You will find a lot of people agree with you in principle; in practice it is a horse of a different color. I have issues where I spent years studying and working at it. If I disagree with both sides, NEITHER side can respect that. Most people want to win. All they see are the merits of their case.
Even when a side is lacking, its supporters don't want to admit it lest they find there is a position outside of the mainstream. The objective is not to discuss issues and develop a non-partisan solution, the objective is to win. Only Democrats and Socialists are allowed a say on these boards. If you aren't spouting the most popular party line talking points, you are not welcome. You just have to make a place for yourself.
Unless, of course, you include the constant stream of trolling, insults, threadjacks, out-and-out lies, Fake News deflections, and general schoolyard-sandbox-level input by the Usual Suspects on the conservative side.
As libs gradually get tired of responding to the constant stream of derp, and leave for rational discussion elsewhere, this site, too, will eventually become another RW echo chamber. Circle of Life, I guess.
It would be interesting to see what the results would be if the mods would simply ban all "you" references and discussions. But that would require... well... traits that I do not see here.
Wearing a mask with your nose sticking out is like wearing a condom on your testicles.
When out walking, look out for PROBlems. You know: maskless Plague Rats On Bicycles who blow past you without giving you time to get out of the way.
Ah, CONServatives, the Masters of Projection (MOPs). With CONServatives, every accusation is a confession. Weird, that.
............Oh, what fresh hell is this?
,,,........¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯
....... Not my circus, not my monkeys
If everyone were on this forum for the same reason - and that reason was, as you put it, "to discuss issues and develop a non-partisan solution" - of course things would be far different here. The reality is that some folks are here to practice their skills at cognition and expression - understanding what others are thinking and developing their own skills at rationally dealing with the views of others while testing their own - while others are just here to scrawl out a message on the public bathroom wall.
People in the first group tend to occasionally grant those with whom they generally disagree credit when they have a valid point; people in the second group would see doing something like that as a sign of weakness. Those in the first group will admit it when they don't honestly know enough about a topic to have an informed opinion; those in the second group would rather take poison than do that.
Folks in the first group will even occasionally have their minds changed about something; folks in the second group would sooner change their gender identity than their stance on illegal immigration or same-sex marriage. People in the first group tend to be intellectually lazy and cling to absolutes and authoritative answers with a fervor approaching the religious; people in the second group are willing to subject their own ideas and opinions to scrutiny, to take the time to honestly examine those things and to refute the other guy's views with facts and logic, rather than hyperbole and insult.
Those in the first group will usually modify a negative description or a criticism of the opposition with a word like "some"; those in the second group have no problem with dismissing and condemning the opposition with a stated or implied "all".
Members in the first group will admit that the folks with whom they generally agree, be they "Liberals" or "Conservatives", are at least occasionally guilty of being in the "second group" as described above. Members in the second group are absolutely convinced that their side in any argument, their partisan clique, is relatively guiltless in all of the above faults and peccadillos - that it's "the other side" that simply trolls and lashes out all the time.
Personally, I find that characterization of this forum to be bizarre. I see the extremes of both sides of most issues having their "say" on this board hundreds of times every day. I see players on both "teams" being warned, sanctioned and suspended. If the other members with whom you identify politically or ideologically are getting slammed at what you feel is an unfair rate or with disproportionate frequency - you might want to consider the possibility that at least some of those posters are displaying signs of being in The Second Group.
Last edited by Standing Wolf; 03-20-2017 at 08:21 AM.
“Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.” - Robert E. Howard
"Only a rank degenerate would drive 1,500 miles across Texas and not eat a chicken fried steak." - Larry McMurtry
On the Interweb everyone sees everyone else as the problem.
HawkTheSlayer (03-21-2017),Ravens Fan (03-20-2017)
Wearing a mask with your nose sticking out is like wearing a condom on your testicles.
When out walking, look out for PROBlems. You know: maskless Plague Rats On Bicycles who blow past you without giving you time to get out of the way.
Ah, CONServatives, the Masters of Projection (MOPs). With CONServatives, every accusation is a confession. Weird, that.
............Oh, what fresh hell is this?
,,,........¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯
....... Not my circus, not my monkeys
I am embarrassed and even frustrated by the right wing conservatives. Their ethics, standards, and methods are bottom of the barrel. For that reason I have been pointing out to them how they have mixed socialism into their philosophy (sometimes knowingly and sometimes ignorantly.)
At the end of the day they will forfeit one right in order to give the illusion of a win on another right. They are incapable of having any kind of civil discourse.
Conservatives seem to have repackaged the product. The left is majority rule - the nanny state and the right has become the POLICE STATE. At the end of the day both sides are committed to the same type and form of government.
OGIS (03-20-2017)
We've always had our quote unquote extremists, but the election brought everything to overdrive and we still haven't completely recovered yet.