# The (constructive, effective) disagreement thread

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-constructive-effective-disagreement-thread/925194>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [November 10, 2020, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-constructive-effective-disagreement-thread/925194 "2020-11-10T03:03:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 66

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**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2020, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-constructive-effective-disagreement-thread/925194/66 "2020-11-11T14:22:33Z")

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> [@urbanredneck2](#):
>
> the president is just one of MANY politicians and political figures that impact our lives.
> 
> What about state, county, city, and school board officials? At the local level is where most decisions that affect our day to day lives are made. Issues like raising local sales taxes, whether or not to open or close a school, rezoning issues, sewer assessments, etc…

I remember reading something about a continuum – maybe think of it as an ever-widening series of concentric circles.

Around each of us.

It defines a continuum of people about whom we care.

For some people, the circle extends only to the four walls of their house. They care about their immediate family. To the wolves with pretty much everybody else.

Others’ circles include their church, their neighborhood, their part of town, the company for which they work.

For some, the circles are larger. For some, “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”

Some people feel as connected to a total stranger all the way across the country as they do to their spouse.

Some people feel as connected to a total stranger in Papua New Guinea as they do to a couple in Cleveland.

For some, it’s more than enough to live in some shangri-la of a gated community within a stygian world of misery and suffering.

For others, they’d rather see the bottom raised … even at the expense of seeing the top attenuated.

And they view this regionally, nationally, or globally.

It’s another perspective on the concepts of negative sum, zero sum, and positive sum game. It ties into perceptions of scarcity or abundance. It ties into selfishness and self_less_ness.

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