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I truly admire his dedication to creating something people can identify with and working towards a higher cause of true nationhood, but a major contributing cau
by iamdave 16y ago
I truly admire his dedication to creating something people can identify with and working towards a higher cause of true nationhood, but a major contributing cause to the disarray of American politics is the polarization of the citizenry. We're too quick to take sides, regardless of issues and will gladly "drink the kool-aid" of whatever side parallels the most with what we believe is good, versus what's intrinsically right.
This is manifested even in the examples he presented; being an online entity, who's to say that foul play wont occur? What is the system for checks and balances when poisoning the wells to gain followers? Look at Digg and Reddit:
Ostensibly, both sites serve the same purpose, and on a given day you'll very likely find links to the exact same controversial article. It's also likely you'll hear two completely different sides of the issue-one pro, one against, one conservative, one progressive, one rational, one emotional.
The American Nations isn't going to address anything, further segmenting people into groups only reinforces the idea that you need to be with people who agree with you, and rally against those who don't. It's giving the middle finger to compromise and collaboration among people with opposing viewpoints, we don't need further segmentation of ideologies, we really don't.
And I get that he's wanting a microcosm of progressive individuals who want to address major issues as they are, but creating a group within a group, that's already divided and indecisive about how policies shape their day to day lives isn't the answer. It's the pot calling the kettle black.
If you want to FIX America, start by teaching people to think for themselves and dislodge themselves from the meme that everything in the political arena has to be constructed under an "us versus them" mentality, and to not base their moral compasses on sound-bites and blogger pundits. Then you need to teach them how beneficial and enjoyable it can be to actually learn what the guy on the other side of the table has to say.
Stop playing sides. It's destroying us as a people.
- MichaelSalib 16y agoa major contributing cause to the disarray of American politics is the polarization of the citizenry. What is the "disarray of American politics"? Is politics in the US more disorganized than elsewhere? Or are you saying that somehow politics in the US has changed relatively recently and that that change is bad? Or what? We're too quick to take sides, regardless of issues and will gladly "drink the kool-aid" of whatever side parallels the most with what we believe is good, versus what's intrinsically right. Compared to what? Are there other states in the world where people behave better in your opinion?
- kiba 16y agoThere is no incentive to think as a rational voter. Calling on people to teach others how to be rational won't do without some serious restructuring of the current government institutions. But anyway, I don't care about "compromise" and "middle grounds" and neither should you. I care about the raw truth. To that end, I'll be willing to listen to my opponents just for the truth. Then I make my decisions based on that.
- stevis 16y ago> If you want to FIX America, start by teaching people to think for themselves and dislodge themselves from the meme that everything in the political arena has to be constructed under an "us versus them" mentality, This is, I believe, not possible. Our media has every incentive to carve out a demographic and get them angry at others. We have a winner-take-all political system with two political parties, which creates polar arguments. Duvarger's Law makes fixing this impossible. And I think you have the wrong impression of what these are. They are very limited, but the newspaper story doesn't go into those rules. It's a way to remove differences so that one group, say people who believe Obama is the Anti-Christ, can try to achieve something for themselves free from those of us who prefer reason. In any peace process, there a few tried and true steps. One is to separate the two warring sides so that they can't escalate fear or damage. This is a massive undertaking, but i don't see anyone trying to bring America back together. You ask good questions. Your worries about where we're headed are justified. And I'm going to add at least four answers to the FAQ based on this. Thanks!
- skorgu 16y agoHave you considered joining forces with Lawrence Lessig for this? His Change Congress is a drastically different mechanism but the end results seem roughly similar. Besides the Voltron aspect he is a recognized legal scholar and might quiet some of the "this could never work" arguments if he signs off on it.
- stevis 16y agoThat's a great idea. I think we have some mutual friends. I'll see if i can get to him.
- proexploit 16y agoIn regards to us vs. them: I've always struggled to comprehend the 2 party system. Every human has differing beliefs and people follow along and let their political party decide how they feel about different things. You can't take over 200 million differing objects, lump them into two groups of classification and say "done!". I'm not a Republican or a Democrat because my ideas are not so easily defined. That's what I'd like to see more of.