Fear rules the day.

[callmeslick]

Yesterday, the Russian ambassador gets shot in Ankara. The top trending topics on US social media included "WW III" and "Archduke Franz Ferdinand". Yeesh, too many people frighten far too easily. I mean, I have grave reservations about Trump, but I'm not hiding under a bed. We see, on this board, daily, Nightshade blurt out a bunch of stupid fears about a whole religion, comprising over 1/3 of all humans on earth. Folks jump to apocalyptic visions when some heinous act occurs in a hotspot. My view is that we're dying a self-inflicted societal death by succumbing to fears and weakness.

[Jeff250]

I can't even tell how much of this sort of thing is genuine fear or people just reinforcing their political party. It's ironic how Republicans criticized Clinton for being aggressive toward Russia when up until Trump that was a historically Republican position and it didn't cause them any "fear" then. Despite how strongly people would seem to feel about our foreign policy toward Russia, it's clear there is no strong underlying value motivating their positions or otherwise their positions wouldn't be changing like the flip of a switch depending on who was running for president. The only real "value" anymore seems to be just defending whatever party you follow says or does no matter what. Instead of people's past positions on issues being the best predictors of their current positions, whatever party they are registered to's current positions are the best predictor of their current positions. And instead of positions motivating which party you follow, your party motivates which positions you have. That's not a healthy relationship.

[callmeslick]

interesting viewpoint, Jeff. Not sure which is cart or horse, but interesting relationship you set up.

[Jeff250]

Democrats aren't given a free pass either. For instance, for a long time they decried regime change and overseas interventions when it was a Republican in the White House, but when Hillary Clinton was championing it, most were silent on the issue. So did they really have strong feelings about regime change? Or was it really just strong feelings about Democrats and Republicans?

[Tunnelcat]

It's so easy for people get into an emotional group-think that they don't, won't, or can't, sit back and tune out the hype and rhetoric and take a precious moment to just think for themselves.

[Spidey]

So now that we are all done stating the obvious…what can be done about it.

[Tunnelcat]

The only thing that can bring people together is to have a common goal or ideal that everyone can get behind. Unfortunately, we're so far away from that scenario right now, it's looks nearly unattainable. Unfortunately, the past tells us what the usual solution will end up being. Most occurrences that would force people to come together for a common goal are either war or an economic catastrophe, because people just won't work together in a single large group for a common goal unless they're forced to for survival. Once things become stable again, that social group-think takes over again to split us up into smaller and more specialized groups and the cycle repeats.

[Spidey]

Yea, I figured this was just a whine session.

[Tunnelcat]

What? You don't like what it takes for humans to actually ALL come together for their own common good? If you don't believe me, just look at our own world's history. That's why the world envisioned in Roddenberry's Star Trek could never happen. But I do believe that the worlds envisioned in Star Wars, minus the space travel parts of course, is far more accurate.

[callmeslick]

Democrats aren't given a free pass either.

agreed, and didn't infer otherwise from your earlier words.

[Jeff250]

what can be done about it

Short term (easy): register as an independent or unaffiliated.
Long term (hard): remove party affiliation when registering to vote for everyone.

Party needs to be removed from personal identity.

In the U.S., people will say "I'm a Democrat" or "I'm a Republican," but in Canada, I don't really hear language like that or at least to the same extent. Instead, it seems to be more "I'm voting Liberal," or "I'm supporting NDP." It's something that's currently true of your intentions but open to change in the future.

Make your personal identity about the issues that you really care about and then hold anyone accountable who fails to support them.

[Nightshade]

Sam Harris lays out identity politics for you-



I linked this because of all of the assumptions and GENERALIZATIONS you make about me... *cough* slick/TC/Vander/etc *cough*

[Tunnelcat]

No generalizations at all about you from me NS. I even sometimes agree with some of your points. But there's ONE generalization that sticks out like a sore thumb. You're deathly afraid of anything having to do with Muslims or their faith existing in the entire world.

Jeff250, I like your idea. Personally, I've always been registered as "Unaffiliated". Unfortunately, that comes with the usual nasty baggage of political calls and robocalls from either party trying to sway my vote towards one side or the other. This year, I temporarily registered as a Dem, just so I could vote for Bernie. The side benefit was that the phone silence was golden. I'll be changing that registration back as soon as possible however, robocalls or not. I tend to not like "belonging" to one party like it's a badge of honor or something.

[Top Gun]

So now that we are all done stating the obvious…what can be done about it.

Zombie Washington rises from the grave and kicks political parties in the nuts?

[Tunnelcat]

Since Washington loathed political parties in general, I'm sure he'd have no hesitation with performing a little nut cracking.

[callmeslick]

So now that we are all done stating the obvious…what can be done about it.

Zombie Washington rises from the grave and kicks political parties in the nuts?

no solution to the problem, but one hell of a movie plot for SciFi Network!

[Tunnelcat]

Nah. Too many zombie stories in movies, TV shows and games already. Maybe a vengeful George Washington poltergeist?

[woodchip]

Maybe Trump will drain the swamp where these creatures live.

[callmeslick]

Trump IS one of those creatures.