What are your opinions on this blog entry?

[Kuya]

PoliBlog: The Political Fallacy of Voting

It's a blog somewhat superficially criticizing American politics, i'd like to know what are your opinions on it, but more importantly, what do you feel when reading it? What's your impression of the person who writes this, and what do you think he believes in and what kind of political ideology he belongs to. I'm going to use a poll, but if you feel your opinion isn't properly represented i'd like it if you explained it here in a post.

Also, please say what kind of political party you support in the US and what your personally political ideology is, if you don't mind revealing it.

[Stumblingdrunk]

I tend to agree with him, but I also believe that American democracy is little more than a charade. I voted for Obama but it certainly wasn't because i believed anyone in the american political landscape is actually worth voting for and or capable of "change" that actually means anything.

[0ni0n]

Welcome to reality. In a capitalistic economy, someone has to pay for the price of having 8% growth in corporate profits.

[pohibaba]

None of those poll options fits my opinions. I think this guy is largely uneducated about the issues, but he's angry about something and so he has clung to the liberal-socialist ideology as the end all-be all. I think there are some very good intellectual arguments to be made for liberal politics, but this guy simply isn't making them; he's just another angry college kid.

[Bagel]

I can not take anyone seriously who spouts platitudes like "Corporations turn everything they touch into an immoral activity" and "I can't even write anymore" (which he uses to open his diatribe, and repeats later in it). I even agree with the basic idea he's talking about, but he's going about it all wrong.

First of all, he offers no solution to the state our society is in. Why not complain about how hot it is in summer? Not to say that I think this situation is necessarily impossible to fix, but what he's doing is largely a waste in my opinion. Of course, I suppose the catch phrase on his bloooog is "Voicing the Obvious."

His evidence for why corporations are bad is because they try and make a lot of money. He thinks that this money should be in the hands of "the people." Well wait a minute, don't a lot of "the people" work for these evil, soulless corporations? I do agree that too much money has a tendency to be collected in the hands of a few, but you can't just whine about "the corporations" as a general term and look like you know what you're talking about.

Finally, (and I'm sure I could go on and on picking apart his arguments, that to remind you, I agree with in principle) he mocks the idea of a "Silent Majority," the idea that most people agree/disagree with a policy but don't speak up about it. He then states that "the people" want nationalized health care, but don't act like they do. He even says they "remain silent." TWICE. So when the right wing believes that there's a Silent Majority out there approving their actions, it's terrible but when he does it, it's a shining truth.

[Correction]

I wanna be a blogger and throw about generalizations without having to link or cite any of my sources.

Whether I agree with this guy or not seems immaterial until I understand where he's getting his information and more importantly, his numbers. He doesn't even link the AP story he purports to have read. Basically this is a 'the news made me SAD. And ANGRY' screed that's light on analysis and heavy on rhetoric.

I think he should work for some 24 hour cable news station.

[Plow]

Well, first off there's quite an issue with your poll options. Where are your middle ground options such as "he's right in some cases, but not always, and it's unfortunate that he says things like 'I just can't say any more,' or 'Surely, not another word need be spoken,' so often that it comes across as just not having any idea how it should be different, simply that it should be."


Second, there's the whole issue of a person making a "poll" which they can see who voted which option and respond accordingly. In fact, the parallels between the issue that creates with this poll and the issues with the process involved in creating (NOT placing) votes for your candidate are quite amazing.


Lastly, I can't believe you're going to this extent just to try to get a successful troll on me. You could have just used college football, then it probably would've actually worked.

It's Friday night so not going to go into the actual article for now, but I will later or tomorrow, just to see if maybe you can actually look at a different point of view.

[Kuya]

The point of the poll, it being public, and me asking for people to posts the political parties they support, their political ideologies (which need not match up completely to whom they vote for), and what they thought of the article is a way for me to see how one's reactions to a political opinion relate to their political ideologies and how they reason the blog entry itself.

Of course nobody as of yet has posted about their political ideology so i can see how it relates to their reaction, but i did not expect most people to, and their posts still hold relevance to me as a way to see how they rationalize what they read, specifically for those who i already know what they believe in.

edit: the read is not long.

[Plow]

not long, just terrible writing, trying way too hard to sound smart, and every other sentence is "There's nothing more to say."

I read it, just not going to go into a response atm.

[Melchiah]

What Bagel said. I can't take this guy seriously, and I wouldn't expect anyone else to either, even if I do agree with his position in principle. He just isn't arguing it effectively.

The inherent problem in a completely free-market capitalist society is that the driving force is greed, and thus is not virtuous. I am of the opinion that part of the reason for our current situation with unemployment is due to a declining sense of national pride. 100 years ago, 50 years ago, some of that corporate greed was tempered by the stigma of the quality of American made goods versus those made elsewhere. Nowadays, the quality of goods is not so disparate across national boundaries, and the greed factor outweighs the desire to produce goods in America. Thus, jobs are leaving this country.

