IMHO, the growing frustration in America is about MORE than.....

Wierd, is anyone else seeing my post? Everything I wrote is there when I click edit, but doesn't display for me.

 

GladiatoRowdy, your post doesn't show up for me. I think it has something to do with funky quote tags embedded inside. There's one before the paragraph that starts with "No disrespect to the youth in America" and one just after the paragraph that ends with "I know mine have changed drastically."

 

post 280 from you displays only blank space.

I will say if it is a video, or some photographs I can't see on this computer.

 

Where is the contradiction? Where is the straw man?

First, I DO throw all of the 24 hour news channels under the bus because they are all heaps of steaming dung. They are all out for ratings and are trying to get them any way they can. "News" has taken a back seat to entertainment for them.

I don't watch TDS for news, I watch it because Jon Stewart is funny as f***. He makes me laugh over and over again at the idiots from both sides of the aisle, supporters of those idiots, and pretty much anyone who does stupid s***. I don't pretend that it is actually "news," it is full on entertainment and if FAR more entertaining than anything that Fox, MSNBC, or CNN are doing.

Yes, you have completely misrepresented or absolutely misunderstood me if you think I believe any of this. The most legitimate TV news, IMO are the programs that run on the major networks between 5 and 6. Personally, I don't watch that either because I prefer to read my news, AP and Reuters have always been very good about reporting the news in a fairly unbiased way. Even if they do present a biased viewpoint, I have the ability to find other articles that present the other side so that I can, through the process of information analysis, decide where exactly the truth lies and who is telling it.

OK, I think the real problem here is that you don't have a clue what a "straw man" is. Here is a definition...

From the Wiki :

A straw man argument is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position.[1] To "attack a straw man" is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by substituting a superficially similar proposition (the "straw man"), and refuting it, without ever having actually refuted the original position.[1][2]

I said you were putting forth a straw man, not that Fox was a straw man. Specifically, what I was saying is that your attack on what you see as "left wing" or "main stream" media in the guise of "something we can agree on" is a fallacy. As I have said, ALL 24 HOUR NEWS CHANNELS ARE HEAPING PILES OF DOGSH!T. They are all about entertainment and ratings with the truth coming in a distant third.

Can we all agree on that?

Fox is scamming you. They are doing it well, so well that you leap to their defense instead of thinking critically about the maxim I relayed to you.

I am quite certain that I have read more about EI than just about anyone on this board, it has been quite the push in the educational sector for a number of years now.

The same research shows that the young people you describe also do not participate in the political process and the young people who do are generally more informed than even people a decade older.

Don't you hate being hoisted by your own petard?

You should give more credit to young people, they are the ones who will be changing your diapers someday.

I never said or implied anything of the like. You made it up in your head based solely on your biases.

I don't believe that conservatism is bad for America, I am slightly more conservative than liberal and can't wait for the day that the GOP gets their head out of their a$$es so that I can start voting for them again. I don't believe that people get "stupider" as they age, but they can get more intransigent, which is almost as big a problem as stupidity.

No, I am claiming that people, as a rule, get more conservative as they age. I don't put value judgments on this tendency, it is just a fact of life. I think that a big part of it is the fact that as people get more set in their ways, they want to see less change, which is the heart of conservative philosophy.

So, you are willing to parrot the Fox "News" questions about why there isn't any proof when the person doing the accusing is a civil rights leader who marched with MLK and is a sitting member of Congress. Gotcha, we can all see where your biases are.

They need to do a better job. Asking a Congressman who was a civil rights leader for proof that he was called a "ni**er" (you would think he knows it when someone calls him such a name) doesn't exactly give the impression of a group that is fighting against racism.

It is nice that some conservatives have called out the racists for the scum that they are, but it doesn't overcome the bleats of "where's the proof" that are so prevalent coming from Fox "News" viewers.

I guess it shouldn't surprise me that you immediately leap to the conclusion that a sitting member of Congress would lie about being the target of a heinous racial epithet. I mean, who is he to make such an accusation without ironclad, video proof of the incident.



BrotherFish,

I would love to continue conversing with you, but you need to wake up and stop believing the line of BS you are being fed. You haven't made a single cogent argument yet, everything you bring up is Faux "News" garbage.

If you would like me to engage further, you will need to go back to the original discussion in this thread and answer the second response I made to your original posts. Or, if you want to discuss another topic, start a new thread. Either way, the original post has been answered and debunked, as have the responses you have cobbled together. Either way, I won't be responding to this thread anymore unless you make an effort to stay on topic, avoid Faux attacks, and debate in an intellectually honest manner.

 

Thanks, that was the problem. Damn those forward slashes!

 

To be fair to you, you tried, but ended up using a straw man and going on about the "liberal main stream media" lying as much as Faux does.

Thank you.

It is truly amazing how much people can agree when they give up the talking points and biases that have been fed to them.

Aside from some minor corrections (noted below), we are in agreement.

Yes.

I would say that people become more conservative if you are defining conservative as more resistant to change. Many other parts of what is currently the "conservative ideology" do not hold up the same way, but people do become more resistant to change. Resistance to change is a central tenet of conservatism (at least, as far as I see it).

Not just youth, but minorities and independents. Moderates (people not completely committed to the Democrats or Republicans) are the ones who decide elections and are the ones that will make or break the GOP.

I sometimes laugh uncontrollably at some of the stuff on TDS. If you didn't see it, go to comedycentral.com and search for the "most immature montage ever." Priceless.

That being said and agreed, I don't even watch that news because it is still watered down TV crap. I read my news. I watch TV for entertainment.

And when dealing with Fox or MSNBC (the two that are unabashedly biased to one side or the other), that grain of salt needs to be the size of a deer lick.

Agreed. Youth have things on their minds that are far too important to them to be distracted by politics.

EI isn't about "wisdom," it is about being aware of emotions and emotional responses and being able to deal with emotional material in an intelligent and useful way.

I am completely stumped as to your point here and how it relates to mine.

Again, thank you.

 

As a proud member of the 18-25 year old crowd who is too busy checking Facebook, playing Starcraft II, trying to get laid and caring far too much about Rockets basketball to care too deeply about politics, let me say as immaturely as possible, with no disrespect to most older conservative Christian Indians...

F*** YOU!
:grin:

Jokes aside, there's a reason why 18 year olds are allowed to vote, the same way that senior citizens are allowed to vote; every person's voice is heard in a democracy.

Look, I believe that the basis of progressivism is hope and idealism, while the basis of conservatism is fear and pragmatism; it's only natural to me that as a person becomes more responsible for themselves and eventually for their own families, that they would become more conservative.

One of the reasons why so many young people are liberal is because of attitudes such as yours, where young voters are told that they're too immature to be making decisions. If you're going to discount anyone in their 20s, I would also discount anyone who's approaching retirement age; they may still have wisdom, but they're just as easily manipulated.

 

Although I have a number of opinions about the topics discussed, I don't have the time or energy to contribute to this thread at this time (thus, I appreciate those of you that do). That being said, I think there has been a fair amount of effort from both sides to keep the debate civil, and I encourage you to keep it up. The more rational and civil debate we can have between those with differing viewpoints, the better off we all are.