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In Reply to: Re: Argh posted by politico on September 04, 2008 at 13:44:38:
"I guess what I find just a bit offensive about your post is the suggestion that you will only read political posts here that are mindless regurgitations of sound bites or propaganda talking points."
That's not what I intended to say. What I DON'T want to read on this board as the election cycle gets more intense is a regurgitation of sound bites and propanda talking points. For one thing, it's almost impossible to respond to stuff like, "He can run, but he can't hide" or "Change we can believe in." WTF?
I've long thought it would be good to have political discussions that help people work through their cultish thinking. There's more to the issue of political discussion than WHAT someone believes and values. There's the more insidious problem of HOW exers think about issues of power and persuasion. Something I've noticed in many exers' comments is a tendency to invest a divine authority in the person/personality of political leaders. There's this prevailing idea of a righteous king ordained of God to lead the people that pops up all the time. Sorry, political power comes from the people, it is not a divine right. It's as if we never learned to the fundamental necessity of questioning all authority, particlarly those who come closest to representing our own world view. I don't particularly trust the person I plan to vote for: I only trust him slightly more than his rival.
