CDZ Is anything above politics

[Elvis Obama]

It's not the fact that all aspects of human existence are politicized. I understand that. What I can't understand is this hyper-partisanship, which I don't think is related at all to how people actually think and feel. What's it really all about?

1- Personal rage: People are angry. Really angry. They looove the net, because they can act like animals with impunity. Let their anger off the leash. Libturds/Conservitards like you just don't get it!! Ahhhhh, that felt so gooood! Sock puppet, SOCK PUPPET!. Seriously, has any intelligent human being ever used the phrase "sock puppet"? What a wasteland of people shouting past each other.

2- Divide and conquer. The people who should get the attention, who are really responsible for our ills, the criminals who steal our political representation, get people riled up over the wrong things, to deflect attention from themselves. It's so easy, and has been so successful since the dawn of time. Defend the walls! The invaders are coming, this time in the guise of swishy penguins!! It's a literal labyrinth of irrationality, but the hyper-partisan warriors nonetheless mount the battlements to fight the good fight! It's so tedious!

There are many things that transcend politics, politics isn't everything. I have many friends who are actual Liberals, we rarely discuss politics, but we do discuss films, music, art, architecture and various sports.

I have no time for people who think politics is EVERYTHING, and as a Right-Winger they could NEVER be friends with a Liberal or as a Liberal they could NEVER be friends with a Right-Winger. Such people are not only emotionally immature, they're also pretty sad individuals to be so incredibly small-minded and petty.

On this forum one example, that's Pogo, he's completely on the Left, but we get along wonderfully....more people should try it.

It is astounding when you consider it. Look at the statistics for this board. Millions of posts. Millions! But how much of it is human? How much of it is like the "real world" interactions you describe? Can you imagine acting like this in public? Going off on someone because they disagree with you about something?

When the net was first spreading in the late eighties/early nineties, people expected that it would be a great boon to democracy. Unfortunately, like TV before it, the net has become a vast wasteland. Even here, in the CDZ, a tiny oasis intended to operate under the kind of rules which all forums should operate under, the strange distruptors can't resist showing up to troll. People who hate the Palestinians and people who hate the Israelis don;t want to talk to each other. They want to bash each other over the head. They come here to do so, verbally, and if you try to discuss solutions to that conflict, they don't wanna know about it. They don't want any solution beyond a scorched earth policy. They don't want to lose that focus for their hate.

 

[MarathonMike]

I disagree that music and sports are hugely political. There are isolated sporting events that have political overtones, but that isn't the sport itself. It is the sporting event being used to inflame a political conflict between the countries. Soccer is not inherently political just as no other sport is inherently political just as music is not inherently political.

 

[Elvis Obama]

It's not the fact that all aspects of human existence are politicized. I understand that. What I can't understand is this hyper-partisanship, which I don't think is related at all to how people actually think and feel. What's it really all about?

1- Personal rage: People are angry. Really angry. They looove the net, because they can act like animals with impunity. Let their anger off the leash. Libturds/Conservitards like you just don't get it!! Ahhhhh, that felt so gooood! Sock puppet, SOCK PUPPET!. Seriously, has any intelligent human being ever used the phrase "sock puppet"? What a wasteland of people shouting past each other.

2- Divide and conquer. The people who should get the attention, who are really responsible for our ills, the criminals who steal our political representation, get people riled up over the wrong things, to deflect attention from themselves. It's so easy, and has been so successful since the dawn of time. Defend the walls! The invaders are coming, this time in the guise of swishy penguins!! It's a literal labyrinth of irrationality, but the hyper-partisan warriors nonetheless mount the battlements to fight the good fight! It's so tedious!

I think the internet brings out our tribal element. Human nature draws us together to live and work but these days we dont even know the people who live in our street. On the net its a different kind of community and peoples allegiances are there for all to see. Its a small step from that to abuse and beyond..
In real life people might actually get on and like each other. I dont know the politics of my family and friends but I know the politics of everyone I have met through the internet.

Have you considered how many people showing an immature approach online are simply thirteen? In the real world it's easy to separate out the people who cannot carry on a conversation. The kids are sent off to play with each other and the adults gather in groups to talk. The nutjobs aren't interested in rational conversation or small talk, so off they go, to practice their taxidermy in the basement.

The problem is, the basement dwellers are insane, as opposed to thirteen year olds who are merely immature. The crazy people have the energy of the insane. Who else would be interested in doing nothing with their day but yell at others? Here they have a risk-free community. They can be yes-men to other nutjobs, and delude themselves that their extremist views are becoming commonplace. These people need to be marginalized, because they disrupt rational discourse to a degree which is out of proportion to their actual numbers.

 

[320 Years of History]

Have you considered how many people showing an immature approach online are simply thirteen?

Truly, I have often wondered whether the some of the folks with whom I find myself conversing in this forum are indeed children or mature adults (I don't think merely being 18 makes one a mature adult. I have my own youth and that of my three kids to offer as proof that age and maturity need not go hand in hand. LOL) Indeed, I've thought it often enough that to protect my own sanity I've taken to not responding to remarks that strike me as too insipid for a mature adult to have made, I've further chosen to add the member to my ignore list if they make more of them than I'm willing to continue seeing; I figure my life won't be materially incomplete absent awareness of the rare meritorious remark they pen.

 

[Tommy Tainant]

Have you considered how many people showing an immature approach online are simply thirteen?

