Living in our own Echo Chambers

DGS49

Diamond Member
Apr 12, 2012
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Pittsburgh
Many years ago, William F. Buckley had a weekly television program called, “Firing Line.” Buckley was the intellectual leader of the Conservative movement (he never held any elective office), and the program consisted of a weekly guest whose political party and position were different from Buckley’s. Buckley and the guest would discuss the issues on which they differed, and each would present their case using facts and logic. Usually the guest was a prominent liberal or democrat such as Kenneth Galbraith or Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and although they disagreed completely, there was never any antagonism, insult, or raised voices. At its best, the discussion resulted in a distillation of the issues so that the viewers saw where the real differences lay by the end of the show.


Imagine that.


That led to the short “60 Minutes” feature at the end of each program where a topical subject was “debated” by representatives of the political Left and Right. They sometimes got a little personal, but generally it was simply looking at two different sides of an issue. And it was educational at times.


Now, our political discussion has devolved into personal antagonism, insults, yelling, and slander. If someone disagrees with you it is because they are either stupid, blind, subversive, racist, elitist, or corrupt. The idea that “reasonable people can differ” is long gone.


And there is really no need for it. The positions of Left and Right are not so far apart that they cannot be reconciled to a pragmatic result or plan of action. For example, Conservatives don’t have to believe that the world is coming to an end to agree with measures to reduce consumption of carbon fuels, explore alternative energy sources, and look into engineering solutions to visible effects of AGW. Both sides have the same basic interests.


It is apparent at the end of this election season that most of us have been encasing ourselves in Echo Chambers, where everyone we talk to, listen to, pay attention to, or admire, is someone who agrees with us on everything. It might be Rush Limbaugh, Bernie Sanders, Sean Hannity, or Michael Moore. And you seldom learn anything valuable from people who agree with you. It is the disagreements that force you to re-examine your beliefs and your “facts,” and either modify your views or be able to defend them more convincingly. The major news media were the real "deplorables" in this election cycle, tailoring their "news" to promote political agendas and favored candidates. Seriously, where could you tune in to get objective coverage, or at least a mix of views (actually, "Real Clear Politics," for one)


This is one of the reasons why we are hearing so many tales about children being “afraid,” and people at a loss for “what comes next.” We have convinced ourselves that those who populate the other side of the political spectrum are evil or incompetent, rather than just being people who favor different solutions to the problems we all face. We have told our children that Donald Trump is dangerous –assuming that he would never be elected anyway, and now they are afraid of what happens when a dangerous person becomes President. But that was a disservice that needs to be corrected, both in ourselves and for our children.

Trump did not win an election to be Emperor or Dictator. We suffered through Barry's excesses and survived, and we will all be OK in 2020 as well. Shoot me if I'm wrong.
 
I watch as much BSNBC and cnn as I do Fox and I don't listen to talk radio. I try to keep a balanced perspective regardless of what I personally think of the other stations
 
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Crybully snowflakes are an aberration of nature

That's the title of the article, it's correct of course, they are the weakest link, it's a good thing that most of their males are Metrosexuals with low sperm counts due to their lack of testosterone and that most of the females hate the idea of children because children are bad for Global Warming or something.

The human animal is the only member of the animal kingdom that allows it's weakest members to breed, so it's good that the weaker members by choice are not breeding and as such are eliminating themselves from the human gene pool, their DNA is worthless anyhow, it's defective DNA, if it wasn't defective DNA they wouldn't be the weakest link.
 
Many years ago, William F. Buckley had a weekly television program called, “Firing Line.” Buckley was the intellectual leader of the Conservative movement (he never held any elective office), and the program consisted of a weekly guest whose political party and position were different from Buckley’s. Buckley and the guest would discuss the issues on which they differed, and each would present their case using facts and logic. Usually the guest was a prominent liberal or democrat such as Kenneth Galbraith or Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and although they disagreed completely, there was never any antagonism, insult, or raised voices. At its best, the discussion resulted in a distillation of the issues so that the viewers saw where the real differences lay by the end of the show.


Imagine that.


