icemann on 17/8/2018 at 00:44
Yup
Gingerbread Man on 17/8/2018 at 01:10
I've been thinking about this a LOT lately. I spent many years balls-deep in the linguistics of conflict, the ways in which people protect themselves from things they don't want to hear, all that nonsense. Well, it's not really nonsense, but it IS sad.
The bottom line is frustration, the kind of frustration that manifests as anger. Doesn't really matter how legitimate or sane this frustration is, even dogs get frustrated. But I've said this before: Ideology is the refuge of the angry. And the stupid, but let's not be too pejorative here.
Can it be fixed? Probably not. Not without a decisive silencing of both sides simultaneously. And that ain't gonna happen. I get annoyed at Far Right and Far Left people all the time, it makes me reticent to express my liberal attitudes as well as m conservative attitudes. And there's no way in hell I'm going to present myself as a moderate centrist just for the sake of calm.
It is known that the Internet has exacerbated many of the problems associated with this kind of polar politics... relative or actual anonymity, the echo chamber of subreddits, news site comment chains, facebooks, forums, and everything else has only served to embolden the insane instead of mitigate their worry and cray. So it goes.
It is horrifying (no hyperbole) to see the rancor and acrimony every single fucking morning when I try to be a good World Citizen and stay abreast of the news. It is disheartening to discover that your friends, family, and acquaintances have slipped into one trap or the other... they parrot whichever flavour of bullshit recommends their opinion rather than the other way around. We are hurt by a twenty-four hour news cycle of shit and Pablum, we are divided by the idea that ONE TEAM WINS WE ARE THAT TEAM, and we are going to be at each others' throats until the people who are more powerful than us stop making us feel like we're being attacked. And by "we" I mean EVERYONE, left and right. There are people who think that we live in the worst of all possible worlds on BOTH sides of the imaginary line.
Another problem is that people no longer understand debate. They only seem to understand yelling and dominance v submission. Nowhere is compromise an option. Ignorance on both sides is met with ad hominem and bolstered by bias in the supposed sources of trustworthy information. There is no longer any reason to trust other sources when twice as many easily found rebuttals exist.
This is no longer a "left / right" thing -- it is rather a Wanton Ignorance v Considered Reflection thing. If I could legislate and enforce critical thinking I would, but the police have asked me not to do that anymore on account of all the gunfire.
I'm a liberal gun owner in California. I'm an actual white male European against racism. I'm a straight guy with gay and trans acquaintances who sometimes wonders if they're not being a bit sensitive about thing while also raging about the shit they have to put up with. My place is insecure, I have no team, no cult, no backup.
And I am coming to the understanding that I simply have to ignore the howling noise from the retards on the Left and on the Right. Boy, that seems very irresponsible to me, but I simply don't have the energy to argue with them all.
They may not be worth saving. But that's m failing, my submission, my abdication. Or is it? Am I responsible for everyone else?
Here's the important question (this is always the important question): Cui bono?
(Hint: Not you, not me.)
demagogue on 17/8/2018 at 01:12
It's context dependent. If you're in a rural area of the US, then it's by far the Right that does this with the greatest hostility. If you're in a small liberal arts college in pretty much any English speaking country, then it's by far the Left that does this with the greatest hostility.
My attitude recently is if a person isn't interested in real discussion or debate, I oblige them and don't discuss things with them. Seems to have been working pretty good so far. And I come in with low expectations. Then I'm happily surprised when somebody does want to engage in honest discussion & it's refreshing.
Tocky on 17/8/2018 at 01:13
Likely the left is tired of thinly veiled homophobic, racist, sexist, and xenophobic crap from the right. Also self righteous crap about how it is the fault of the left for not liking that stuff and how they should change their minds when it is the right who is closed minded and won't meet in the middle.
That about cover it?
Also what Dema said.
Gingerbread Man on 17/8/2018 at 01:15
Word up, dema. And if you live in northern California you have the rednecks and the pansies, the Liberals and the Conservatives, the genuinely concerned and the selfishly entitled... Travel 50 miles and see the world. It's exhausting when you see how they're all wrong and they're all right.
It's time we brought the flames to the real world. Psychic and emotional immolation of the wantonly ignorant, I don't care which side.
Renzatic on 17/8/2018 at 01:25
I'm too damn lazy to type out a long reply at the moment, so I'll just sum up my feelings on the matter in a quick quip.
Everyone is the victim these days, and we all LOVE it. Fuck you for not taking my obvious pain and victimhood seriously, which is actually real, unlike yours, which is all a bunch of made up bullshit you're throwing out there for some cheap attention.
Tocky on 17/8/2018 at 01:35
I'm in the heart of the bible belt and every day I have to argue with my boss because he knows I'm an independent and can't stand Trump. I just want to get my shit together and get out on the road. I think I've about gotten him adjusted to the fact I'm never going to lean right on financial issues or Trump so now he is arguing dark matter is causing gravity by a constant push when it's obvious gravity is the collective pull of atoms magnified by the amount of them thus the mass effect. I just want to get on the road and listen to music.
Renzatic on 17/8/2018 at 01:42
It's the Higgs Boson, Tocky. Swimming pools. Movie stars.
Gingerbread Man on 17/8/2018 at 01:43
Dude, I hear that. My "bosses" are proud Christian Conservatives who think Joel Osteen is the greatest and that Jeff Dunham represents the pinnacle of political humor (probably the Achmed Terrorist puppet schtick, I don't know)... I just keep my head down and remember that the dogs are the smart ones.
Tocky on 17/8/2018 at 01:48
We should have been to Mars by now but we are insane.