Truly, I have often wondered whether the some of the folks with whom I find myself conversing in this forum are indeed children or mature adults (I don't think merely being 18 makes one a mature adult. I have my own youth and that of my three kids to offer as proof that age and maturity need not go hand in hand. LOL) Indeed, I've thought it often enough that to protect my own sanity I've taken to not responding to remarks that strike me as too insipid for a mature adult to have made, I've further chosen to add the member to my ignore list if they make more of them than I'm willing to continue seeing; I figure my life won't be materially incomplete absent awareness of the rare meritorious remark they pen.

We all have an inner child and we all have a tolerance level. The fact is that you can be anything you want on the internet and its a big attraction for people who havent actually got much to talk about.
The thing that puzzles me is that people can take on board a whole set of beliefs from one side or the other. Surely some aspects must jar ?

 

[320 Years of History]

We all have an inner child

True, we all do, hopefully. As best as I can tell, however, USMB has several places very well suited to releasing that inner child:

• Badlands
• Flame Zone
• The Rubber Room
• Humor

I don't know about you, but I participate in the CDZ and SDF so as not to run into those "inner children" when their "parents" let them outside the "house." Alas, the CDZ requires only that one be polite, not necessarily that one be intellectually and emotionally mature, and not that one make sense. LOL

 

[oldsoul]

There was a thread on here the other day about Gay Penguins.

It quickly became politicised and was essentially the progressive liberal versus the regressive conservatives.

Grown men and women spent Friday night googling Gay Penguins in order to prove their point.

Gay Penguins I kid you not.

So my question is very simple.

Is the sex life of penguins the line in the sand or does politics,in the partisan sense, cover every aspect of the human experience ?

The weather is political,food is political, God is political. Sex is political. Sexuality is political. Travel is political. Cars are political. The air we breathe is political. Everything is political.

Simply put, for most people on USMB, no. No, nothing is absent politics. It's kinda sad, but that is the basis for the board after all. If one wished to discuss the sexuality of penguins absent politics, one would need to go to a board that is non-political, and more focused on zoology.

 

[Tommy Tainant]

BBQ sauce is non political. Isnt it ? Something that unites all of us.

 

[oldsoul]

BBQ sauce is non political. Isnt it ? Something that unites all of us.

Not a great example. First of all you have those who think vinegar is the best base, others think tomato paste/sauce is the best. And that is just here in the states. Take a look at this link to find just the basic variations on BBQ.
Barbecue sauce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A discussion of ANY kind on USMB will ultimately result in politics being brought into it. It is just the way it is here.

 

[320 Years of History]

BBQ sauce is non political. Isnt it ? Something that unites all of us.

Probably not entirely.

• The Politics of Food » American Scientist
  
• Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health
  
• How Food Politics Can Affect Your Election Choices

I don't know what it would take for someone to boil food politics all the way down to BBQ sauce...perhaps some combination of one's having "little else to gripe about" and factors pertaining to the production or distribution of BBQ sauce, or perhaps, as one fellow did, BBQ sauce might be made into one's foil for something else.

What may be so, however, is that folks won't politicize the flavor, and how they perceive it, of one BBQ sauce over the other, but I'm sure they'll argue over which BBQ sauce tastes better, or whether XYZ food(s) taste better with or without BBQ sauce. But arguing over flavor isn't the same thing as politicizing flavors or the food items that have flavor.

 

[Votto]

There was a thread on here the other day about Gay Penguins.

It quickly became politicised and was essentially the progressive liberal versus the regressive conservatives.

Grown men and women spent Friday night googling Gay Penguins in order to prove their point.

Gay Penguins I kid you not.

So my question is very simple.

Is the sex life of penguins the line in the sand or does politics,in the partisan sense, cover every aspect of the human experience ?

The weather is political,food is political, God is political. Sex is political. Sexuality is political. Travel is political. Cars are political. The air we breathe is political. Everything is political.

Political power has extended to every facet of our existence. They now tell us what doctor to see, how our children will be educated, and even what kind of toilet we should use when we take a shit.

As a result, everything is now politicalized. It is the natural outcome of a governmental dictatorship.

Deal with it.

Why should we have to deal with it? As individuals we have the right to make our own choices, we don't have to accept those choices being made for us.

OMG I NEARLY was in danger of sounding like a Liberal then

You have the freedom to swim upstream and be miserable and unemployed like Paula Deen.

True dat.

 

[Tommy Tainant]

BBQ sauce is non political. Isnt it ? Something that unites all of us.

Probably not entirely.

• The Politics of Food » American Scientist
  
• Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health
  
• How Food Politics Can Affect Your Election Choices

I don't know what it would take for someone to boil food politics all the way down to BBQ sauce...perhaps some combination of one's having "little else to gripe about" and factors pertaining to the production or distribution of BBQ sauce, or perhaps, as one fellow did, BBQ sauce might be made into one's foil for something else.

What may be so, however, is that folks won't politicize the flavor, and how they perceive it, of one BBQ sauce over the other, but I'm sure they'll argue over which BBQ sauce tastes better, or whether XYZ food(s) taste better with or without BBQ sauce. But arguing over flavor isn't the same thing as politicizing flavors or the food items that have flavor.

Oh dear. I grow coriander,thyme,dill and mint , mainly, in a few tubs outside my back door. I cant be arsed with the veg garden these days. That is non political although my mint jelly contains vegetarian gel stuff.