I am an independent and it always amuses me to watch extremists on both sides try to convince each other their side is right. Here's a hint... when someone is set in their viewpoint, your best arguments will have no effect, so don't waste your time. This is the partisan crappy world we've created for ourselves, now we have to live with it. The age of reasonable and respectable debate disappeared with the arrival of the 24 hour news cycle.
Both sides are always sure they are right because otherwise they would believe something else. No one sets out to believe things they think are wrong.
I tend to follow people who merely LEAN one way or the other because they tend to base their arguments less on emotion and more on reason. I tend to watch people who don't take themselves too seriously or whose sole agenda seems to be to spread hate and divisiveness(ann coulter, anyone?)
Therefore, I watch both Scarborough and Stewart. I watch both Maher and Huckabee. Whether you agree with their views or not does not make one or the other wrong. No one can define wrong as long as there are two sides... you can only define your side. The truth and the answer for everyone lies somewhere in the middle. This is called consensus. Something our society has forgotten about.
If conservatives are upset they have no one funny to defend their side, watch Dennis Miller. Since 9/11, he's all for you.
I realize that my post could also be wrong. Maybe the liberal is right... maybe the conservative... The point I was trying to make is that 'right' and 'wrong' are, for the most part, subjective. I try to live by the golden rule, i.e. "Do onto others..." etc. I TRY! But I don't even consider that rule an absolute. Obviously, I believe the world is gray. Black and white thinkers tend to drive me crazy. The best I think we can do, as a society, is to come to a consensus about the rules we want our society to follow, but still allow for the rules to be changed when they no longer serve the common good. Why is this so hard?
Well, for starters, too many people in this country have bought into the 'my way or the highway' thinking that, quite frankly, the previous administration aggressively promoted. We've forgotten how to 'respectfully disagree' and instead attack each other as 'absolutely wrong!' We love watching shows where two people with opposing viewpoints tear each other apart. Or we only watch shows that promote our own viewpoint and reinforce our beliefs without hearing a fair representation of the other side.
I understand why this occurs. Hearing someone parrot our views makes us feel good. We like to feel 'right.' But our views, remaining unchallenged, turn into mental tablets of stone, clouding our thinking until we are sure our way is the only right one. This is part of what is destroying the fabric of our society. It is the kind of thinking that caused this -- intolerance for someone else's beliefs, fueled by anger, and acted out in hate. It causes Republicans to go after Dems when they are in power instead of working with them, and vice versa. It causes chaos instead of unity.
How arrogant is it that we deny someone else the right to have an opposing viewpoint? How ridiculous is it that if someone's viewpoint is different, we have to label it as 'sinful' or 'liberal'(usually said with a sneer), or 'traitorous.'
I have been guilty of this kind of thinking myself, as I have a low tolerance for those with a low tolerance of others! Fundamentalist Christians, in particular, drive me crazy. I've been guilty of labeling them 'irrational hypocrites.' They anger me when they try to push their beliefs on me and I react badly to that.
So in the spirit of trying to follow my own advice, I will post on people in the public eye who I like because of, or in spite of their belief systems and I will also post on those I don't like, but I will present the reasons why in a respectful and reasonable manner.
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