New Cracked.com article.

[Rologton]

Discuss.

While I'm not saying I won't vote, this basically sums up every reason I hate politics. I had this misfortune of going to a High School just filled to the brim with 16 year olds who got a hard on every time something political comes up so they can pretend they're smart by reciting what their parents ranted about at the dinner table the night before. The worst were the Debate Club kids (the ones that I didn't like, my best friend was in it and I knew most of the not-assholes from it) who turned every conversation into an argument, because their opinion mattered so much at 16! Now a days I can't hit the block button faster when people start spamming my Facebook newsfeed with bullshit articles and macros about how wrong everybody who doesn't agree with them are.

Honestly, the Internet isn't even the worst offenders, it's the news stations in general. I refuse to watch the news. Any news. People go on and on about how terrible Fox is because it's conservatively biased, but find it perectly fine that NBC, CBS, ABC and damn near every other news station is liberally biased. I hate that mentality, where it's wrong to be biased, unless its biased toward your side. Honestly, if you want actual balanced news converage, you're better off scouring online articles (not blogs, god no). At least you can read two or three with different view points in half the time it takes for some news anchor trying to sell a book to tell you about how wrong the people that their watchers disagree with are.

Yes, I'm going into the Military, and I admit that if at gunpoint I were forced to pick a side I would say I'm conservative, but that's only because that is the lable that has been forced upon my viewpoints. When I vote this coming election, I'm going to vote for whoever I feel will keep me well equipped and fully operational if and when I'm someday deployed in some hell hole. I have view points that fall into both sides of the spectrum, and I don't have to take my views to the most illogical extreme to get them accross.

[Smeemo]

I like arguing quite a bit. I admit I've been guilty of doing it just to prove to someone I'm right, but really, it's just sharing ideas to reach common ground and a greater understanding about whatever the topic of conversation is. With decent civilized people, it's a fun way to pass the time together.

I think metaphors are neat, like the metaphor "argument is war." In my experience, most people I've met seem to conceptualize arguing in this way. In this metaphor, two individuals in an argument attack, counterattack, penetrate the enemy's defense, riposte, etc., until one combatant surrenders or is totally annihilated. In any case, one participant wins the argument, and the other loses it. I personally think most of the blame can be laid on the news media for promoting this way of thinking. They encourage the "argument is war" metaphor to sell papers or get blog hits or whatever profitable enterprise they're pursuing, but I think it's really fucked with our society's ability to have an actual dialogue.

So-called "conservatives" and "liberals" and "moderates" in power have pursued so many policies that are anathema to their claimed ideologies that those words don't really mean anything to me any more. Their definitions are all muddled, which kind of defeats the purpose of having words in the first place. All right, enough rambling.

tl;dr We're fucked, but we should talk about it without getting so butthurt when we disagree.

[stanley]

i found that article really exaggerated. sure people get overly butthurt about politics, but really, who gives a shit. its not your problem. i dont know if this guy was serious or not about not voting because he doesnt like how some people argue about politics, but that seems really stupid to me. you shouldnt care about other peoples political views, care about your own.
also, there is a difference between hating people who argue politics, and hating politics yourself. and hating the latter because of the former is just dumb.

[Repoman]

Study history.

Then you will always be smarter at everything and anything. Especially as of late, where historical ignorance is at an all time high.

I only bring that up because of people comparing candidates to people of the past, like those pictures in that article.

[Rologton]

Study history.

Then you will always be smarter at everything and anything. Especially as of late, where historical ignorance is at an all time high.

I only bring that up because of people comparing candidates to people of the past, like those pictures in that article.

Actually, that's what I'm going to College for.

You know, because why consider getting a civilian career? -.-

[Maringue]

There are only a few policy points that politicians make that will get me riled up, like the dude who just said most legitimate rapes don't cause pregnancy. Google it and prepare for an onslaught of stupid.

Actually, that brings me back to my main point better than I thought, because it's complete and utter bullshit that gets me pissed off. I don't care about what you want policy wise as long as you don't lie through your fucking teeth while you are saying it.

You can be for lower taxes, but it's fair to point out that under Ryan's budget, Romney would pay less than 1% of his income in taxes.
You can be for the expansion of healthcare to more people, but also need to understand that at some point you are going to have a doctor say no to you when you want something if the costs are ever going to stabilize. You can call that rationing or you can call it someone who went to school for 20 years overruling your 15 minute internet search on the subject.

The most important things are the facts, and this is why I get so fed up recently and think we're fucked. Outright lies wouldn't be told unless the worked to further the agenda of the speaker. Guess what, most people are too stupid and/or lazy to fact check people. It's like this: "Someone said Obama is a Muslim. Well, I didn't like him anyway, but now I can associate Obama with another group for which I have an irrational fear/hatred of like Muslims. Since terrorists=Muslims in my book, I'll just believe this to further my own dislike for Obama. Why bother to take 30 seconds with my internet connection to find out if this is true or not?"

Oh, and I have to dispute something here with Rologton. Fox News and MSNBC are the two blatantly biased news outlets. The majority of other news outlets like CNN and the other networks are fairly factually based and relatively unbiased.

And honestly, I used to be a Republican, but under Bush they went so far right that I found my views which had changed only a little to be in line with the Democrats now. But the most frustrating thing is this, just compare the two links:
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/democratic-national-committee/
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/national-republican-congressional-committee/

While 28% of the DNC's statements are mostly false or lower, 83% of the RNC's statements are rated as mostly false or low. 83% of what they are claiming is total bullshit, and for me if you can't convince me to vote for you without lying the vast majority of the time, I'm not voting for you.

Honestly, what scares me is that the Republicans in this election know they have to lie about Obama and their own policies, because if they told the truth about what most of them really think, they wouldn't stand a chance of getting elected because they'd freak out the 60% of the country who is independent.