Political discussions
Sep. 10th, 2004 09:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wombat_sochoI spent a fair amount of time yesterday contributing comments to a couple of discussions started by a liberal acquaintance of mine, and I have to say that on balance it was a complete waste of time and intellectual effort. I don't think there was any respect for my personal opinions or experience, and when I supplied links to support my statements they were blown off as being from "partisan sources", as if we were living in the 12th century before Bacon's revelation that the truth of a man's statement was independent of the man himself.
On the other hand, the liberals involved in the discussion felt perfectly free to throw out assertions and opinions without any backup whatsoever and apparently expected me to regard those unsupported assertions as being every bit as valid. All manner of stereotypes and bigotry regarding conservatives and Republicans was on display, and it really made me wonder if this is the kind of discussion these people would have if the subject was race instead of politics.
Sorry. I don't play that game, and if that's what's regarded as "open-minded political discussion" in these parts you can save it for City Pages. This is not the sort of "discussion" one has with friends where I come from, and if it's the way things are done here in Minnesota you can include me out.
On the other hand, the liberals involved in the discussion felt perfectly free to throw out assertions and opinions without any backup whatsoever and apparently expected me to regard those unsupported assertions as being every bit as valid. All manner of stereotypes and bigotry regarding conservatives and Republicans was on display, and it really made me wonder if this is the kind of discussion these people would have if the subject was race instead of politics.
Sorry. I don't play that game, and if that's what's regarded as "open-minded political discussion" in these parts you can save it for City Pages. This is not the sort of "discussion" one has with friends where I come from, and if it's the way things are done here in Minnesota you can include me out.
