Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I think so, yes. Just not generally on the internets OR in a public forum where the media is involved.
I cannot turn off the television or radio fast enough when they start broadcasting Question Time in the Australian Parliament. It's a disgrace and I'm fairly certain that people think that if it's good enough for the pollies, it's good enough for them.
I've always found that the people that know the least about civics, government, and Constitutional princples are the same ones that moan and whine about how impolite political conversation is these days.
If you are not pissed about what is going on in this Country then you don't know what's really going on in this Country.
And none of this fiasco has anything to do with being impolite or partisan. In fact people should become MORE partisan and MORE rude standing up these corporate shills and lemmings who are ruining the Country and killing the middle class.
It has do with being apathetic, willfully ignorant, arrogant, and selfish.
No. Despite living in what is supposed to be the world's greatest democracy, American's have a very undemocratic view of differing political opinions. Or perhap's it's only those on the far left and the far right, but people don't seem to discuss as much as we insult anyone who disagrees with us. If you look at such issues as the "PC" ethos and the desire to boycott establishments or public figures who express a point of view we ourselves don't agree with, American's seem to be adopting a very intolerant and unamerican approach towards political discourse.
I remember going to a seminar once where the speaker said the unthinkable: Not everyone's opinion carries the same weight. We are all taught everyone's opinion is valid, but really, you do need to be able to back up your opinion with facts.
Where I notice this a lot is on the health care threads, where people who don't have a clue about anyone's health care other than their own go on and on about what they KNOW is right.
Also, some people on the general politics forms seem to have just started following politics in the very recent past. They don't seem to know that a lot of what the present admin is doing is established by precedent. They don't know that presidents always have to fly with a lot of security; that the first lady has always had a staff, etc. Their only response to that is "Obama was for change". Well, he didn't say he was going to change everything. There are reasons for some of these precedents.
Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox and say that I don't like comments about people's reading comprehension (particularly when called on it and the OP says it was a joke, or just a statement of fact), personal attacks, wholesale attacks on groups (all conservatives are this, all liberals are that).
Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox and say that I don't like comments about people's reading comprehension (particularly when called on it and the OP says it was a joke, or just a statement of fact), personal attacks, wholesale attacks on groups (all conservatives are this, all liberals are that).
It usually turns personal when that person has nothing left to debate or their "facts" with no data are proved wrong. And then there are some that just plain have their mind set and they and only they are right.
But..there's more good folks to debate with than bad so I just ignore the bad after a while and continue to debate and have good back/forth posts.
It seems that the further out in the fringe you are, the louder people feel they have to yell. That applies to the left and the right.
In a two party democratic system, bipartisanship is the only way the system works and the only way things get done. Bipartisanship appears dead in the country at this point in time. This is why we have gridlock in Washington. All we have left is political warfare.
My quandry is wondering how so many people can be so wrong. On one side you have many people who actually believe that Obama is deliberately trying to destroy the country and on the other hand you have Obama supporters feeling that the right wants to bring down the government at any cost and remake it into a facist society. How can two cultures of the same society look at the same situation and view it so differently? I'm really at a loss on this one.
Common ground seems to have disappeared into a black hole.
It seems that people these days cannot accept differing opinions. Should we have a "whaaaaambulance" on call?
You are lamenting the decline of polite political discourse, while also using the term "whaaaaambulance"?
Perhaps the problem is not with differing opinions but with the unabashed stupidity that too often infuses those opinions, no matter where on the political spectrum those opinions fall.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