That led to the short “60 Minutes” feature at the end of each program where a topical subject was “debated” by representatives of the political Left and Right. They sometimes got a little personal, but generally it was simply looking at two different sides of an issue. And it was educational at times.


Now, our political discussion has devolved into personal antagonism, insults, yelling, and slander. If someone disagrees with you it is because they are either stupid, blind, subversive, racist, elitist, or corrupt. The idea that “reasonable people can differ” is long gone.


And there is really no need for it. The positions of Left and Right are not so far apart that they cannot be reconciled to a pragmatic result or plan of action. For example, Conservatives don’t have to believe that the world is coming to an end to agree with measures to reduce consumption of carbon fuels, explore alternative energy sources, and look into engineering solutions to visible effects of AGW. Both sides have the same basic interests.


It is apparent at the end of this election season that most of us have been encasing ourselves in Echo Chambers, where everyone we talk to, listen to, pay attention to, or admire, is someone who agrees with us on everything. It might be Rush Limbaugh, Bernie Sanders, Sean Hannity, or Michael Moore. And you seldom learn anything valuable from people who agree with you. It is the disagreements that force you to re-examine your beliefs and your “facts,” and either modify your views or be able to defend them more convincingly. The major news media were the real "deplorables" in this election cycle, tailoring their "news" to promote political agendas and favored candidates. Seriously, where could you tune in to get objective coverage, or at least a mix of views (actually, "Real Clear Politics," for one)


This is one of the reasons why we are hearing so many tales about children being “afraid,” and people at a loss for “what comes next.” We have convinced ourselves that those who populate the other side of the political spectrum are evil or incompetent, rather than just being people who favor different solutions to the problems we all face. We have told our children that Donald Trump is dangerous –assuming that he would never be elected anyway, and now they are afraid of what happens when a dangerous person becomes President. But that was a disservice that needs to be corrected, both in ourselves and for our children.

Trump did not win an election to be Emperor or Dictator. We suffered through Barry's excesses and survived, and we will all be OK in 2020 as well. Shoot me if I'm wrong.
I agree that Trump will do ok.

This is only obvious because W did not destroy the World himself and Carter although inept did not destroy the Nation. So nobody can. The World and the Nation will survive.

LBJ was probably the bloodiest of all Presidents by his own choice whereas FDR and Truman were forced into warfare.

GHW and W both chose warfare because they loved it.

My guess is that Trump at best will become another Reagan, maybe not quite, but probably almost.

And no one will ever again be as poor a President as W, Carter, and Buchanan.
 
On a separate note, you can take Buckley and Goldwater and throw them both into a fiery Hell where they both can rot.

They were both brainwashed. And they both tried to brainwash others. They both together with Herbert Hoover were useless.
 
or example, Conservatives don’t have to believe that the world is coming to an end to agree with measures to reduce consumption of carbon fuels, explore alternative energy sources, and look into engineering solutions to visible effects of AGW.


You are full of S@@@ and I'll prove it, because you cannot/will not answer the question below


Why does one Earth polar circle, the Antarctic, have 9+ times the ice of the other, the Arctic?


The answer proves CO2 has nothing to do with Earth climate change. The solution to Global "warming" is prosecution of those who have deliberately fudged data and lied.
 
Many years ago, William F. Buckley had a weekly television program called, “Firing Line.” Buckley was the intellectual leader of the Conservative movement (he never held any elective office), and the program consisted of a weekly guest whose political party and position were different from Buckley’s. Buckley and the guest would discuss the issues on which they differed, and each would present their case using facts and logic. Usually the guest was a prominent liberal or democrat such as Kenneth Galbraith or Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and although they disagreed completely, there was never any antagonism, insult, or raised voices. At its best, the discussion resulted in a distillation of the issues so that the viewers saw where the real differences lay by the end of the show.


Imagine that.


That led to the short “60 Minutes” feature at the end of each program where a topical subject was “debated” by representatives of the political Left and Right. They sometimes got a little personal, but generally it was simply looking at two different sides of an issue. And it was educational at times.


Now, our political discussion has devolved into personal antagonism, insults, yelling, and slander. If someone disagrees with you it is because they are either stupid, blind, subversive, racist, elitist, or corrupt. The idea that “reasonable people can differ” is long gone.


