Shockernet Has Become Politically Polarized

[wufan]

I think it's an issue when someone like myself, voting for Bush, Dole, W, W (regrettably), Obama x 2, and Clinton (would have voted for damn near any other Republican), would vote for Romney over Joe, is called a socialist because I am left of Barry Goldwater. I think taxes should be higher on individuals. I think the government could and should do more ameliorate poverty, increase educational access, improve infrastructure, and balance the budget. I want property and businesses owned and controlled by private citizens. I want people free to do and say as they will without fear of the government or the mob. Somewhere along the way that made me a socialist?

I wouldn’t call you a socialist for that. I know socialism!

[BOBB]

I wouldn’t call you a socialist for that. I know socialism!

Appreciated. I think there is a fair bit of name calling on both sides. It leads to people in the middle retreating deeper into their camps. I've often said and truly believe that you could go pick 10 random folks from any Chamber of Commerce meeting and get better and more representative government than we get from our elected leaders.

[shockfan89_]

I think it's an issue when someone like myself, voting for Bush, Dole, W, W (regrettably), Obama x 2, and Clinton (would have voted for damn near any other Republican), would vote for Romney over Joe, is called a socialist because I am left of Barry Goldwater. I think taxes should be higher on individuals. I think the government could and should do more ameliorate poverty, increase educational access, improve infrastructure, and balance the budget. I want property and businesses owned and controlled by private citizens. I want people free to do and say as they will without fear of the government or the mob. Somewhere along the way that made me a socialist?

I wouldn't call you a socialist for that either. I would say you definitely lean left on a few items, but leaning isn't the concern. The concern is when people start talking about climate change being settled science and no dissention can even be allowed to exist or that climate change is the biggest threat facing our society. Equal access to education is awesome, making education free is a concern. Increasing taxes to balance the budget makes perfect sense, increasing taxes to offer free healthcare and universal minimum income is a concern. Everything else I think is pretty much down the center.

The problem is, you are light years to the right of any candidate the Democrats would even consider nominating. My challenge to you is to determine which Presidential candidate is the closest to what you described. Those things appear much closer to Trump's agenda and very distant from the agenda Joe Biden is embracing that seems aligned with Bernie, AOC, and the far left.

[MikeKennedyRulZ]

I missed the hatred part. I only saw where he couldn't support Trump.

LOL!! Ok.

[BOBB]

LOL!! Ok.

Ok, so quote it?

[BOBB]

I wouldn't call you a socialist for that either. I would say you definitely lean left on a few items, but leaning isn't the concern. The concern is when people start talking about climate change being settled science and no dissention can even be allowed to exist or that climate change is the biggest threat facing our society. Equal access to education is awesome, making education free is a concern. Increasing taxes to balance the budget makes perfect sense, increasing taxes to offer free healthcare and universal minimum income is a concern. Everything else I think is pretty much down the center.

The problem is, you are light years to the right of any candidate the Democrats would even consider nominating. My challenge to you is to determine which Presidential candidate is the closest to what you described. Those things appear much closer to Trump's agenda and very distant from the agenda Joe Biden is embracing that seems aligned with Bernie, AOC, and the far left.

I support private insurance with the public option as a default.

I believe climate change is a long term threat to global stability and it is exacerbated by human activity.

Unless we're talking about advanced science or humanities, college is a bullshit gatekeeping mechanism, but I think government should support education. No one, including the government should pay $100k for a sociology degree.

I would support a UBI or negative income tax as a replacement for the alphabet soup of social spending and corporate welfare.

Not in lock step, but pretty sure I'm more simpatico with Joe.

[ShockerPrez]

I support private insurance with the public option as a default.

I believe climate change is a long term threat to global stability and it is exacerbated by human activity.

Unless we're talking about advanced science or humanities, college is a bullshit gatekeeping mechanism, but I think government should support education. No one, including the government should pay $100k for a sociology degree.

I would support a UBI or negative income tax as a replacement for the alphabet soup of social spending and corporate welfare.

