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I am pondering the social darminism thread, and whether our fate is linked to genetics or education and development. I don't know the answer to that.
What I do know is that taking rigid, dogmatic viewpoints where your team gets credit for all that is good in the universe, while laying all the blame for everything on your enemy, is moronic. Doubly so, if you spend your time high fiving people who think exactly like you, or your race, your class, your part of the country. The endless and completely disingenuous arguments I read here (Obama ruined the economy!!!! Obama saved the economy!!!) usually show zero interest in getting at the truth on any topic.
Funny thing is, many of the posts are very articulate, and pretty intelligent, but they seem to be a sign that our hyperpartisan national dialogue is carrying us over the cliff into national idiocy (speaking from a USA perspective). Not good!
Totally agree. Only thing I would add is that many of the posts on here are not even close to articulate or intelligent, and that goes for all parts of the political spectrum. I basically stick around because they amuse me.
Partisanship is a way to hook into our instinctual tribal mentality. And taking advantage of instincts is at the core of all marketing tactics. Very powerful. I have found myself falling into it at times, I can only imagine how easy it must be to trap those among us who do not have the luxury to be able to spend massive amounts of free time that I do thinking and analyzing every issue.
Of course there are distinct personality groups that will generally band together and agree on certain things, but I'd put the count a hell of a lot higher than a grand total of two.
No, partisanship isn't making us stupid. It's our stupidity which causes partisanship.
It's as if the whole country has been affected by some sort of mass hysteria.
winner winner chicken dinner
Super cereal tho, a bunch of dinguses decided they needed to make a political issue out the fact they're a bunch of dinguses and here we find ourselves catering to their dingus whims.
Yes. How any American can blindly support either party after the mass number of scandals and the amount of corruption is beyond me. Unfortunately, my parents are those people. I honestly believe its more of a baby boomer type of mentality than the younger population. However, its still a problem across all age groups.
If you are not gifted with the genes and frontal lobes of an Einstein, you would think that you would want to learn about complex issues and develop your capacity to think in general. The current approach is to tune in to your favorite show that strokes your ego all day, and fills you full of carefully crafted propaganda points to parrot all week. I can't see how you are going to get smarter from that.
It is not just a right wing thing. It seems like the politically correct culture that prevails in some area is just as limiting. Seems like the whole political frenzy is just turning us into a bunch of shouting idiots.
If you are not gifted with the genes and frontal lobes of an Einstein, you would think that you would want to learn about complex issues and develop your capacity to think in general. The current approach is to tune in to your favorite show that strokes your ego all day, and fills you full of carefully crafted propaganda points to parrot all week. I can't see how you are going to get smarter from that.
It is not just a right wing thing. It seems like the politically correct culture that prevails in some area is just as limiting. Seems like the whole political frenzy is just turning us into a bunch of shouting idiots.
Moderates rule!
^^This.
Though, I don't see it so much as 'stupidity' but 'ignorance' borne of laziness.
We have so much information at our fingertips, it is simply less work to focus on those opinions that we 'feel' are correct rather than actually taking the time to research the underlying facts and go to primary sources even when the 'conclusions' defy all logical thought.
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