4 ms·

Good old-fashioned demagoguery is alive and well in both major American parties, and many small ones. The present system depends on outrage. So much money is

Good old-fashioned demagoguery is alive and well in both major American parties, and many small ones. The present system depends on outrage. So much money is spent to cause it. I don't see this changing without major calamity. The Democrats own this as well. When the rank-and-file realize that, there will be talk. Slate, ThinkProgress, and other rags hardly comprise a barometer for impartial documentation. They're just as guilty as Sean Hannity.

romwell 9y ago
>The Democrats own this as well. When the rank-and-file realize that, there will be talk. No, I cannot accept "both sides are bad" as an argument. There certainly is a degree to which the parties are complicit. I simply didn't observe the Democratic party leading a very deliberate and effective war on the very notion of truth. I have witnessed the Republican party in the US (and Vladimir Putin in Russia) do that successfully. Not that I'm a fan of the Democratic party either - its establishment is its own undoing, and if they don't change fast, we'll have eight years of Trump. But I don't see any evidence for your claim "when the rank-and-file realize that, there will be talk". Many of the rank-and-file who supported Sanders know full well just how bad the party is. It didn't make it any easier to talk to "the other side", when a conversation focused on the issues and solutions is easily derailed. Finally, I can't accept an ad-hominem argument against the article I linked to. Please argue against the content of the articles, if you may. You are right about the outrage, but I think there's more to it. Even when people are not angry, their way of thinking has changed fundamentally. The remedy will take a while, and it will have to start in the public education system, which doesn't do a good job at teaching critical thinking at the moment. It doesn't surprise me which party seems to be hell bent on cutting funds to education - and has been, for decades - aiming to turn education into nothing more than trade schools. So, alas, even a major calamity will not change the outrage-as-political-currency state of affairs.

romwell 9y ago

>The Democrats own this as well. When the rank-and-file realize that, there will be talk. No, I cannot accept "both sides are bad" as an argument. There certainly is a degree to which the parties are complicit. I simply didn't observe the Democratic party leading a very deliberate and effective war on the very notion of truth. I have witnessed the Republican party in the US (and Vladimir Putin in Russia) do that successfully. Not that I'm a fan of the Democratic party either - its establishment is its own undoing, and if they don't change fast, we'll have eight years of Trump. But I don't see any evidence for your claim "when the rank-and-file realize that, there will be talk". Many of the rank-and-file who supported Sanders know full well just how bad the party is. It didn't make it any easier to talk to "the other side", when a conversation focused on the issues and solutions is easily derailed. Finally, I can't accept an ad-hominem argument against the article I linked to. Please argue against the content of the articles, if you may. You are right about the outrage, but I think there's more to it. Even when people are not angry, their way of thinking has changed fundamentally. The remedy will take a while, and it will have to start in the public education system, which doesn't do a good job at teaching critical thinking at the moment. It doesn't surprise me which party seems to be hell bent on cutting funds to education - and has been, for decades - aiming to turn education into nothing more than trade schools. So, alas, even a major calamity will not change the outrage-as-political-currency state of affairs.