Not in lock step, but pretty sure I'm more simpatico with Joe.

What about his veep? :)

[BOBB]

What about his veep? :)

Rice would be my pick with Kamala Harris at the bottom. I could abide any of the popularly identified candidates.

[WuDrWu]

I want to read this later, but if any American is watching today's CIRCUS in Congress and is proud of their Democratic representative and leadership for what they are doing, there is something seriously wrong with how your brain works.

This has been a useless, all day clown show that's nothing but an attempt to get votes and gin up their base. What a waste of public time and money.

[WuDrWu]

Rice would be my pick with Kamala Harris at the bottom. I could abide any of the popularly identified candidates.

I didn't realize you leaned that far to the left. Let me say you wear it very well sir. Liberals such as yourself can make a difference.

[Dave Stalwart]

I don't think Shockernet is any more polarized or hostile than the world we live in each day outside. I would even say Shockernet is one of the kindest, friendliest exchanges because many here do have WSU as a common ground. Social media is a very dark, angry place. Shockernet is almost a breath of fresh air compared to it.

Anyway, I think what is really going on is that the topics we have to address now are getting scarier each day so the reactions to them are getting more and more aggressive in conversation too. Now we are debating whether or not we can speak freely, worship freely and go outside, etc. and we are debating whether or not our own leaders and media are lying to us in the first place to arrive at that. People are bound to get louder and louder as the topics get scarier. I could be wrong, but that just occurred to me.

[pinstripers]

Rice would be my pick with Kamala Harris at the bottom. I could abide any of the popularly identified candidates.

Rice is left of Rosa Klebb

[Shockm]

It doesn't seem possible to be a Shocker fan and not support the predominant political opinion out here. I don't support Donald Trump and haven't supported him since the 1980's when I was working in real estate development and looked into how he was doing business because he seemed to be successful. He wasn't. He was technically bankrupt, but he was so deep in debt to American banks that they couldn't allow him to fail.

That knowledge and opinion has ostracized me from the mostly conservative crowd out here. Pretty much everything has become politicized and it's spread to ShockerNet.

I don't wear a mask because I don't respect my rights. I wear a mask because I respect yours.

This forum has produced a loss of respect for the person and for the opinions of persons who have political attitudes that differ from the majority.

The uniting fact that we are all Shocker fans is being overwhelmed by the fact that we may want to vote for candidates that other posters don't want to vote for. Are we going to allow that to polarize Shocker fans?

Divide and conquer is a proven effective strategy and we are seeing that in too many aspects of our lives.

You haven’t been ostracized by Conservatives. You just aren’t conservative (not because you don’t like Trump) although it seems that you think you are conservative. You are a Left leaning Centrist imo from beliefs you’ve stated. You think that you are right just as others think you’re wrong. There is nothing wrong with tha5 on either side. You are only obsessive about certain things (masks and Trump) and that is your right. I could be wrong but I don’t think you are obsessed with other things such as open borders, 2nd Amendment, taxes, or pro abortion although I would guess you lean left aa little. You can tell me where you think I’m wrong but I just don’t see you as a Conservative although you probably swing a little from both sides.

[1979Shocker]

A lot of this polarization is going on because it is the off-season and we are just waiting for the basketball season to begin. I'm sure when and if we have a basketball season that this polarization will diminish drastically. But one way to eliminate it now ,or at least lessen the effect, would be to get rid of the Politics forum. This site is, after all, mainly used for forums supporting Shocker sports.

[jdmee]

I think part of it is that before it was just a baker in Colorado. Even though I think he should be able to decide if he wants to bake the cake or not it really doesn't impact me. Now the attacks on our freedoms are impacting us. We see cases where we can get an abortion or go gamble but can't go to church. Where a restaurant has tables spaced more than 6 feet apart outside and letting people eat on them and the governor is threatening to shut them down. We see cases where we can't say "All lives matter" without the threat of getting fired. These things we are more passionate about.