conservatives are the happiest people on the planet.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311886.2025.2572347#d1e332

Female right wingers are the happiest

Followed by male right wingers.

Male lefties and male centreists are miserable.

Explains all the sad old men in Thailand!

4 hours ago, Slowhand225 said:

Such a bizarre thing to see.
I don't know many Americans who give a squat about anyone else's Gov. other than to laugh at them

I don't think nationality matters except when people come from 3rd world nations.

Politics matters a lot. The happiest are conservatives. Lefties and centreists are miserable.

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

I don't use much in the way of oil, it's price is irrelevant to my life.

Really ?
Tell me, what do you use thats not based on oil ? Real question

No plastics in your home ? No fuels, no lotions, no soaps, only cotton clothing ?
Don't look at your food ingredients, almost everything listed that you have trouble pronouncing comes from oil waste.

So in America, the FDA declared them food products and now they make money off the waste instead of paying for its disposal.

Its a deep, deep rabbit hole, all the things in our life that come from it

Pulling statistics out of your a** without supporting links is called trolling.

15 minutes ago, khaosokman said:

According to happiness surveys the least happy people are centreists followed by lefties. Conservatives are the happiest people on the planet.

3 minutes ago, HappyExpat57 said:

Pulling statistics out of your a** without supporting links is called trolling.

Angry posts indicate

1 unhappiness

2 laziness

3 male centreist or lefty

For me, the endless bickering about non-Thai politics has diluted the value of AN.

I joined ThaiVisa/AN for Thailand related information and discussion, and if I was interested, I could read informed political debate on many other sites dedicated to international affairs.

13 minutes ago, HappyExpat57 said:

Pulling statistics out of your a** without supporting links is called trolling.

Afghans and Lebanese have been the ones considered least happy.https://www.statista.com/statistics/1373741/ranking-least-happy-countries-worldwide-score/?srsltid=AfmBOoqQ7NHRdjgj6Sp9W--uHdwyWjfwraCYGlYamQyawJi7zHmV27Ir Other countries in Africa also rate low.The happiest are those over 60, which means most of us here..................https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/400667/unhappiest-people-world.aspx

7 minutes ago, khaosokman said:

Angry posts indicate

1 unhappiness

2 laziness

3 male centreist or lefty

Not angry, that's your problem. I'm pointing out facts. you're trolling (unless you can prove me wrong - which you know you can't). Only reason I'm even wasting my time with you is I'm bored. Throw back whatever childish taunts you want, I'm done here.

p.s. - the little red squiggles under a word means it's spelled it wrong. This indicates the poster is ignorant.

5 minutes ago, Kinnock said:

For me, the endless bickering about non-Thai politics has diluted the value of AN.

I joined ThaiVisa/AN for Thailand related information and discussion, and if I was interested, I could read informed political debate on many other sites dedicated to international affairs.

Well sure but there's always stuff like the self-insured versus those (suckers) who purchase insurance and the allopathic vs. homeopathic /medical mafia debates.

11 minutes ago, Kinnock said:

I joined ThaiVisa/AN for Thailand related information and discussion

but there is probably a reason they no longer call themselves Thai Visa.

maybe it's too narrow and wanted to broaden their scope beyond discussion of visas.

11 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

Afghans and Lebanese have been the ones considered least happy

You would be miserable too if there were bombs falling on your head.

1 minute ago, save the frogs said:

You would be miserable too if there were bombs falling on your head.

One reason I'm sure. I had shells hitting near my house and I wasn't dancing around.