I'm Mad About.....

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   RJ Schwartzposted 8 years ago

   I read the news, surf the internet, follow the commentary and stories, read blogs, and am always on the hunt for news about multiple topics.  The amount of hate one can experience is amazing, with politics, religion, immigration, race, perceived societal injustices such as wage disparity and the wealth gap, and gender identity and sexual preferences all having starring roles in the opera of life on the internet.  The ability for people to hide behind aliases seems to give them a new-found freedom to speak whatever they feel, without any regard for the audience or the ramifications of their words.
   
   So I'm curious, not as to why people say what they say, but to which topic makes them angry enough to participate in discussions or write blogs/stories/etc.  What topic merits your full wrath - feel free to speak out as strongly as you wish.  Is the alias the equivalent of "freedom of speech?"

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      Phyllis Doyleposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I think "freedom of speech" is a scapegoat for some people to just be downright nasty and attack others - therefore, I avoid political and religious discussions.

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         RJ Schwartzposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Agreed, but isn't it fascinating at the level of hate some people bring to the conversation when they are untraceable - name calling, racist remarks, threats, and pictures that allow them to often circumvent the filters on a site.  A pornographic post or one showing murder can slip by much easier than typing the words which often get flagged.

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   2. 0

      Old Poolmanposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I am angry about the way the GOP establishment with the help of the media are doing their best to defeat Trump even before all the primaries are over.  It is quite obvious to me that many of the voters, include some Dems, are fed up with the business as usual people we now have in office.
      
      Our government has become so corrupt that only an outsider would stand a chance at cleaning up some of the mess they have created.
      
      Is Trump the perfect candidate?  Heck no but neither are any of the others.  What I picture is any of the candidates sitting across from Putin at a negotiating table.  I would have to put my money on Trump for coming out of that meeting with the best deal.
      
      We need someone in that office who can solve problems without just throwing more money at the problem and hoping for the best.

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         colorfuloneposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         The way the liberal media spins things has really gotten out of hand. Mainstream media needs reforming not just the parties.  People believe the lies and that's all they know, that's all the media wants them to think so they are doing a great job!   
         
         I was reading comments by Trump supports over on 'The Guardian' and see some common denominators but this is probably my favorite one.
         
         The Occupy protester turned Trump supporter (24, New York)
         ‘His candidacy is ripping the soul of America apart – we deserve it’
         
         "I work in a liberal arts department. I’ve read the works of Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse, John Stuart Mill, Friedrich Nietzsche, Plato, Judith Butler, Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault and so on. I am more inclined to listen to what Slavoj Žižek or Noam Chomsky have to say about current affairs than Rachel Maddow or Bill O’Reilly. If one were to take account of my demographics, the smart money would be to peg me for a Bernie Sanders supporter.
         
         My interest in politics did not truly develop into an intellectually mature form until 2011, when Occupy Wall Street broke out as a populist leftist grass roots movement to combat the evils of unrestricted robber baron capitalism.
         
         Early in 2014 I began concealing my political opinions from people, and it was shortly after this time that I began plotting to vote Republican in hopes that the party would send the country so far in the direction of complete unrestricted neoliberalism and libertarian free market superstition that Americans would come to recognize the dangers of these ideologies and eventually reject them.
         
         I don’t find conversations about how morally repugnant Trump is to be interesting when the rest of the candidates seem to also support imperialistic and fascist policies concerning drone strikes, torture and mass surveillance.
         
         I don’t agree with discussions of how Trump is making the national dialogue more base and vulgar when Obama has instated common core standards to gear humanities education in public schooling to be teaching children how to read memos, rather than cultivating critical thinking skills that would allow them to understand subtle arguments.
         
         Do I like Trump’s platform? No, I think most of it is silly and misguided, but at least it is not the same bullshit casserole that has been on the menu in Washington DC for as long as I have been alive.
         
         His candidacy is a happy accident that is currently ripping the soul of America apart, which is something that I think we desperately need (and deserve) at this time in our history, for better or for worse. I support whatever strange gods happen to be behind his candidacy, for, as Martin Heidegger proclaimed in his famous Der Speigel interview, although for slightly different reasons, “Only a God can save us.”
         
         http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016 … -speak-out

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            Old Poolmanposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            That was a very good answer.

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      2. 79

         Credence2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

         OP, I am just curious, why do you think that Trump would be the best candidate to negotiate across the table from Putin? Where would you get this impression from? Why does everybody get this idea that he is so 'smart'?
         
