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One of the most destructive trends in recent political discourse is the tendency to seek out the worst, rather than the best, arguments from the opposing side.

One of the most destructive trends in recent political discourse is the tendency to seek out the worst, rather than the best, arguments from the opposing side. Instead of engaging with articles from The National Review or Mother Jones, we just dunk on the most outrageous morons and trolls we can scour on Twitter or Reddit.

ckaygusu 6y ago
Yup, this is exactly the problem with modern politics. Take the absolute worst of the other side and project it to all of them. You like Republicans? You can't be anything other than a neo nazi racist white supremacist extremist. You leaning left? Then you have to be a communist shill who wants to tax every remotely financially successful person to death and take all liberties away from everyone ever. It's really tiring.
Steltek 6y ago
This argument would have more weight if "the worst" was rightfully repudiated by Republicans instead of reelection, pardons, denialism, or blistering conspiracy theories. There are outrageous acts on both sides but only the Left consistently calls out the missteps of their own.
- codegrappler 6y ago
  Like the riots?
  - faitswulff 6y ago
    You mean the property damage and looting that was repeatedly repudiated by the left, as GP pointed out? Yes.
    - arkis22 6y ago
      it wasnt though
      - dlp211 6y ago
        This is just lazy. It took sub-1 second to google for this information. "However, after George Floyd’s death, Joe Biden repeatedly condemned violent protests. In a May 31 post on his blog shortly after George Floyd’s death, he wrote, “Protesting such brutality is right and necessary. It’s an utterly American response. But burning down communities and needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not.”" https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-biden-condemn-violence/fact-check-joe-biden-has-condemned-violent-protests-in-the-last-three-months-idUSKBN25V2O1 https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-biden-condemn-v...
        arkis22 6y ago
        yeah right. because the narrative the past 6 months was definitely that Biden didn't want them to riot.
        dlp211 6y ago
        Those are words, but that is not a coherent statement.
        arkis22 6y ago
        sarcasm is hard for some people. I am saying that Biden's stupid tweets mean nothing and he LOOOOOOVED them rioting. And I think you know that's true. sorry if that was difficult for you.
        disgruntledphd2 6y ago
        Can you provide some evidence for this (somewhat implausible) theory? Rich Americans never like poor people rioting, regardless of their political leanings. It would be very odd if this were to change, so I'd really like to see some evidence.
        arkis22 6y ago
- pzone 6y ago
  Not sure what you’re referring to. Failing to condemn white supremacists? That’s a talking point which is more about taking Trump’s erratic speech patterns out of context than it is a reflection of his actual statements or personal views. https://youtu.be/RGrHF-su9v8 https://youtu.be/RGrHF-su9v8
cozuya 6y ago
So no, you can't find a liberal police captain who’s calling for Trump supporters to be shot in the head, can you?
- kortilla 6y ago
  Why should he/she? That has nothing to do with the generality of “talking to the other side”. If you just want extremism, just pick some random Antifa post supporting “the killing of fascist police”.
  - enough90 6y ago
    Except there are way more Trump supporters than "antifa", so.
  - sumedh 6y ago
    > That has nothing to do with the generality of “talking to the other side”. It has everything to do with it. You should ask the question why does a police chief want to put bullets in Biden supporters? If you have such people in the police then can you understand why someone in Antifa supports “the killing of fascist police”?

ckaygusu 6y ago

Yup, this is exactly the problem with modern politics. Take the absolute worst of the other side and project it to all of them. You like Republicans? You can't be anything other than a neo nazi racist white supremacist extremist. You leaning left? Then you have to be a communist shill who wants to tax every remotely financially successful person to death and take all liberties away from everyone ever. It's really tiring.

Steltek 6y ago

This argument would have more weight if "the worst" was rightfully repudiated by Republicans instead of reelection, pardons, denialism, or blistering conspiracy theories. There are outrageous acts on both sides but only the Left consistently calls out the missteps of their own.

codegrappler 6y ago
Like the riots?
- faitswulff 6y ago
  You mean the property damage and looting that was repeatedly repudiated by the left, as GP pointed out? Yes.
  - arkis22 6y ago
    it wasnt though
    - dlp211 6y ago
      This is just lazy. It took sub-1 second to google for this information. "However, after George Floyd’s death, Joe Biden repeatedly condemned violent protests. In a May 31 post on his blog shortly after George Floyd’s death, he wrote, “Protesting such brutality is right and necessary. It’s an utterly American response. But burning down communities and needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not.”" https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-biden-condemn-violence/fact-check-joe-biden-has-condemned-violent-protests-in-the-last-three-months-idUSKBN25V2O1 https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-biden-condemn-v...
      - arkis22 6y ago
        yeah right. because the narrative the past 6 months was definitely that Biden didn't want them to riot.
        dlp211 6y ago
        Those are words, but that is not a coherent statement.
        arkis22 6y ago
        sarcasm is hard for some people. I am saying that Biden's stupid tweets mean nothing and he LOOOOOOVED them rioting. And I think you know that's true. sorry if that was difficult for you.
        disgruntledphd2 6y ago
        Can you provide some evidence for this (somewhat implausible) theory? Rich Americans never like poor people rioting, regardless of their political leanings. It would be very odd if this were to change, so I'd really like to see some evidence.
        arkis22 6y ago
pzone 6y ago
Not sure what you’re referring to. Failing to condemn white supremacists? That’s a talking point which is more about taking Trump’s erratic speech patterns out of context than it is a reflection of his actual statements or personal views. https://youtu.be/RGrHF-su9v8 https://youtu.be/RGrHF-su9v8

cozuya 6y ago

So no, you can't find a liberal police captain who’s calling for Trump supporters to be shot in the head, can you?

kortilla 6y ago
Why should he/she? That has nothing to do with the generality of “talking to the other side”. If you just want extremism, just pick some random Antifa post supporting “the killing of fascist police”.
- enough90 6y ago
  Except there are way more Trump supporters than "antifa", so.
- sumedh 6y ago
  > That has nothing to do with the generality of “talking to the other side”. It has everything to do with it. You should ask the question why does a police chief want to put bullets in Biden supporters? If you have such people in the police then can you understand why someone in Antifa supports “the killing of fascist police”?