There's way too much hate on here for me to participate anymore. It's really sad. None of you is getting anywhere with anyone. You need to tone down the hate speech and talk civilly, and stop ripping each other to shreds for thinking differently (you all look like major hypocrites). It's not as if anyone on here is promoting anything outrageous like the extermination of Native American Indians.
There isn't talk about that on this board because that already happened in our country. Metaphorically speaking, of course, but I digress.
Even with civil talk, the venomous, discriminative statements that condemn others due to physical, spiritual and ideological differences remain. Even if everyone stopped using harsher words, you still have to deal with more intellectualized bigotry that entices people to call others "uneducated" instead of "stupid". Too many people feeling entitled to share their opinions regardless of how hateful they are, yet they think if they use five dollar thesaurus-ridden verbiage then everyone is going to smile in their face and accept it. So quick to hide behind their "right to free speech", acting as if nobody else has that same privilege and may choose to use it to refute in a matter that may not like.
Contextually speaking what is the difference with these two statements:
1. We should make people pass a civic literacy test to prove they have a right to engage in our elections.
2. I don't want stupid people to vote because they'll choose someone I don't want to win.
The answer -
there isn't one.
The first one just looks prettier, more "civil", more intelligent and thought provoking. But underneath it all, it's just a decorative way to insult someone. And if it's said over and over again by multiple people in various script, how long are people supposed to ignore the context before one responds in a spiteful manner?
Instead of looking at this from a political angle and think that both sides are to blame,
why don't we all look at the individuals who start it? The people who create the threads? The people who make the discriminating responses and posts to begin with? If we all agree that there's people on both sides who are "crazy", then the best thing we can do is focus on the stimulus. That's not defined by either party, nor is it being pointed out by anyone who claims to be not affiliated with the supposed "two arguing sides".
Despite my reputation around here, I don't target people just because they're "Conservative". I've been in many debates, arguments (or flame wars, whatever you want to call them) with other "Independents", "Libertarians", other "Liberals" or whomever over comments they've made that I found to be offensive. Despite my political allegiances, I still treat everyone like individuals first... and until other people start to do that around here, the volatility of this board will never subside.