Author Topic: Why do people find it so hard to respect each other when it comes to politics?  (Read 6526 times)

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Offline Dexter

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It takes so little effort to not be rude and childish. If people could just talk to each other with respect and decency it probably would never have gotten to the point where polar opposite ideas are ready to kill each other in the streets. It's especially disappointing when it's my own father, somebody I've looked up to my whole life. I never realized until I started to have my own ideas that his respect depends on my willingness to nod my head and agree with everything he says. The smartest man I know is just one more childish baiter that can't stand that he's forced to exist in the same world as people that hold opposing ideas.
« Last Edit: November 12, 2018, 09:45:01 pm by Dexter »
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Offline Right_in_Virginia

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If people could just talk to each other with respect and decency it probably would never have gotten to the point where polar opposite ideas

How the bleep is this going to stop the democrats from stealing elections?

Does your philosophy textbook have an answer for this?

Offline Dexter

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How the bleep is this going to stop the democrats from stealing elections?

Does your philosophy textbook have an answer for this?

None of the people you know in your life are stealing elections. Most of them are decent people that for whatever reason have a certain set of political beliefs. They don't deserve your disdain, and you don't deserve theirs.
"I know one thing, that I know nothing."
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Offline Right_in_Virginia

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None of the people you know in your life ....

You know nothing of the people in my life, good, bad or indifferent. You know nothing.  Please make this the last time you make such a presumption.

Offline dfwgator

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None of the people you know in your life are stealing elections. Most of them are decent people that for whatever reason have a certain set of political beliefs. They don't deserve your disdain, and you don't deserve theirs.

I just don't talk about politics with them, they won't change my mind, and I won't change theirs' so what's the point?

Offline Dexter

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You know nothing of the people in my life, good, bad or indifferent. You know nothing.  Please make this the last time you make such a presumption.

You know left wing people directly involved in election fraud? Most people are decent be they left, right, center or nonpolitical.
"I know one thing, that I know nothing."
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Offline Dexter

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« Last Edit: November 12, 2018, 10:56:42 pm by MOD8 »
"I know one thing, that I know nothing."
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Offline jmyrlefuller

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Because everyone is convinced that they're right, and everything they believe is a life-or-death situation.
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Offline Sanguine

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It's a good question.  Even those who are the same side frequently resort to invective, particularly when unable to present a good counter argument.

Offline Mod1

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Topic moved.

Offline Smokin Joe

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"Why can't we all just get along?"

With a general societal decline in civil discourse, why would invective be surprising? People in the 'meat world' get shot because someone 'dissed' them, real or imagined, so swearing at one another takes a relatively mild role in comparison.
Yes, it would be nice if people could express their opinions without resorting to mock severed heads or burning effigies, not to mention the physical attacks on those presenting a different viewpoint (Charlottesville, e.g.)--which lead to defensive action, and a series of counter reprisals which escalate and inevitably lead to someone getting hurt or the destruction of property, be that a few blocks of a city, construction equipment, or attempts to cause disasters by shutting valves on active pipelines.

When the language of personal discourse is coarse, rife with 'F' bombs and other invective, we are beyond discussion of issues, minds (emotions) are made up, and little, if anything will penetrate the limbic responses which ensue.

There is no reasoning with a mob, only the threat of overwhelming violence or other negative and direct impacts upon the persons of those perpetrating their particular violence will stay their hand.

Unfortunately, much of what passes as political discourse is often just braying groupthink, the intellectual equivalent of the mob in the streets. Many of the positions espoused betray a lack of consideration or even education about the issue at hand, without which, the position espoused is not rationally considered in the first place.
Ask a Liberal why they embrace a particular stance, and few will be able to answer beyond "feelings" at their most rational. Epithets follow.

