Perhaps it has to do with the fact that we are purposefully being frightened. I have heard my taxes will go up $2000, no $4000, no $8000. I will lose my job. I will have no health insurance. It’s the end of the world as we know it. People are told by authority figures to be afraid, and it works. It’s what has held organized religion together for centuries, and I give credit where credit is due: Karl Rove should be thanked for applying fear of the bogeyman to the Republican party, and its communications wing, Fox News.
I joined this forum after observing for a while. I see posts where people make reasoned points, quote reliable statistics, and make an understandable point.
And then there are the two quotes above. To exoticdoc2, I will point out that there are many geese that can lay golden eggs. Are we talking about the “job creators” whose taxes might go up? Are we talking about the working poor and true small businesses, which both parties talk as though they are the backbone of our economy, but which both have to suffer at the whim of ideologues who have no desire to compromise or find common ground? Are we talking about whole foods, vs. genetically engineered food substitutes?
Regardless, only “libs” haven’t learned any lessons. And then there’s Ima: ’nuff said.
Regardless of how we got here as a country and as a society, we are here, and I hope it won’t start an argument to note that “here” is not a good place to be. It is time for our society to grow up, face its responsibilities, and work towards remediating our problems.
Calling people names and assuming that everyone who thinks differently is totally wrong will never accomplish what needs to be done. Ideological purity and removing the possibility of modification is a recipe for disaster, revolution, and/or anarchy. We’re better than that, and we’d better realize it soon enough.
I view this forum as a microcosm of America, and what I see here pains me, and makes me very depressed. I see people refusing to accept facts, being much more ugly than necessary, and resorting to placing blame.
This is what Congress has been doing for years. Look how well that’s turned out.
I think we need to come to grips with the fact that we are all Americans, and our problems did not come from one event, one person, one political party. It’s taken a lot of people a lot of hard work to screw this thing up, and it’s going to take a lot of good work to make it better. I don’t see anyone having that resolve, and it makes me wonder if we will come to our senses before we ruin ourselves in the name of saving ourselves.
Life, especially these days, is tough enough. I had hoped to see some willingness to cooperate among people who at least have the intelligence to pay attention to these issues, and the desire to make this a better society, would be willing to see things as shades of grey, rather than either/or. If people who actually research these conditions refuse to consider points which are not the ones they were born/raised with, I can’t imagine what the people whose only exposure to the real world is People Magazine and “Entertainment Tonight” will lead us.
I think I need a vacation from the cacophony. I may be back (I can hear some of you groaning), but right now this constant ranting, insistence on ignoring facts, and undeserved ugliness makes me too depressed.
It is my New Year’s wish that people everywhere will realize that we never get everything that we want, and that sometimes the greater good trumps what I think I should have, and that we will see our petulant adolescent society turn into the world leader we seem to believe we are.
Perhaps it has to do with the fact that we are purposefully being frightened. I have heard my taxes will go up $2000, no $4000, no $8000. I will lose my job. I will have no health insurance. It’s the end of the world as we know it. People are told by authority figures to be afraid, and it works. It’s what has held organized religion together for centuries, and I give credit where credit is due: Karl Rove should be thanked for applying fear of the bogeyman to the Republican party, and its communications wing, Fox News.
I joined this forum after observing for a while. I see posts where people make reasoned points, quote reliable statistics, and make an understandable point.
And then there are the two quotes above. To exoticdoc2, I will point out that there are many geese that can lay golden eggs. Are we talking about the “job creators” whose taxes might go up? Are we talking about the working poor and true small businesses, which both parties talk as though they are the backbone of our economy, but which both have to suffer at the whim of ideologues who have no desire to compromise or find common ground? Are we talking about whole foods, vs. genetically engineered food substitutes?
Regardless, only “libs” haven’t learned any lessons. And then there’s Ima: ’nuff said.
Regardless of how we got here as a country and as a society, we are here, and I hope it won’t start an argument to note that “here” is not a good place to be. It is time for our society to grow up, face its responsibilities, and work towards remediating our problems.
Calling people names and assuming that everyone who thinks differently is totally wrong will never accomplish what needs to be done. Ideological purity and removing the possibility of modification is a recipe for disaster, revolution, and/or anarchy. We’re better than that, and we’d better realize it soon enough.
I view this forum as a microcosm of America, and what I see here pains me, and makes me very depressed. I see people refusing to accept facts, being much more ugly than necessary, and resorting to placing blame.
This is what Congress has been doing for years. Look how well that’s turned out.
I think we need to come to grips with the fact that we are all Americans, and our problems did not come from one event, one person, one political party. It’s taken a lot of people a lot of hard work to screw this thing up, and it’s going to take a lot of good work to make it better. I don’t see anyone having that resolve, and it makes me wonder if we will come to our senses before we ruin ourselves in the name of saving ourselves.
Life, especially these days, is tough enough. I had hoped to see some willingness to cooperate among people who at least have the intelligence to pay attention to these issues, and the desire to make this a better society, would be willing to see things as shades of grey, rather than either/or. If people who actually research these conditions refuse to consider points which are not the ones they were born/raised with, I can’t imagine what the people whose only exposure to the real world is People Magazine and “Entertainment Tonight” will lead us.
I think I need a vacation from the cacophony. I may be back (I can hear some of you groaning), but right now this constant ranting, insistence on ignoring facts, and undeserved ugliness makes me too depressed.
It is my New Year’s wish that people everywhere will realize that we never get everything that we want, and that sometimes the greater good trumps what I think I should have, and that we will see our petulant adolescent society turn into the world leader we seem to believe we are.