And there is really no need for it. The positions of Left and Right are not so far apart that they cannot be reconciled to a pragmatic result or plan of action. For example, Conservatives don’t have to believe that the world is coming to an end to agree with measures to reduce consumption of carbon fuels, explore alternative energy sources, and look into engineering solutions to visible effects of AGW. Both sides have the same basic interests.


It is apparent at the end of this election season that most of us have been encasing ourselves in Echo Chambers, where everyone we talk to, listen to, pay attention to, or admire, is someone who agrees with us on everything. It might be Rush Limbaugh, Bernie Sanders, Sean Hannity, or Michael Moore. And you seldom learn anything valuable from people who agree with you. It is the disagreements that force you to re-examine your beliefs and your “facts,” and either modify your views or be able to defend them more convincingly. The major news media were the real "deplorables" in this election cycle, tailoring their "news" to promote political agendas and favored candidates. Seriously, where could you tune in to get objective coverage, or at least a mix of views (actually, "Real Clear Politics," for one)


This is one of the reasons why we are hearing so many tales about children being “afraid,” and people at a loss for “what comes next.” We have convinced ourselves that those who populate the other side of the political spectrum are evil or incompetent, rather than just being people who favor different solutions to the problems we all face. We have told our children that Donald Trump is dangerous –assuming that he would never be elected anyway, and now they are afraid of what happens when a dangerous person becomes President. But that was a disservice that needs to be corrected, both in ourselves and for our children.

Trump did not win an election to be Emperor or Dictator. We suffered through Barry's excesses and survived, and we will all be OK in 2020 as well. Shoot me if I'm wrong.
I agree that Trump will do ok.

This is only obvious because W did not destroy the World himself and Carter although inept did not destroy the Nation. So nobody can. The World and the Nation will survive.

LBJ was probably the bloodiest of all Presidents by his own choice whereas FDR and Truman were forced into warfare.

GHW and W both chose warfare because they loved it.

My guess is that Trump at best will become another Reagan, maybe not quite, but probably almost.

And no one will ever again be as poor a President as W, Carter, and Buchanan.
This is why the OP will never get the results he thinks we need to have. What is frightening is this person actually believes this.
 

They are disappearing themselves, they hardly breed, they will be no new Generation of SJW and thank goodness for that.

At the bare minimum a strong society only needs 10,000 of the strongest and fittest for that society to continue, so we are well on the correct side, there are hundreds of millions of us across the Western world, so there's no way we're ever going to just the 10,000 level because we breed, so we keep producing another generation and that also far exceeds the 10,000 bare minimum.

We will still be here in another 100 years, 500 years, 1,000 years and the weakest links will have long, long ceased to exist on their non-breeding levels they'll be extinct through disappearing themselves within a generation.
 
On a separate note, you can take Buckley and Goldwater and throw them both into a fiery Hell where they both can rot.

They were both brainwashed. And they both tried to brainwash others. They both together with Herbert Hoover were useless.

I completely disagree. Goldwater was a true Conservative who would have saved us from the abomination that was LBJ who made a holy mess of Viet Nam and destroyed the American Inner cities with his policies. Buckley was brilliant and Firing Line was one of the great debate shows. There is nothing that comes close. His debates with Gore Vidal were classics. No opinion on Hoover.
 

They are disappearing themselves, they hardly breed, they will be no new Generation of SJW and thank goodness for that.

At the bare minimum a strong society only needs 10,000 of the strongest and fittest for that society to continue, so we are well on the correct side, there are hundreds of millions of us across the Western world, so there's no way we're ever going to just the 10,000 level because we breed, so we keep producing another generation and that also far exceeds the 10,000 bare minimum.

We will still be here in another 100 years, 500 years, 1,000 years and the weakest links will have long, long ceased to exist on their non-breeding levels they'll be extinct through disappearing themselves within a generation.
Yeah, well it's nice to see y'all getting complacent politically already.

I believe it's like baldness, it can pop up anywhere. I really don't think SJW types are going anywhere soon.
 

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