But one must make the distinction between disagreement and incivility, between factual analysis and prejudice, and between seeing solid, reasoned, guidance as persecution or 'hate'. Without the fundamental honesty it takes to dispassionately consider carefully vetted facts, and not just cherry-pick, but all the facts, the conflict between reality and belief will remain unresolved.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline Frank Cannon

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It takes so little effort to not be rude and childish.

Shut up and sit down. No one asked your damn opinion.

Offline Sanguine

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Shut up and sit down. No one asked your damn opinion.

Obviously it takes more effort for some people.  Superhuman even.

Offline Frank Cannon

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Obviously it takes more effort for some people.  Superhuman even.

Tell me about it. It took a lot of effort for me to keep that above board and businesslike.

Offline truth_seeker

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My father and I came to blows, during Vietnam.

He was right. If we hadn't backed down, he would have cleaned my clock.

We got over it, and I learned a lot about politics from him. 
"God must love the common man, he made so many of them.�  Abe Lincoln

Offline DB

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The tone is set from the top.

He's a loser, look at his ugly wife - she has the face of a pig - if they bring a knife you bring a gun - knock the crap out them, I'll pay your legal fees - when they go low we kick them - And on and on...

Offline Smokin Joe

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The tone is set from the top.

He's a loser, look at his ugly wife - she has the face of a pig - if they bring a knife you bring a gun - knock the crap out them, I'll pay your legal fees - when they go low we kick them - And on and on...
Maybe from the top, but that fellow had a hand up his back: "After we win this election, it's our turn. Payback time. Everyone not with us is against us and they better be ready because we don't forget. The ones who helped us will be rewarded, the ones who opposed us will get what they deserve. There is going to be Hell to pay...."

Of course, with the discourse of the last Presidential Primaries, who said that might get a little fuzzy.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline Dexter

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Shut up and sit down. No one asked your damn opinion.

You're always good for comedic relief my friend.
"I know one thing, that I know nothing."
-Socrates

Offline Dexter

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My father and I came to blows, during Vietnam.

He was right. If we hadn't backed down, he would have cleaned my clock.

We got over it, and I learned a lot about politics from him.

My dad is the quintessential liberal college professor. In his universe there's only his opinion and everybody that disagrees with it is too uneducated or too stupid to see reality.
« Last Edit: November 13, 2018, 01:56:24 pm by Dexter »
"I know one thing, that I know nothing."
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Offline Sanguine

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My dad is the quintessential liberal college professor. In his universe there's only his opinion and everybody that disagrees with it is too uneducated or too stupid to see reality.

Sorry to hear that, @Dexter.  Sounds like you may get past his errors though.  However, it does make Christmas and Thanksgiving interesting from now on out.

Offline Dexter

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However, it does make Christmas and Thanksgiving interesting from now on out.

Grandpa is extremely conservative. He will appreciate my support. haha
"I know one thing, that I know nothing."
-Socrates

Offline Sanguine

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Grandpa is extremely conservative. He will appreciate my support. haha

So, what happened to Dad?

Offline Dexter

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So, what happened to Dad?

He just sees the world differently than grandpa and he's too smart to understand that he doesn't know everything. A lot of people here have that problem too. :laugh: He's a decorated college professor that works at a well known university; you can't deny him that. All of that education never taught him that sometimes there isn't a clear right or wrong, and that sometimes people just don't agree on what should happen in the face of certain facts.
"I know one thing, that I know nothing."
-Socrates

Offline HoustonSam

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My dad is the quintessential liberal college professor. In his universe there's only his opinion and everybody that disagrees with it is too uneducated or too stupid to see reality.

Have you asked your father the question you raise in this thread?
James 1:20

Offline Dexter

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Have you asked your father the question you raise in this thread?

He doesn't have a good answer. He thinks ideas I'm expressing are dangerous and so they deserve contempt. The truth is he may be a whole lot smarter than me but I think I'm more mature.
« Last Edit: November 13, 2018, 02:14:53 pm by Dexter »
"I know one thing, that I know nothing."
-Socrates