We are wasting our time

[Mark Elliott]

The world has broken down into two factions, neither of which can even agree on one set of facts.

The "election was stolen" crowd will never believe that their guy lost and never concede, just like their leader.

The "he was a Russian Double Agent" crowd will always believe that the 2016 election was marred by interference and the 45th was not legit.

Posting Gateway Pundit and Daily Kos stories will do nothing to change anyone's mind so quit wasting our time.

[TC Talks]

You're asking the mentally ill on this board to be sane. I wonder how that's going to work out.

[Matt]

You're asking the mentally ill on this board to be sane. I wonder how that's going to work out.

Agreed:

The "he was a Russian Double Agent" crowd will always believe that the 2016 election was marred by interference and the 45th was not legit.

I'm also not sure how SG is still here.

[jadednihilist]

The world has broken down into two factions, neither of which can even agree on one set of facts.

The "election was stolen" crowd will never believe that their guy lost and never concede, just like their leader.

The "he was a Russian Double Agent" crowd will always believe that the 2016 election was marred by interference and the 45th was not legit.

Posting Gateway Pundit and Daily Kos stories will do nothing to change anyone's mind so quit wasting our time.

I think this viewpoint is overly pessimistic. I still believe we have more in common than what drives us apart; and it's going to take a lot of patience and frank conversations to bridge the divides and heal the wounds. My view is that current divisiveness and toxicity surrounding our politics is untenable and presents a serious threat to our democracy.

It's not helpful that we can rarely go through a thread without name-calling, false equivalencies, and treating politics as if it's a team sport, rather than debate the merits of the ideas and holding all of our elected leaders accountable, regardless of party line. There's never been an American politician I've been more diametrically opposed to, or disgusted by, as Trump and Trumpism, but I have been able to maintain close and meaningful friendships with Trump voters and lifelong Republicans through the past four years. We knew where our opinions stood, and we're still able to converse and disagree respectfully, and not let politics get in the way of good friendships.

It's doable, but it requires humility and an ability to truly listen to others. Almost everyone is a good and reasonable person, but has lived a different life experience and has drawn different conclusions. One thing that most of us have in common is that we're all the protagonist in our own story and fail to be critical of our own problematic behaviors. A good first step to building a bridge is getting over our own sense of self-righteousness.

[MotorCityRadioFreak]

Until we can have agreement on our sources, we cannot win sadly.

[Robert Faygo]

Until we can have agreement on our sources, we cannot win sadly.

This statement says it all. It's not supposed to be about winning or losing - but that's who we've all become.

[Rate This]

Until we can have agreement on our sources, we cannot win sadly.

This statement says it all. It's not supposed to be about winning or losing - but that's who we've all become.

Our societies narcissistic tendencies are a big part of the problem. It’s like... no... you’re not always right and sometimes your way sucks. Too bad. But many folks are oblivious to this.

[MotorCityRadioFreak]

Until we can have agreement on our sources, we cannot win sadly.

This statement says it all. It's not supposed to be about winning or losing - but that's who we've all become.

I meant succeed as a society.

[jadednihilist]

I meant succeed as a society.

I don't want to pick on you because I do think some of the insults thrown your way on this board (before I began posting) were certainly offensive and out of line - and should be called out. But, I do disagree with you if your implication is that the conservative members of the board aren't actively cheering for the success of our society. I firmly believe that they are rooting for our success - and formed their opinions and did their homework with our success in mind. It's hard to be debating politics on a local broadcasting board and not care about a world outside of your own.

It's completely fair to say that we disagree with how to make our society successful - or even what that success looks like - but I don't believe anyone, aside from a couple of trolls here and there, are posting in bad faith.

I do have issues with personal attacks - but that's a bipartisan problem here.

[MotorCityRadioFreak]

I meant succeed as a society.

I don't want to pick on you because I do think some of the insults thrown your way on this board (before I began posting) were certainly offensive and out of line - and should be called out. But, I do disagree with you if your implication is that the conservative members of the board aren't actively cheering for the success of our society. I firmly believe that they are rooting for our success - and formed their opinions and did their homework with our success in mind. It's hard to be debating politics on a local broadcasting board and not care about a world outside of your own.

