John1959
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What the hell happened to my country?
When I read various articles where comments are allowed, they tend to be full of accusations and insults from both the left and right.
I cannot help but feel we have never been more divided as a nation. Even in our Civil War days, it was mostly just a single issue that divided the nation. These days it seems we cannot agree on anything. It's as if we simply get into shouting matches, never truly explaining and listening to various viewpoints.
There are countless memes spread across the internet with no basis in fact, but people believe and share them because they support their viewpoints.
It seems to me the truth gets lost in all this noise. And when the truth is lost, we cannot possibly know the best way forward.
As someone that leans left, it would be easy for me to put all the blame on the right. While it's possible that's the case, things are rarely that simple. And while I believe Republicans as a party are totally lost, and have to recognize the Democrats share responsibility.
I'll end this with a few questions;
-As a nation, are we truly more divided than in past?
-Does the internet encourage this division or does it simply allow people to say what they truly think?
-Can we return to actually debating issues?
-Where are we headed if this continues?
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“I do not believe in the general promiscuous toting of guns. I think it should be sharply restricted and only under licenses.” - NRA president Karl T. Frederick, 1938
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7/15/2017, 5:02 pm
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Noserose
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Re: What the hell happened to my country?
I wasn't around in those day but from what I read the Vietnam war years really divided the country.
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"libido sciendi"..... the passion to know.
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7/15/2017, 7:08 pm
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Geezess
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Re: What the hell happened to my country?
The optics were more realistic then when conservative "hardhats", big burly men, waving flags, were filmed beating up the "flower children" declared nonviolent hippies.
Where the violence really comes from was clear and harder to cover up.
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7/15/2017, 8:39 pm
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cooter50
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Re: What the hell happened to my country?
quote:
Noserose wrote:
I wasn't around in those day but from what I read the Vietnam war years really divided the country.
The US had relatively recovered from those times then the Imagineering of Social Programs and imaginative program financing of the Democrats came to happen. Jobs disappeared, industries that were pivoting on negligible margins gave in to the excess costs and ended operations. The imagineered, imaginative funding monetary funds dried up and the Democrats blamed the workers for short changing them much the same as with ACA, the social lifers could not get what had been promised and "Saw the Light" of the lies thrown down their streets by those uber-liberal bullshit artists. I seriously doubt the nation will recover from this.
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7/15/2017, 11:33 pm
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Philer
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Re: What the hell happened to my country?
The division is largely a moral one and not based on economics. Why do so many relatively poor people support Republicans who do little for them economically? Claims of shared morality. Republicans claim to be pro-life. And anti-gun control.
The media has also been intensifying the division for years, driving both sides apart much more than bringing Americans together. The division is good for the media. It gives them something to do stories about, especially when it escalates into violent incidents of some kind.
And it is true that liberals have shared in creating the problem by doing things like using bad and ineffective arguments for keeping abortion legal. And hollering for a feeding tube to be removed from a woman in Florida.
The animosity and political division is not surprising since conservatives view liberals as people who support the killing of babies while liberals view conservatives as nuts who want to tell women what to do with their bodies.
I believe that resolving just one issue, the abortion issue, would make much of the political division disappear. The problem is that doing so requires a level of careful thought and consideration both of the issue and the other side that neither side seems to be able to manage.
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7/16/2017, 12:31 am
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gopqed
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Re: What the hell happened to my country?
There have been times of great division within the country. This period is magnified because the voices once heard only on the fringes by a small number of people now have a forum - the internet -to publish their dreck and have it seen and read by a much wider audience. Views once whispered among people or shouted by freaks on street corners are now written and available without visual queues that marginalize what is being offered. Many people have a hard time evaluating the validity of what's written.
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7/16/2017, 3:12 pm
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cooter50
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Re: What the hell happened to my country?
Philer so sorry to hear you still live in that dream world that "Can't everyone just get along"
The abortion issue will never be solved to suit both sides where on one hand they want to allow ZERO abortions due to religious connotation while the other believes until actually viable OUTSIDE the mother's body the fetus is such and not considered a singular human that as such she may discharge the growing mechanism as any tumor or irritant growth. To find a 'Middle Ground' has been attempted to no end with no end in sight and no premise even close enough suiting both sides to derive an end.
Then you get into social programs WELL BEYOND SSI or Medicare which were and still are paid ahead by payroll taxes, those programs that absorb moneys faster than can be made up many even more than the politicos can get printed scrip to cover.
The only and literally ONLY functional method to derive a socialized world is to end money of any and all forms. You need some product or service it becomes bartered for another owned component or service function available, then you run into that foreboding wall of lethargy within those that see another get more for their barter so they barter less or fail to barter adequately and the fights ensue. This as to human living/life is a no brainer cannot be won series of battles.
Hell even chimps and gorilla seemingly mild mannered develop boundary limitations where fights to the death occur, where the offspring of defeated leaders are killed and EATEN, it is a component part of life and living all across the animal world, we are also animals seemingly attempting to change the rules.
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7/16/2017, 3:30 pm
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gopqed
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Re: What the hell happened to my country?
Are you thinking about killing and eating liberals, footer?
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7/16/2017, 3:35 pm
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John1959
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Re: What the hell happened to my country?
quote:
gopqed wrote:
There have been times of great division within the country. This period is magnified because the voices once heard only on the fringes by a small number of people now have a forum - the internet -to publish their dreck and have it seen and read by a much wider audience. Views once whispered among people or shouted by freaks on street corners are now written and available without visual queues that marginalize what is being offered. Many people have a hard time evaluating the validity of what's written.
This is exactly what I referred to above, Gop. It would seem the internet has played a major role in fueling this division.
But the internet isn't going away, so where does that leave us?
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“I do not believe in the general promiscuous toting of guns. I think it should be sharply restricted and only under licenses.” - NRA president Karl T. Frederick, 1938
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7/16/2017, 3:48 pm
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John1959
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Re: What the hell happened to my country?
The abortion issue will never be solved to suit both sides where on one hand they want to allow ZERO abortions due to religious connotation while the other believes until actually viable OUTSIDE the mother's body the fetus is such and not considered a singular human that as such she may discharge the growing mechanism as any tumor or irritant growth. To find a 'Middle Ground' has been attempted to no end with no end in sight and no premise even close enough suiting both sides to derive an end.
I see the above as part of the problem with our thinking.
Not everyone has exactly the same views on abortion. Some would ban abortions in all cases, some would allow it in cases of rape or incest.
This is another issue where the internet promotes lies and confusion.
Obama presented a perfectly reasonable suggestion for dealing with this issue; Work to reduce unwanted pregnancies. The response was to label him a baby killer.
Only when people are unreasonable, which is usually based on misinformation, are we unable to reach a compromise.
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“I do not believe in the general promiscuous toting of guns. I think it should be sharply restricted and only under licenses.” - NRA president Karl T. Frederick, 1938
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7/16/2017, 4:01 pm
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