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Originally Posted by cylon  You haven't learned anything from this discussion, have you. |
Cylon, Your original post was clear and pointed. This is not.
Joy, I have had similar problems with my younger brother. We were all raised Republican. Today, I cannot say anything to him about politics because he is so opinionated.
Now, I am also opinionated, but I like to think I am reasonable.
He does come back at me with Republican talking points and Rush Limbaugh quotes. Most of these "discussions" are in email.
My partner has said, several times, "If you love your brother, you won't have these discussions. Just tell him that you love him, and you're proud of him." When I follow this advice, everything is smooth sailing.
I also worked with a family who were Israeli and Pittsburgh Republican. I tried to stay away from politics, but the husband (Israeli) was so hot about that election and all the Fox talking points, and the anti-Obama Israeli position, that he would often bring up something that Hannity had said. I almost always responded even though I knew better. And, he would often win the discussion, because he didn't follow logic or abide by facts. You just can't win an argument if the other side is allowed to make up facts. His wife would just say calmly, "I'm anti-abortion, so I can't vote for anyone but Palin."
My one rule of "discussion" is never to call anyone names. Another rule is to avoid personal attacks (such as "she doesn't have the vaguest idea what she's talking about" rather than, "she's a f***ing moron". Yet, even with these two rules things can get heated these days.
Here's where I agree absolutely with Cylon! The media is filled with opinion and editorial these days disguising as news. When I was young, it was difficult to determine whether a news caster had Democratic or Republican leanings. A news story was pretty much the same, whether you were watching channel 2 or channel 5. Now, not so hard.
And, we see media wars. One politician goes on TV and says, "YWC. I would never say, XYZ!" And then the news media, representing "truth" on the other side, will show ten video's of him saying "XYZ." The people who like the politician get angry, and those who don't are amused.
This is not American. This is more like the British system. Now the Brits don't allow gun ownership, and they have the "stiff upper lip" as a national personality. Culturally, they are less violent, so the verbal sarcasm and attacks are cathartic and less likely to cause riots. In America, we have assassinated, or tried to assassinate several presidents. We kill doctors who we don't like. We kill ministers who we don't like. We kill people who have different sexual orientations than we do.
I wish we could go back to the days of Walter Cronkite where a newsman would correct the facts during the interview - because that was the job of media, to present facts/truth, not opinion.