It's completely fair to say that we disagree with how to make our society successful - or even what that success looks like - but I don't believe anyone, aside from a couple of trolls here and there, are posting in bad faith.

I do have issues with personal attacks - but that's a bipartisan problem here.

That wasn't even what I meant. The fact that there are a large group of newscasters that ARE reporting facts and are simply denied because of the company they work for is asinine. Not everyone from Fox News is garbage. I appreciate Chris Wallace.

Some of these people can't even speak to one person on CNN or MSNBC that they like or appreciate even a point they made. That's a big ass problem.

Now, more specifically on your point, there is a decent number of people who are hell bent on the destruction of our democratic republic. We saw them on January 6th with what was a fascist takeover(attempt).

However, I have never implied that every Republican is seeking to destroy this country, even for some troopers. I respect Matt on this board as well as certain one issue voters like my parents. I disagree with that one issue("pro life "), but they are entitled to vote that way.

[jadednihilist]

That wasn't even what I meant. The fact that there are a large group of newscasters that ARE reporting facts and are simply denied because of the company they work for is asinine. Not everyone from Fox News is garbage. I appreciate Chris Wallace.

Some of these people can't even speak to one person on CNN or MSNBC that they like or appreciate even a point they made. That's a big ass problem.

Now, more specifically on your point, there is a decent number of people who are hell bent on the destruction of our democratic republic. We saw them on January 6th with what was a fascist takeover(attempt).

However, I have never implied that every Republican is seeking to destroy this country, even for some troopers. I respect Matt on this board as well as certain one issue voters like my parents. I disagree with that one issue("pro life "), but they are entitled to vote that way.

I appreciate your clarification and apologize for the mischaracterization. I think there's a lot to unpack here.

First and foremost, what happened on January 6th was an abomination and there needs to be accountability for guilty parties. The argument on the board isn't about whether or not January 6th was at all appropriate as much as it is how to assign the blame. January 6th didn't happen overnight. It was a result of several factors that have been brewing for a long time.

I would argue that journalism isn't the highest priority at any of the cable news networks, but infotainment and punditry is. That's why you see the same pundits being recycled and hired as contributors that speak to a wide array of issues beyond their expertise, as opposed to subject matter experts in traditional journalistic outlets. Even NPR and PBS, while certainly not favorable to Trump, generally avoids the pointed language often used on CNN and MSNBC. But, I would like to add that several right wing media outlets have gone several levels worse than CNN and MSNBC; which is why you're seeing people like some of the worst perpetuators of lies, like Lou Dobbs being fired and disclaimers being added to OANN and Newsmax as soon as they're being threatened with a lawsuit.

We do have to become much more comfortable with digesting information that doesn't reaffirm our world view, but challenges it with veritable facts and not baseless opinions presented as facts. Unfortunately, those outlets are both hard to find, and don't attract the masses.

However, that's just one factor that has contributed to the current climate - and one we have little control over. We do have much more control with how we treat each other despite how we consume our information. We do have control over what conversations we choose to have and how we engage in them. We also have control over how much we actually listen to others, especially when they disagree, and how we respond in turn. While that doesn't control the media issue, I do believe it makes positive meaningful change in our discourse, overall happiness, and the health of our society.

[TC Talks]

I can debate fiscal conservative policy all day long. That's what our country has always done peacefully.

The big rift is with assigning morals to legalization. One side wants to control the bodies of the poor and non-believers. The other side wants to control your right to be a biggot or racist.

Discrimination is a key to our differences that has been politically exploited now that younger generations see everyone as "people".

Don't blame the media, they would have nothing to report on if the politicians didn't give them the opportunity.

There is another part of this; PACs. Look at what has happened culturally as a result of the work the Koch brothers have done. Agree or disagree with their beliefs, they spent over a billion dollars to reshape the countries dialog. And given the fact they're from Kansas, it's anti-education, pro-christian, and pro deregulation. ALEC and the copycat type think tanks that have popped up are really pulling the strings of this dissent.

we wouldn't have had people show up with guns on the steps of our state capitol without a think tank organizing things in the background. That think tank is controlled by the DeVos family.