When this forum first began, there were long threads of lively discussions and an occasional bitching and pissing contest. Now its the other way around. a real discussion of the issues at hand is virtually extinct, while the venom is spewing back and forth between the arguing parties. As usual, I'm among the guiltiest, witness my long running fuckYOUohyeah?FuckYOUBACK flamefest i've been engaged in with Xiaoming over the politics of the Middle East. But its gotten so bad now, so utterly predictable in its dynamic, as to have become entirely not fun. As an example... Xiao posts about Israel, I respond with venom. Stamina posts about Bush, and Bob Parr will respond with venom. GFD or BillKile post something nasty about liberals, zinaval and others post nasties about Bush. Its all gotten so partisan. Its gotten just as bad as Washington DC. We all have become so inured to our point of view, the idea of even engaging in rational dialog has been lost amongst the vitriol and vituperation. I'm not saying "Can't We all Get Along?". Its quite obvious we can't. Not all the time.
What i'm saying is I miss the point counterpoint discussions we used to have. I want it back like it was before it got ugly all the time.
If wishes were fishes... we'd all be swimming pretty. Meanwhile, time to stop drowning.
It is tiring. When someone (of many) get to their final argument and it is the sad and old, "Your'e an idiot" or "Your'e an asshole"... then I just ignore it and don't respond.
I will break my rule and respond to one, right here, simply saying that this tactic is Bender's bread and butter, although he has honed his personal attack techniques to a strange level.
I am guilty as charged. I am very pissed off at what is happening to our country in a thousand ways and I realize people have their different views and ideas on all of these topics and everybody experiences them differently. I also am a Liberal who is suppose to listen to everybodys views and perspectives and at least give them respect even if I do not agree. And, yet I still find it hard to not to tear someones face off in a lot of these arguements. How do you respect someone who advocates torture? I will try to be more tollerent in the future, but it will be difficult.
which, ultimately, is a reflection on our leader, who I believe touted himself as a uniter in his first campaign. In spite of how reviled he was among so many R's, Bill Clinton actually did much more to unite than Shrub has done. At times, he has almost seemed to delight in exacerbating the polarization between the parties, as he is convinced (like all born again types) that his way is not only right, but it is sanctioned by God.
The problem is now that the parties are so behid this polarization, it would take an extreme candidate (maybe a celebrity or someone who is looked at the way Colin Powell was back around 2000...although I still say that America is not enlightened enough to elect a black man president yet) to actually help us put aside the polarization to come back together even somewhat and make progress on issues.
Unfortunately, I just don't see it happening. I think McCain is trying to do it, but look at how he is being ripped for it. Additionally, as long as politics are bought and paid for as badly as they are in this country, it is in the special intesrests best interest to keep people divided... divide and conquer, remember?
IMHO, the basis of the problem is that we routinely fail to see the faults in the positions that we hold dear. It is easier to call those that do not agree with us jackasses rather than spend time and effort examining the basis of our own views and the possibilities that those views can be flawed.
The solution? One method that could work is for each of us to ask questions of those that disagree with us. The questions cannot be attack questions or pronoucements masked as questions. They must be honest attempts to understand the basis of a view that is offensive on first blush.
he's a well-polished shill who can't string a dozen words together in a coherent sentence, and does everything he can to avoid talking without his teleprompter, including snark at reporters about their fashion sense.
He's fucking pathetic, and it says something pathetic about our country that he could get even a million votes. Yeah, we have a whole lot of people who wish they were cowboys, and haven't figured out they aren't.
I was a challenge not to respond to this immediately.
Doc, this reeks of insincerity. This post is as sincere as Ariel Sharon's last promise to eat sensibly and to watch his weight.
You bulk large as one of the least temperate and most insulting of all regular contributors on this Board. You admit so yourself. But you have the gall to mewl about a lack of civility on this Board. Please give me a break, I can't imagine what you were thinking of when you composed this.
Some months back, TMT admonished the Board re the type of things being posted. You responed that sometimes you can't help it, because Xiao spews such hateful comments about Israel and it's wordsand deeds, and you, self-appointed defener of Zion on this board, will never allow that to pass unchallenged. TMT's response was to hate the message, not the messenger, and attack the message, not attack the messenger. Can't you get it? I'm sure you do, as you're an intelligent man. You just don't want to get it.
Doc, it starts with you. If you want civility on this Board, if you want to discuss issues and not personalities, do so.
This next is to annoy you -- you remind me of St. Augustine, during his wastrel life he would pray [according to legend/superstition], "Lord, make me chaste. But not yet."
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