The political bent of this site.

Published on July 30, 2004 By Jamie Burnside In Politics

I enjoy using JoeUser. I like writing articles and having other people comment on them.

Every once-in-a-while, I read other people's politically-related blogs. Those are really disturbing.

Personally, I hate to discuss politics with anyone who doesn't agree with me. -It isn't likely that anyone's position will change by a pointless argument between diametrically opposed positions.- But some of the articles/comments that represent the opposite of my personal beliefs are often disturbing to me.

As an example I will use the current and past president. The people who loved Clinton hate Bush and his policies; conversely Bush's supporters hated Clinton and his policies.

Whenever people I know get mad at Bush, I ask them: "Imagine how the Bush folks felt when Clinton was president." It is little consolation, but it is probably an accurate description of people's feelings.

Comments

CS Guy

on Jul 30, 2004

As much as I do comment on political articles, there is a lot that I hold back. But I don't really get disturbed by the opinions of people with whom I disagree. Most of the time I just ignore those people/comments and get on with my life. Sometimes I'm feeling a little contrary and decide to chime in.

As an example I will use the current and past president. The people who loved Clinton hate Bush and his policies; conversely Bush's supporters hated Clinton and his policies.

Heh, how about us that don't like either?

historyishere

on Jul 30, 2004

There are a lot of times I start writing a comment... and I stop because "its just not worth it" because I can foresee the whole argument, and I know that I am going to get a lot more pissed off... so I refrain a lot of times.

BlueDev

on Jul 30, 2004

I have read many political discussions on the internet and have yet to see one that remained civil and tackled the issues rather than the emotion behind them. Rather than understanding I only see them ending in even more divisions. And so I stay far, far away.

vincible

on Jul 30, 2004

I think large forums like JU tend to be the warzones because everyone's a stranger to each other. In smaller forums you build up relationships with people, which makes you respect them and their opinions more.

Also, in small forums, you get to know who's a nutjob you should ignore, whereas in big public forums, the nutjobs are hard to pick out.

historyishere

on Jul 30, 2004

I think statistically speaking, you might be less likely to get a nutjob on a smaller forum... and when you do... you know it almost immediately.

Draginol

on Jul 30, 2004

There seems to be a basic difference though: Democrats seem to HATE Bush. I don't just meen the loons. I mean the rank and file seem emotionally filled with hatred.

By contrast, I see little hatred in the typical Republican towards Kerry. Even during the Clinton years only the far rightwing nuts were crazily against Clinton.

As I read through threads here, I am disturbed by the emotional hatred of Bush that seems to be, IMO, totally irrational.

historyishere

on Jul 30, 2004

The Flame Warriors page... basically a description of most of the common types of people who fight on forums.
Link

Madine

on Jul 30, 2004

I remember when G Gordon Liddy made a comment on the radio during the Clinton years about ATF agents being jack-booted thugs. Bush Sr. spoke out against that. When Al Gore made his "digital Brown Shirts" comment, he was wildly cheered by his audience, and wasn't repudiated by Democrats. Gore of course is much more prominent than G Gordon Liddy.

Lord Shitzu

on Aug 06, 2004

There seems to be a basic difference though: Democrats seem to HATE Bush. I don't just meen the loons. I mean the rank and file seem emotionally filled with hatred.

I don't see that Draginol, a lot of us may exaggerate and get carried away by our emotions, but I think most of us, rationally or not, just really fear the idea of Bush in office. We fear losing our rights, we fear people we support losing their rights, we foresee a doom and gloom police state approaching, and it makes us scared and increasingly angry.

Dusk411

on Aug 06, 2004

Lord Shitzu, you make an excellent point. The Bush adminstration is the most secretive in years. GWB has made a law concealing his father's actions in office, and every president after. In retrospect, it would cloud history and make government unaccountable for their past actions. In turn, as voters, we won't know until it's too late who was involved and to get them out of office. Then there's the Patriot Act, which was passed during a time Rumsfeld said that it's unpatriotic to criticize America. By doing so, it got past under the guise of being an anti-terror while in fact in hinders our rights.

Now, that scares me. And why when I say I can't support Bush those are my reasons.

oops

on Aug 06, 2004

I for one have never really been involved or interested in politics. I recently registered to vote because I was very concerned at the state of the country. That interest pointed me to this site and in interest in the Political Machine game.
Being totally uninvolved with politics put me behind in the understanding of the whole election process and I am hoping the Political Machine game will help me more understand it.

However, I look at the posts on this site (and others) and I am just disgusted with the childish accusations that go on in politics.
I mean honestly, all everyone seems to do is blast the candidates (both sides) and what they did 20-30 years ago.
No one seems to be interested in the CURRENT issues.

I for have seen peers, friends, and family thrown out of work and have been having problems finding new work because of all the people that are unemployed. I know some people that had good 40-50k per year jobs settling for retail jobs making less than 20k a year. Jobs being shipped overseas and the government is encouraging it by giving tax breaks.

High costs for oil are eating into average peoples income that was already hit because their drop to lower paid jobs.

Medical insurance costs are going up yet doctors are getting paid less by the insurance companies.

Greedy corporate companies were ripping off an entire state of their energy to line the pockets of a few executives.

And on top of all this we have to worry about terrorist attacks.

These are all issues that most average people are encountering everyday.

Now honestly, does it really matter what "Joe Blow candidate" did 20-30 years ago.
Does it matter if GWBush went AOL or JKerry was or was not under fire when he pulled a guy out of the water?

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