Any particular thread/posting here change your political viewpoint?
 

Any particular thread/posting here actually change your political viewpoint?

( I'll leave the definitions of "change" and "viewpoint"at the discretion of responses)

Techweenie has mellowed some of my righty leanings. He does that with well researched and documented rational discussions, not the beeding heart 'we wuz robbed by a crook and a war monger' type rhetoric.

If you knew me, that's saying something.

nope, this is a complete waste of time.

It's really hard sometimes to remember the #1 rule of the internet: nobody cares what you think

I have had my mind changed by post before. Basic beliefs have not changed, but certainly mellowed as I have come to understand others postion better.

It is possible for 2 perfectly intelligent people to disagree.

I don't have a political viewpoint.

The whole world is economics and war.

Politics is Politics.

I barely even bother to read the political threads either here or on that other board. . . They're the same 8 or 9 people yelling at each other over and over and over. . . I've got better things to do.

you're nuts. That is just wrong.

What, you think you're better than us?! Here, let me drag you down to our level.

Oddly enough, reading the OT forum for about the past year has only deepened my belief that the "left" and "right" are far more similar than anyone seems willing to acknowledge. Viewed from a distance (and I almost never participate in OT political debates - I am much more of a lurker), nearly all Americans seems to share the same fundemental values and goals. Pretty much everybody wants good schools, safe homes, economic prosperity, less crime, less war, clean water, lower taxes,basic freedoms, etc etc. Those things are so common that nobody even bothers to debate them. They are assumed. So from a distance, the "left" and "right" look like people who agree on 99% of everything and then fight like cats and dog over the remaining one percent -- sometimes even the most trivial one percent.

I suspect a lot of it is driven by political parties and cable TV - both entities whose very existence depends on conflict. They try to raise the volume level of the debate in order to mask the fact that most American politicians are amazingly similar and the difference between either party seems to be which interest groups they sell their souls to.

No he's not; he's right, I tell ya. He's right.

I used to think the Right was correct on some points and the Left was correct on others.

Now I think they're both full of *****.

if the difference is a pr issue then the Christian Right is a RNC marketing man's dream.

that's concerning social issues, I hope. Economics and War should be above that,

but it's not. http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/fles.gif

I imagine I have changed quite a few righties into lefties.

I used to be a little bit conservative...but the lefty posts have pushed me farther right.

JanusCole it right.

If there is one thing that extreme liberals and extreme conservatives have in common, it is the level of BS that comes out of their mouths.

Ditto!!

I'll second the "more mellow" change. There have been a remarkable number of reasonably intelligent discussions on some great topics. Seeing the "other side" produce intelligent and logical arguments (that I disagree with) has had some interesting effects. First, it makes me question what I believe -- and that's always good. Second (in some cases), it has showed me that the "other side" isn't always a bunch of uneducated weirdos. I mean, most of the time, they're complete nutjobs, but every once in a while, the "other side" isn't completely full of dog-poo. ;)

That's the truth.