Extremism

[tigertoy]

I said this as part of a comment on a days-old friends-locked entry in someone else's journal, but I'm going to preserve it here on my own journal:

I find that it's gotten harder for me to respect opposing points of view over the past few years. I've been exposed to so many opinions, so strongly expressed and "justified" with garbage and deliberate lies, that I've become accustomed to thought patterns of considering people who disagree with me as devils or dupes of devils. When we hears so many opinions that are not only misguided but actually garbage that we get into the habit of treating opinions as garbage and their speakers as people to ignore or rail against rather than listen to, it's very easy to apply that habit to everything and everyone we disagree with. When we stop listening to people who disagree with us, we all become extremists, and when we only listen to people we agree with, we all too easily become unthinking followers.

Comments

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Even though I know at least some of the polarization is deliberate, it still affects me. The current crop of Republicans know that most of their voters would reject their agenda if they actually thought about it rationally, so they do everything in their power to avoid rational discussion of the issues.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

That makes me even more angry.

I feel that too, very much. Knowing that being calm and reasonable is the way to actually succeed in the debate doesn't really seem to help.