I'm already dreading 2012

I'm dreading 2009, 2010, and 2012.

You know, my fingers just don't like typing numbers. Never have.

Make that 2011.

*snort*

Please please please let them put Palin up for president in 2012. Please. With that idiot purported representative of the working person, Joe What-the-fuck as her running mate. Pretty please.

What a profoundly alienating campaign that was. The thought that even a third of Americans are anything like her really helped bring home to me the idea that being American was just an accident of birth, and not a particularly happy accident at that.

I am constantly reminded here and on that 'other' site that most people operate under these rules:

smart = people I agree with
stupid = people I disagree with

Heaven forbid that there exists smart people with differing ideas. It makes life so much simpler to label the opposition as idiots thus removing the need for examination of their actual principles.

I guess that's what happens when you get your politics from a comedy show.

trinity8-director: Yeah, I see the same sort of sentiment from conservatives, though. I think it's endemic to politics in general. Although for conservatives I would mostly blame talk radio.

I am constantly reminded here and on that 'other' site that most people operate under these rules

Not sure what that comment is apropos of, but I think people recognize smarts of all stripes when they run across them. It's just not all that common. When people disagree, it's often a matter of values more than of intellect. Stunning intellect can be put to the service of lousy values, and, amazingly, vice versa.

Are you doing farce, trinity8-director? It's great.

Man, what a weird day this has been on MetaChat. I blame it on hadjiboy's oddly unresolved linkless post from earlier this morning.

"I guess that's what happens when you get your politics from a comedy show."

That there is a two-way street.

As someone who pees off his back porch, enjoys beer in cans, and has been known to wear overalls to work, I resent the implication that Sarah Palin is a member of my peer group. Some of us white trash proudly voted for Obama!

And I would be happy to discuss Sarah Palin's "actual principles", but I don't think she has any. That's what makes her risible: not her brand of politics, but the utter vacuity with which she spouts the party line to advance her career. She's a fucking JOKE, that's why we're laughing at her.

"Principles". Give me a break.

You're a funny bunch, that's for sure. I mean that in a good way.

Some of us white trash proudly voted for Obama!

Amen, Bubba!

It really is possible (no, really!) to talk with people you disagree with and not resort to slurs. Name-calling, for example, is just an attempt to short-circuit discussion in your favor.

Paul Newman, for example, was a classy man with the capacity to engage in thoughtful dialogs with people who held opposing views. I don't care where you stand, politically, this is a good attribute to emulate.* He and I would not agree on many things but I would have loved the opportunity to hear his views and explain my own. I know I would have been enriched by the time spent.

Not to mention, my original comment was about "most people" and I was not defending any person or affiliation but making an observation about human nature.

*and if you disagree, you're an idiot ;-)

If the Repubs would ditch the bible-thumpers, I would happily rejoin.