America is a sick society

[Bob Butler 54]

(12-20-2016, 02:04 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: I dissent that there was ever a time when Reagan's nonsense made any sense. There were already some cutbacks in the 1970s in excessive welfare spending and job programs. There was never any need for Reagan's policies. It was just a tempting ideology and a mood that the charming actor/demagogue could appeal to. Deceptive slogans of freedom can often work in a (supposedly) democratic republic.

Similarly, I dissent that today there has been excessive tolerance producing hate. It is just a button for a demagogue to push that has never gone away. Anyone who thinks transgender bathrooms or political correctness are more important issues than inequality and climate change, is just hooked by the demagogue.

But I agree that cycles turn and pendulums swing, and the arc of history is long but it bends toward justice.

I am not expecting you to acknowledge any merit in ideas that conflict with your own.  I count you as an extreme partisan while not saying there is a lack of red extreme partisans equally unable to perceive the merits of blue values and ideas.  I fully expect extreme partisans of any ilk to paint the opposition as evil, stupid, insane, brainwashed, following a demagogue or otherwise mentally incompetent.  I perceive it as entirely possible, indeed, as common place, for people from different environments with different upbringings to become totally committed to one perspective.  An awful lot of people have no interest in learning or growing.  They are entirely and aggressively satisfied with the realities they have locked themselves into.

I understand that you are entirely sincere in your above paragraphs.  I just suggest  you try to comprehend that the Red extreme partisans are equally sincere in their belief of your own ability to comprehend their common sense.