[pp.int.general] Current state of Piratenpartei Deutschland in general.

[Kaj Sotala]

On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 6:54 PM, Max Moritz Sievers
<m.sievers at piratenpartei-hessen.de> wrote:
> If you want to dictate which drugs other people are allowed to use, you don't
> value freedom. If you oppress the sexuality of your childs, you don't value
> freedom. Why do you think the people allow oppression through copyright and
> constraints of civil liberties?

You may be right about what you say. Or you may be wrong. I'm not
saying anything either way.

However, you do need to realize that either way, bringing these
subjects up now will not only hurt the Pirate agenda, it will hurt
your chances of persuading other people of what you're saying. You
obviously have a personal agenda that you want to push, one outside
the commonly agreed upon core issues. I'm not saying that's
necessarily a bad thing - I don't think there's a single PP member, in
any country, who wouldn't have *any* political opinions outside the
core Pirate tenets. I, too, have certain opinions about unrelated
things, policies I'd like to see implemented. If Piraattipuolue ever
becomes a success and I become a big-name politician, then yes, of
course I'll eventually use my influence to also see those policies
implemented.

But I'm not even going to name those policies here, or in any Pirate
Party-related context. Not unless I'm explictly asked for my personal
opinions, and even then, I'm going to heavily stress that these are
not the opinions of the party as a whole. If I did so, I'd associate
the Pirate Party concept with my favorite policies, making all those
opposed to those policies less likely to vote for it. I'm going to
wait until the PP image has been firmly entrenched in people's minds,
and until such time that we are clearly winning the war over ideas.

You should do the same. As you can see from the responses to your
messages, not every pirate here agrees with your ideas. The same will
apply to voters - each extra, unnecessary idea you bring out will
reduce the popularity of your party.

You say that the issues you're talking about are "hot subjects". In
other words, people are split over them, and you should explictly
avoid taking any stance on them unless they are clearly related to the
core pirate agenda. But if you *do* take a stance on them, perhaps so
that uncertain voters will know where you stand, then you should be as
moderate and non-radical as possible. That way, the least amount of
votes will be lost. Of course, you won't win any votes that way
either, since all the professional politicians - who also understand
these principles - will also be taking the moderate and non-radical
stance. But if you really are serious about seeing your party
represented, and feel that you must take a stance on these things,
then that is what you should do.