So we mostly use this site for announcements, but as an experiment I’d like to try getting a discussion going about last night’s Amanda Marcotte event. Hopefully, it’s something that people like and that we can do for future events as well.

Some topics to kick off the discussion:

• Amanda argued that science has become a partisan issue, whether scientists and skeptics like it or not. Agree or disagree?
• Which aspects of the Democratic/liberal platform do you think could most benefit from the active input of skeptics and scientists? Which will be problematic?
• How do you think Amanda’s assertion that “fighting not to lose” is counterproductive applies to some of the internal debates in the skeptical community?
• Amanda had a unique response to #boobquake, basically pointing out that making fun of Islam in a predominantly Christian society doesn’t accomplish much, since most people in the West are already skeptical of Islamic religious claims. How would we redesign that event or other similar events (e.g., “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day“) to be less Othering toward Muslims and more targeted toward the flavour of religious fundamentalists who have prominence in this country?

Feel free to discuss anything else about last night’s event, as well. Also, here’s a related question that’s more for my personal curiosity than a discussion topic. Do any of you already participate in political activist groups locally? I mean that to include local branches of national organisations or entirely locally-oriented organisations or just informal gathering events like Drinking Liberally. I’d like to know how many of us are already participating in these things.