This thread is where all discussion related to James’s statement at The Sphere is to be contained.

James’s statement

>Unless you live in Vegas, you've come a long way to spend some time with Metallica. We're grateful for that — your travels, the money you spend, the time it took, thanks for coming to celebrate with us. And I just gotta say, Metallica is not here, like some other 'entertainers', to influence you with their bullshit, OK? We are here — no bullshit — we're here to forget about all the outside shit, OK? Metallica's agenda is love, energy and heavy music, baby!

GROUND RULES:

1. This discussion is NOT about current or former politicians or political agendas. There is no need to highlight any specific political agenda. In this discussion, we are speaking broadly about whether entertainers should use their platform to attempt to influence others, and whether and entertainer who has had broad political messaging in their work is in the position to make this statement. Any comment referencing any political agenda will be removed as that is not part of the discussion at hand.
2. ONLY civil discussion is allowed. You are allowed to carry any opinion you want, but you are not allowed to attack or insult others for theirs. Any instance of such will result in a 7 day ban - this is your one and only warning. If you want to engage in the discussion, just behave. If you do get out of hand and attack somebody and then we ban you, do not try to pretend like we are suppressing your politics. The reason for your ban is because you violated the civility rule. Just wanted to make that clear.
3. Put some effort into your thoughts. Drive-by insults or support will not be tolerated and will be removed. For example, if all your comment says is “James is right”, it will be removed. Likewise, if all your comment says is “what a dumb thing he did”, it will be removed. Explain your stance, explain why you feel the way you do and do so respectfully.

Onto another matter: the annual explanation for why the sub is so adamantly against political discussion.

There are two reasons.

One is that it’s too fucking hard to moderate. We try to keep the moderation team small here so that it’s easier to manage. If you’ve been on Reddit long enough, you know that massive moderator teams become faceless machines that abuse their power and don’t care about your appeals. In order to avoid that happening to this sub, I have wanted to keep our mod team just big enough to handle the job. But when political posts get made, the workload increases exponentially due to the toxic political climate of today.

The second reason is because I’m tired of toxic politics infecting every single thing that I enjoy, and I do echo what James said- I want to forget about all the outside bullshit and just enjoy music sometimes. I did not come in here and make this decision all by myself, this was a popular sentiment when I took charge of this community and I’m pretty sure we even took a vote on it, whether to outright ban politics or find some way to moderate it better.. in the consensus was to ban it outright, we don’t need this community being yet another political battleground. But every time some situation like this comes up, some people feel that if you don’t participate in debate, that’s as good as endorsing fascism. But that’s an unfair charge because I’m willing to participate in the debate in the proper channels, I just don’t believe that this is one. Maybe we need to make another sub Reddit called “MetallicaPolitics” or something.

If you believe that politics should be discussed openly, everywhere, all the time, then this community is not for you and I strongly recommend you find one that is a better fit. You are also welcome to create your own.

As always, if you have a post or comment removed and you don’t understand why, you are not only welcome but you are encouraged to message us and discuss it. We always accept respectful discourse, and we will explain things to you. We have also admitted mistakes and corrected those mistakes. Sometimes, because we are humans, we interpret something differently than it was meant to be interpreted and all we need is a clarification. There are plenty of users out there who, if they were willing to speak up, can attest to this fact- we have apologized and admitted we were wrong countless times. But if you show up in modmail guns blazing, you’re not likely to get anywhere. There is no utility in that, so please don’t do it. You are not expected to grovel or be overly polite, just don’t be a dick. That’s all.

Enjoy the discussion and please keep it clean.

If you don’t like this rule, leave. If you need help leaving, ask.

No discussion needed; this is the rule, it’s been a rule here for years now. Follow it, or go somewhere else. End of story.