legacyfan
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2011
- Messages
- 540
- Reaction score
- 52
The scandals at PSU and Syracuse has clarified some of my thinking about politics and those who argue about political points. I consider myself a moderate democrat, and all though I can get as wound up as anyone over political points I am becoming more and more disgusted with the age of toxic talking heads and the venom in the blogoshpere.
Demonizing your opponet makes it easier to shut down your mind to other points of view, but it also is making us a closed off society unable to shift our thinking or make the changes that need to be made. It has created a "my camp" vs. "our camp" attitude, and I am growing tired of vitriol being called debate.
The people I disagree with are not inherently evil, they have another point of view.
The two party system - combined with lobbying and money - have created large ill fitting tents. It has created a system where candidates have to pander to the extremes on both sides to get nominated and then run back to the middle to get elected. Debate - real debate - has gone the way of the Dodo. Anytime some candidate attempts to articulate a complex point his speech is chopped up, misquoted, and turned into a talking point by his/ her opponets. Watch MSNBC or Fox News for longer than ten minutes and you would begin to believe that one side or the other has an agenda bent on destroying our country.
Pedophiles are evil. Rapists are evil. Serial killers are evil.
Politicians are at times useful, boring, wrong, right, hard working, caring, obnoxious, stupid, intelligent, and any other number of qualities that describe the human condition.
Sorry for the rant - just blowing off some steam.
Demonizing your opponet makes it easier to shut down your mind to other points of view, but it also is making us a closed off society unable to shift our thinking or make the changes that need to be made. It has created a "my camp" vs. "our camp" attitude, and I am growing tired of vitriol being called debate.
The people I disagree with are not inherently evil, they have another point of view.
The two party system - combined with lobbying and money - have created large ill fitting tents. It has created a system where candidates have to pander to the extremes on both sides to get nominated and then run back to the middle to get elected. Debate - real debate - has gone the way of the Dodo. Anytime some candidate attempts to articulate a complex point his speech is chopped up, misquoted, and turned into a talking point by his/ her opponets. Watch MSNBC or Fox News for longer than ten minutes and you would begin to believe that one side or the other has an agenda bent on destroying our country.
Pedophiles are evil. Rapists are evil. Serial killers are evil.
Politicians are at times useful, boring, wrong, right, hard working, caring, obnoxious, stupid, intelligent, and any other number of qualities that describe the human condition.
Sorry for the rant - just blowing off some steam.
