I'm wondering how many of you have been affected positively by the debates here. Some of you have been at it for a long time. Have you read someone else's opinion that may have been totally contrary to your own that has caused you to rethink your perspective on things? Or is it just fun for you to argue?
I enjoy political discussions, and I hope to learn something and I also hope I can pass on some good info to get some wheels cranking in another direction. But I always end up getting exhausted by them. Most of the time it seems we keep our own perspectives and enjoy ridiculing one another over differences of opinion or our perceived superior intellect. I think one reason it's exhausting (for me) is that it's being done over the internet with dozens of people. It's a lot different when you're getting together with a few friends and politics come up. You're less likely to insult each other and conversations just flow more naturally.
Just a thought...
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"Well if it ain't loaded and c0cked, it don't shoot." -Rooster Cogburn
It has had no effect on me at all. 95 percent of posters here preach to the Republican choir. i'm one of the very, very few on this forum who will bash both parties when they deserve it. i'm not spending nearly as much time here as previously because it is largely a waste of my time.
Opinions are soft, cushy ideas to which we cling to help us try to understand this planet's complexities.
When we enter this forum, or any other for that matter, and lay them down for others to examine, they are often crushed, not coddled. Oh, in a face to face situation, you have kinder, gentler responses, but generally those listening do NOT say what they think as clearly as they do here. It is the anonymity of this type of forum that often breeds a higher, purer form of discussion and honesty... not the other way around.
Yes, to answer your question, I have been swayed from time to time in here. I've also been forced to clarify my thinking on numerous topics.
Many of the people in here are extremely bright and well-versed on a variety of important topics. They have much to offer.
There is also inanity here. People clinging to over-simplified angles to an ever-increasing amount of complications.
In the beginning, when the HuntingNet Saloon was a fledgling watering hole, the internet itself was relatively young. One could argue that it still is. But not matter; the internet has forced us too open our eyes and look at the rest of the world. It has brought us much, much closer to those in lands we used to think of as far away. That cat is forever loosed from the proverbial bag and much information has been shared.
The world is smaller now. If that has not affected and "swayed" you, you are not thinking.
As to your allusion about how this type of discussion tires you sometimes...I couldn't agree more.
It has had no effect on me at all. 95 percent of posters here preach to the Republican choir. i'm one of the very, very few on this forum who will bash both parties when they deserve it. i'm not spending nearly as much time here as previously because it is largely a waste of my time.
Actually, I think there are quite a number of us who consider ourselves "conservative" and yet bash the R's on a variety of issues.
I know that I bashed Bush on a regular basis for his softness on immigration, and have taken issue with the fact that shortly after the Gingrich revolution the R's decided to start spending like drunken Democrats. I suspect most of the guys here will similarly bash either party if that party pushes a platform with which they disagree. It just happens that about 95% of the time, it's the Dems who are on the wrong side of the issue.
Getting back to the original post... I tend to make these faces much more often: particularly when reading the posts of certain of our less conservative members.
I don't spend a lot of time here, just enough to keep me updated.
Like most folks, I am set in my ways but I always try to understand why people think the way they do. Keeping an open mind is not something I have noticed from a lot of readers here. Convince me that I'm wrong and I'll be the first to admit it.
Having a personal opinion is what makes this forum what it is. What bothers me most is folks that post here without checking the facts before they speak.
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How has the Politics forum affected you?
particularly when reading the posts of certain of our less conservative members.