         Negotiating in this realm is not like being a CEO. Talking 'tough' does not necessarily correlate with being competent or effective. I am yet to be impressed....
         
         On one side,there is geo-political truth in the face of a global economy and on the other, there is just 'talk'....
         
         I don't know, I have never been attracted to 'authoritarian' people and personality types. I like people to lead by example.
         
         Certain people on these threads want to give the impression that because Trump is so wealthy, he cannot be bought.  Well, Trump is already bought and paid for. There have been plenty of men that have assumed the office of the  President  who were privately and independently wealthy. That did not make them 'better qualified' nor any more independent politically than those past Presidents who did not enter into the office wealthy, already.
         
         The challenge is leadership, the ability to convince others in a system where power is shared that your course of action is the better one over many choices.

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            Old Poolmanposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Hello Credence2 - I just feel that in his years of running his business he has much more negotiating experience than any of the other candidates.
            
            It is sad, but most of our Politicians are very wealthy.  If they are not extremely wealthy before they get elected they certainly are after serving a term or two in office.  Many of them are bought and paid for in reality.
            
            Perhaps that is a large part of the problems we see today.  A very wealthy person who wants for nothing would have a difficult time understanding the struggles of someone who was just trying to put food on the table for his children.
            
            I'm not sure if in the beginning all of them were wealthy but it has certainly become that way.  Have you ever wondered why someone would spend a few million of their own dollars to get elected to a job that pays $174K per year?  My guess is they know they will make back their investment very quickly once elected.
            
            As you know they are exempt from insider trading laws.  They are in the perfect position to know things that will drive stocks higher or lower for companies who will be awarded or denied government contracts.  If we had that information you and I could be expert stock traders too.
            
            Unless they came from poverty there is no way they can really understand the battle for survival some of our citizens face every day of their lives.
            
            I'm not a staunch Trump supporter but firmly believe we someone from outside the Washington Elite to ride that chair for at least one term.  The candidate I favored the most was Ben Carson but he is now out of the running.  He knows what it takes to rise from nearly nothing to a level of success.
            
            After watching the debates there are only a couple left in the running I feel are mature enough to handle the job of POTUS but doubt that either will make it through the primaries.

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               Credence2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks for that OP, I simply don't see his rising over the fray that he claims to want to get under control.
               
               You are right about  elective office being an 'investment' instead of a call to service that it should be.
               
               The man vitrually fell into bucket of money, of course all of his mistakes in business are not for public consumption. He is just Little Lord Fountleroy, with a Napoleon complex. If you or I had as much money as he had to start with, we probably would have done even better than him. He has had the benefit of using his wealth to cover a multitude of sins. All of us are not impressed and are not for sale
               
               I certain respect your choice and your right to choose, but my choices are different.

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                  Old Poolmanposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Crecence2 - I actually have no made a choice yet.
                  
                  Unfortunately, we can't always believe much any of the say during their campaigns.  I would bet that over the years there have been far more broken campaign promises than promises that have been kept.  Part of this problem is that even the President can't always do what he promised because of the way Congress can tie it up for years.
                  
                  I even like some of what Bernie Sanders has to say, but am terrified what the National Debt would look like if he carried out everything he is promising.
                  
                  Many of the problems we face today are the same problems we have been facing for many years going back several Presidents.  Yet we are no closer to solving them today than we were say 20 years ago.  We elect these representatives to be problem solvers, not problem makers, but they accomplish nothing.  We need a good check and balance system but that seems to have turned into a stone wall in many cases.  There has to be a better way to reach a compromise and actually solve many of these problems.
                  
                  Too bad there is not a probationary period for elected officials.  If they aren't doing the job they were elected to do they get fired and replaced.

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   PrettyPantherposted 8 years ago

   First, in the context of your post, nothing on an internet forum has ever merited my "full wrath."  However, I do get most perturbed at people who don't care about accuracy, truth, or facts.  Everyone will get their facts wrong sometimes; there is a lot of misinformation out there, and sometimes it is truly hard to figure out the truth.  I'm talking about people who, even when provided with clear evidence they are wrong, continue to espouse their drivel, continue to rely on the same lying sources, continue to post innuendo and partisan lies as though they are truth.  Those people are hurting our country, because they base their voting decisions upon lies, and continue to rely upon the same, tired sources for their information.  THEY are not good citizens, and THEY are damaging all of us with their ignorance and ineptitude.

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   1. 87

      RJ Schwartzposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Great answer - some political threads have more wrong posts than right ones and when opinions become facts to some folks, it gets even stranger.

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