Even though I participate pretty much only in political threads, I don’t really discuss politics very much IRL, except with a few close friends.
Simply put, politics is my job and I don’t like the feeling of bringing it home all the time. It’s more interesting to discuss it here because I get to hear outside the Beltway perspectives, which is far more interesting to me than the typical political talk you find in the average DC watering hole, for example.
No, unless it’s very good-natured and everyone is obviously not taking themselves seriously.
I am a very non-confrontational person and am a lousy debater, because I always try to see both sides of an argument.
Unless the subject is gay marriage or abortion rights, I guess. I have such strong opinions and feel so obviously correct in them that I have a tendency to get really self-righteous and argumentative if these topics come up, or if someone expresses a view that I disagree with.
Absolutely not. My boss loves to discuss politics, but only if you agree with him. :rolleyes: Since I do not on so many issues, I refrain. I don’t like to talk about religion either. We don’t agree on that either.
Arguing about politics depends with whom and on what subjects, but I’ll happily chat about politics - rather different. Actually, I like it a little too much sometimes, especially when I’m involved in an election (like now) and can barely think about anything else.
I had a coworker once who would constantly try to snare people into political debates, only so he could bludgeon them with his obnoxious right-wing vitriol until he was blue in the face. For him it was not about making a good point, it was about bullying your opponent with aggressive language and ridicule until they conceded out of exasperation. The O’Reilly school of debate.
I never got into it with him, even though I’m fiercely political and a polar opposite on the political spectrum. I’m proud of my restraint. I think I even lied to him once and told him I was uninterested in politics.
I’m not interested in defending my beliefs against that kind of attack, because I will lose if it’s only about who can shout the loudest. Now if he had challenged me to an e-mail debate, then perhaps I might have had a better chance.
But what’s the point, really? A guy like that is never going to change his mind, and I certainly won’t. It’s essentially a kind of play, like one-on-one basketball or a game of chess, only for those who enjoy verbal sparring, which I emphatically do not.
Politics is almost all I can talk about. Politics and movies. I don’t normally talk a lot.
Though I absolutely love it. I like to figure out why people hold the views that they do. The more extreme they are the more fascinating. I’ll talk with everyone from racist to raging lunatics. The lunatics will get surprised if you enquirer about the logic behind their views. They’re mostly used to people telling them they’re nuts.
I’m more interested in the logic behind what people believe in than any attempt to change their mind. Their core beliefs are usually deeply rooted in their own experiences and it’s impossible to uproot them without causing any damage.
What I hate is that some people won’t talk about politics because they clearly haven’t thought about their views hard enough. No one will admit they don’t know much about the issues, most will claim that there is something bad about talking politics.
I’ve given this a lot of thought in the last couple years. I’m 27, just starting to really come into adulthood; not really there yet, but not a kid anymore, either. When I was growing up I used to love to debate. Politics, religion, the fucking weather - you name it, all the way into my early to mid 20s. I always enjoyed talking to older people - even as an elementary school kid I would talk to the adults at parties - and one thing that killed me was when people said kids think they know everything.
I would get red in the face and scream (internally) I DO NOT THINK I KNOW EVERYTHING! I KNOW THERE’S LOTS I DON’T KNOW!
I’m a very introspective person, and maybe a year or two ago I was thinking to myself, and it dawned on me that kids don’t think they know everything - they think everything they know is right. Perfect description of me. I think part of my transition to adulthood was realizing that, and slowly growing into a person it didn’t apply to anymore.
So I don’t mind debating politics, if someone else brings it up, but I don’t enjoy it like I used to. I know a lot more now, I’m just not so sure that what I know is right.
I want to second this. I love talking about politics and moral issues, but everyone treats it as some kind of forbidden topic. (I’m not pushy about it or anything, I’m a pretty quiet person.) But if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s the “God/<whoever> said it, I believe it, and that settles it” type of person that never examines anything. Like you, I find it fascinating how we can all live in the same general culture and come to such staggeringly different views.
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
I love discussing politics - with some specific persons. That doesn’t mean persons that have the same opinions I have, more persons that can differ between the debate and things going personal.
A good example would be my cuz vs my grandma. With my cuz, we can debate for quite some time - even though we both know we’ll have to agree to disagree (whatever that really means), but with grandma it gets personal straight away. So I (and most of those in the family) tend to “nod and smile” whenever she says something even remotely political.
Curious. You acknowledge you are not sufficiently “well-read” to engage in debate, and assume everyone else is similarly ignorant.
Ditto and double ditto, except I don’t have kids.
I can’t imagine not discussing politics with at least my husband. We talk about it all the time, but we also have very similar political beliefs, so there’s usually no conflict.
Also, while I don’t go out of my way to discuss this sort of thing, my immediate family members definitely know who I’m voting for. They would know even if I didn’t tell them – because they know what’s important to me.
Very much, but with the right sort of person and only about certain classes of issues. Regardless of an individual’s policy preferences, debating is fair game when I really believe my conversation partner has good will and an honest desire to support policy for the betterment of everyone. There are lots of ways to skin that cat, and I am happy to debate them.
I have little interest in talking with ideologically-driven wealth redistributors of any stripe, or those who only vote for whom they think is going to lower their taxes. All political preferences were created equal: some are just more interesting to talk about with other people.
My interest in politics, given my training and inclinations, is more connected with how rules and systems influence outcomes than the usual who is doing what to whom. I tend to avoid talking about politics with people who aren’t interested in these things because I honestly don’t want to bore them. If pareto optimality and Arrow’s Theorem don’t interest you, let’s just talk about something else.