Proposition: The left recognizes that people will, by their nature, make decisions that benefit themselves, so we need government to help ensure that  people are protected from the greed of others. Where they err is in the fact that government is first and foremost run by people.

Was that polite enough? 
I just signed up for a Facebook presence. I hate it. I really do, but it seems like if you have a retail business you need to use Facebook to get better search rankings and Facebook requires you to have a personal page to have a business page. Ugh. I have not done the Twitter thingie or anything else other than LinkedIn. At least not yet.

Now that I have done the Facebook thing, two factors surprised me:
The first is many of the people I deal with have such a different political bent than I do, even though we are in a similar role in our businesses. You might think that business owners who all must deal with payrolls, customer service, employee management etc. would be molded over the years into a similar bent when it comes to government intrusion into our professions. Not so. One of my contemporaries regularly posts Bernie Saunders videos, for instance. I watch some and can't imagine how this guy agrees with someone who seems to want to put him out of business. Another argues incessantly for Obama Care while I see my rates go up, my services go down (more on that in another post) and my take home pay reduced.

The other factor I noticed is that, in general, conservatives don't post political stuff any where near the rate that liberals do. The left seems to throw out the stuff like China American Businesses exhale CO².  I see almost nothing from the right, except as occasional responses from the lefty posts. Odd, that.

This social network stuff seems to contribute to the decline of polite political discourse. Cable news seems to do the same, since the lines between left and right are reinforced so much more strongly in the last decade. The more choices we have to hear opinion, the louder they must be to draw our attention.

When I engage in political conversation, I usually try to let the other side know that I see their point, then politely reply. I often do not get that same courtesy back. It is then I lose interest in the conversation.

This can't end well. The left seems to embrace the battle, the right seems to be reluctant warriors. Either way, the "Firing Line" or the old Fred Friendly seminars seem like so long ago.

Posted by: topmaker at 04:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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