I do tend to vote Democrat, but I am not by any stretch a complete liberal.

Classical conservatism has many good ideas and policies, but what we've had these last 8 years was absolutely not classical conservatism. It was neocon imperialism, and we are tanking as a result.

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

I can't really add more to what everyone else has said in this thread already. He made some decent points to start but the rabbit hole just got deeper and deeper and next thing you knew the Cheshire Cat was staring you in the face with those GIGANTIC GRINNING TEETH.

I found a huge irony in his mentioning of non-profits, where in the US you only need to use a specific amount, I believe 49% of donations, to be considered a non-profit on government registries, and at least 30% to not be taken to court.

Most non-profits are a bigger scam than corporations.

But to oblige your thread concept, I'm a registered democrat to vote in the primaries for my state, I consider myself independent, and align myself to the left far enough to say I am ideologically a socialist.

[pohibaba]

I'm still not voting in the poll as there's no option for him being wrong and a poor writer. I'm a dues paying member of the Libertarian Party, but I consider myself a Goldwater/Ron Paul conservative.

[JigglyJam]

Poll's kind of biased don't you think?

There's no "false" entry, just true, true, exaggerated but still true, and critical but still true.

[Kuya]

I strictly said that if your opinion doesn't fit into the poll then you can detail in a post. Evidently, i am biased in favour of the author of that blog, because i can't imagine how anyone could deny some of his truthful but unelaborated points. If you don't think the underlining idea of what the guy said in that blog is true, then i implore you to, if you like, defend the idea of why it's not true. That would actually be quite interesting.

I'm not the kind of person who believes the idea of objectivity.

edit: there's really not point in adding more options, because for the most part, you just can't crystallize in a poll every opinion that exists with all the nuances, that's why we have the advantage in a forum to voice our opinions in a critical manner if we feel the structured poll does not clearly nor faithfully represent what we think. Even those who picked an option would be better served actually posting about their opinion, because it is simply impossible for a poll to really represent human thought.

[deivi]

I think there are some very good intellectual arguments to be made for liberal politics, but this guy simply isn't making them; he's just another angry college kid.

this. seems like on the intertubes there are a select few people that actually have something to say to back their beliefs but mostly it's just hipsters gunning for e-cred by making ham-fisted potshots @ the right. this guy is the latter

[Plow]

I'll vote in the poll if you add this as an option:

"Well, Seth, there was a light, but it's broken. And somebody needs to crawl down to the end of that tunnel and FIX IT."

[Dolmen]

None of those poll options fits my opinions. I think this guy is largely uneducated about the issues, but he's angry about something and so he has clung to the liberal-socialist ideology as the end all-be all. I think there are some very good intellectual arguments to be made for liberal politics, but this guy simply isn't making them; he's just another angry college kid.

^This.

Also another donating member of the Libertarian Party, granted I don't always vote that way due to some Libertarian nominees being ridiculous. I come from a line of Republican voting, but now I tend to look at the candidates outside of their respective parties.

My reaction started with the opening line: "I can't even write anymore," followed by a semi-lengthy, vitriolic diatribe. He's from San Francisco, and his writing reflects a lot of what comes out of that town.

What I feel when reading it is annoyed. I will always give different thoughts a try, and make the attempt to see if from that perspective. This writer automatically alienates having any kind of audience by coming off rather childish and uneducated.

As far as what do I think he believes in, I would say he's the type of person that has no clue what they believe in. The type of person that wants to make noise despite how much of an idiot they appear when doing so. He seems to lack individual thought while subscribing to a doctrine that lacks substance.

Overall I would say that this writing proves Arthur Schopenhauer correct in his statement about "The Art of Not Reading":

"The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists of not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet or novel or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for like is short."

He's basically writing for the masses/fools.

[Plow]

As far as what do I think he believes in, I would say he's the type of person that has no clue what they believe in. The type of person that wants to make noise despite how much of an idiot they appear when doing so. He seems to lack individual thought while subscribing to a doctrine that lacks substance.

Hey now, this thread is about that blog entry, not Kuya.

[Kuya]

Plow, if you have issues with me, take it to PMs, not the thread.

[Plow]

Plow, if you have issues with me, take it to PMs, not the thread.

You really made a poll about a terrible blog directly to try to get me to respond to the same shit you spewed all over the "activist" thread, and then just told me not to comment because someone else nailed it so hard you can't handle it?


I mean... you didn't REALLY think you were actually going to get a bunch of people to come in and go "ZOMG UR SO RIGHT VOTING IS ENTIRELY MEANINGLESS AND SO IS EVERY PART OF THE ELECTORAL PROCESS," did you?