The D&D Gene

First of all, Haymitch, yes you do bro. You're here with us way too often to not care. You've become pessimistic about the animal we are trying to tame - the human being - and you don't believe any of the solutions we propose today can solve that problem. Which is logical. Slavery was an absurd idea before it came into practice. Same for feudalism and capitalism. How are you going to get someone to work for you in exchange for a WAGE? That's what they used to say. There is something that will appear which we didn't think of. That would change your mind. You are willing to participate in an idea if a good one appeared. That's different than those who have declared a certain set of ideas as eternal rules to live by.

But you keep an ear open just in case. You believe I'm wrong, but I believe there's a beaten up optimist inside you hoping that you're wrong. That's what makes us human.

It's also the quality that my favorite comedian shares, and I can bet you know who that is.

heypartner,

You make a great point and I've often wondered about it. I'll spill some beans here.

In the years that I've been here, I have changed tremendously. My belief that abortion is a woman's right is entirely based on views from the board. My view that corporations are running wild and milking us of our dignity is born here. When I was a teenager, there was no such thing as Americans with different views because where I live they teach you about the uniform westerner as if the entire western world agrees about everything. That changed here and I discovered the idiocy of what I had been taught right here on this board by reading an unbelievable variety of nuanced arguments on a single issue. This is where I learned that many Jews don't care about Israel and many Israelis don't care for what their government does. It is here I discovered that the Palestinians that I had been taught to blindly support contained in their leadership the same seeds of violence and hatred that the leaders of the opposition tend to embody. I learned here that veterans in the United States are the saddest story ever heard. It was over here that I learned about leaks and whistleblowers because back then those types of things were, to a manic degree, censored and blocked from the internet, tv, radio, newspapers, etc. I've learned about tools and resources and patterns and errors in debating structure. Perhaps the most important of all, I learned that the freedom to choose between only two options is not really freedom at all if those two options can decide to conspire against everyone.

So, yes, to an extent maybe we're here to trumpet our views. I think that's more for some and more for others. And as you said, some sit back quietly and read. Those people are obviously consuming the most information but we never hear about it because - well - they don't like to debate these things perhaps.

But I can say to a large extent this board has opened up a world of ideas to me because my nature is to take what I don't understand and research it to death. It's very important to me to understand American culture and politics because my belief system says that justice for all can only achieved when Americans and non-Americans connect with their grievances. So I want to understand, even if I disagree. I want to know what bigtexxx and ATW think, as well as Northside Storm and glynch. I've only ever put ATW and one other poster on my ignore list, leaving alllll the others because I decided that I want my experience here to be as authentic as possible. Kojirou (who's been missing for a while now) is oddly one of my favorite posters to read and debate with, even though his ideas are polar opposites of my own. In the real world, you don't get to design a set of opinions which make you comfortable. I don't come here to read things I agree with, that would be moronic.

My views are in less than 0.01% popularity here but they are radically different than what they used to be. I owe that to many posters and many ideas, especially those who continue to challenge me because while it gets ugly sometimes - that's where the lessons are learned FOR ME after I've had time to reflect a bit. It's because I've read ideas and stories about Americans problems that I support Americans' fight for better jobs, wages, healthcare, environmental protection, financial equality, marriage equality, etc. I hope to champion some of those causes through my profession in the very near future and if not for ATW's frighteningly stalkerish behavior I would proudly put a thanks to the D&D in my credits. I've come to care deeply about these problems. My parents told me when I was growing up that: "To Know is to Love." That's profound. Now that I know Americans better, I love them more than I would have if I thought it was a country full of Jersey shore characters and Bushes and Clintons. That's no coincidence.

Anyways, this must have been more boring than the Salon date haha

When a certain someone on this board passed away, you saw the outpouring of affection. While most of us have never met each other, we feel connected. Moreso here than the GARM if you ask me. When you know someone's beliefs, you feel closer to them. Parts of you identify with parts of them.

We've never exchanged messages on this board I don't think, but I read your posts as a daily part of my life along with several hundred other posters. You don't talk too much about your beliefs, but it's not difficult to get a sense. I think that's just as important as learning and teaching and studying. To just know other people's views is nothing to scoff at.

 

No worries mate, I really really really don't need any more information on the conservative side - that's been force fed to me practically since I was born, even though abortion is perfectly ok in Islam.

I do understand that Americans are less liberal than they are represented on this board (that is life threateningly frightening to anyone living in the Middle East btw). I understand that the argument about abortion is an arbitrary one - everyone can determine for themselves when a life begins and there's not any real way to prove who's right. I don't think if I were a female I would be capable of going through with it, but I would never deny it to my girlfriend or wife or if it were something my sister for example was considering in her life. Blame me all you want, I don't have the courage to decide that for someone and I can't tolerate the pain from seeing them being forced into such a terrifying decision. I can never know that feeling, and I'm glad I know I can't know.

IMO it's just a matter of time till Americans catch up to the rest of the developed world in that regard and it would happen even sooner if your politicians didn't needlessly pit you against each other as if penciled into their political calendar.

I respect your opinion of course, but I don't really have any sympathy for the position because conservatives don't lose anything in this decision. They're not being forced to abort babies. They have no rights over anyone else's choices. Not to mention how individualistic most conservatives are to an almost psychotic degree so I don't feel they are genuine in their selective compassion for communities - it would be very naive of me to believe this is the exception.