[Seahawk]

Originally posted by jyl
I'll start: I come here because I seldom have the opportunity to debate political, economic, etc, issues in my offline life. Being in Berkeley, I find that my friends tend to have views fairly close to mine, in many cases they are to the left of me. Debates are not very interesting when both agree. Here I get to hear from people with views very different than my own, and many express those views clearly and with supporting data and reasoning. Quite often I find that my own views are influenced by the discussions here, at a minimum I have to think harder about my views. A couple of years on PPOT has actually shifted me on some issues.

Exactly the same here...except that most of my friends are to the right of me in their political views.