My thought is that the topic goes so quickly into politics that there's no way to have a civil online discussion about it. I will underscore that I've never seen anyone's mind changed by an online discussion. This topic has come up in other forums, and other biking forums especially that I read, and no good comes of it. No matter how polite we think we can be here, I don't see how it could be done.

I am filtering this through my "formerly a moderator" filter. I've moderated here and MTBR and a couple of other boards, so I think it's fair for me to take a strond stance.

If there was such a thread allowed here, I'd probably just pull up a chair, grab my popcorn, and see how long it took before it did have to be shut down. I think it would be inevitable.