What’s your agenda?

What’s your agenda?

Just lately I’ve been noticing that more and more people have an agenda. Well I guess that’s I kind of obvious statement, but let me be clearer... When I first started reading ATS people seemed to be much more open minded about things... not entrenched in a particular ideology or view point. People would start a thread and people would reply with their views but also remain somewhat open minded and respectful when debating an issue.

It now seems that people are far more closed minded (ALL PEOPLE) left/right, Republican/Democrat, Christian/Atheist etc...

I will use Hypothetical example’s to explain further because I do not want to offend anyone who has made recent posts, nor do I want to awaken old arguments/threads that have been put to rest...

Example

N.B. Please note that I am using a Muslim group in this example but you can replace the word “Muslim” with Christian, Democrats, Black people, White People, Dogs or cats.... whatever!

If somebody starts a thread regarding a small Muslim group who have complained about not having something in society which they see as their right, but others do not; instead of just stating the facts in the thread title they will title it as something like...

“Now Muslim think XXXXX is their right”

or

“Muslims now want XXXXXX”

This type of title is already brushing all Muslims with the same brush... implying that all 1.2 Billion Muslims on the planet want this claimed right. The fact that the word “now” has been used also implies that this is just one of many unjustified requests made by 1.2 Billion of the words population. I feel that this type of title is designed as a kind of rallying call, by the poster, for likeminded people to jump on and give stars, flags and general pats on the back.

Then come the reply’s... often laced with anti Muslim (or whatever the OP was against) rhetoric. Often adding jokes about what Muslims will want next...

“I bet next there gonna make us all eat Halal food and pray to Allah LOL”

Then there’s the angry posts

“Who do these Muslims think they are, they can’t do that in this country”

And not forgetting the outright insane posts

“WE SHOULD NUKE EM NOW, I AINT GOING DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT”

All of these posts will keep on coming without anyone questioning the validity of the claim, the context in which it was written or the source it was taken from.

And when someone finally does have the brains to say...

“Hold on people, I’ve actually looked into this and it was just one Muslim guy who has a reputation for being an idiot... most Muslims don’t agree with this so let’s just move on”

People just ignore it and continue down their path of hate and scare mongering.
“Next their gonna take over the world”
“Right on brother, it will be a cold day in hell before I surrender”
“Blah Blah Blah”

This type of “agenda first” debating seems to be more prevalent in some topics than others... Politics, Religion, Racism etc... Pretty much wherever you get highly emotion topics, which you would expect to a degree, but the levels seem to be rising and also spreading to other topics.
There seems to be much more black and white these days with far less people in the grey area... people seem to swing from one extreme to the other with little respect for opposing views and often picking on opposing views for reasons such as grammar or other such none topic related errors/mistakes.

Cont...

I am not suggesting that this applies to ALL members of ATS, or even a majority, but it is definitely a growing minority of posters... and it is not just ATS... I’ve noticed it on other websites, Newspapers, News channels... everywhere people seem to be exaggerating, selectively editing and/or bending the truth so that it backs up their own personal agenda and/or view points.

Whether it’s religious, political or racially motivated, lots of people seem to be debating topics raised in a broad sweeping manner as opposed to the one issue raised... If a Topic is started about a Christian person who was not allowed to pray at work then it’s

“All them dam Atheists are trying to ban religion”

if the topic is about a Christian who complained about another religion then its

“Those dam Christians and their paedophile priests are all hypocrites”

It REALLY angers me... because if one person does/says something wrong (or something you just don’t agree with) it should not reflect on that persons Race, Religion, Political persuasion etc...


Maybe it’s just me... maybe it’s been like this for ever but I’ve only just noticed... however if you agree with me, then what do you think the upsurge in this is caused by???

Are people just more ignorant and closed minded? If so why?

Or is it because during a time of global financial crisis people tend to flock together in similar groups and then blame others??

Maybe TPTB have finally truly divided us to make us weaker and therefore easier to push through whatever they have planned next!!!

I have my own theory/thought on this but would be interested to hear your thoughts on this matter... Sorry if this sounds like a rant... I’m sure this is something we are all guilty of in varying degrees.

Me thinks its the roller coaster emotional effect,
Times are not that easy at the moment, People are getting it tight and monies is probably the cause of this, thus spilling into frustration and looking for an outlet,
I was on another thread a while back and because i took a passive view of War I was labeled "gutless and amoral coward", all because i had a different view point. I did not take this personally but i know what you are saying, it will get better when things pick up

Well, I am in the grey area so I do not know if I am able to speak on this or not.


But yeah, I have noticed it on most blogs and sites like ATS and Youtube. I remember I used to be subscribed to a news channel on Youtube and I noticed that it was heavily left wing. And on one page, I wrote a comment to correct an error the reporter made. My email was bombarded with people trashing me and insulting me. They did not care that the news channel got the story wrong. All they cared about is their bleeping label. I later sent a video of MSNBC cropping the video of the Obama rally in Arizona in order to make it seem like a white person was armed with the rifle instead of a black man. They did not post the video. Did not even respond. That did not bother me but what did was the extremism. I unsubscribed gladly.

I then went and checked out some Ann Coulter pages (I find her to be amusing) on Youtube. And I noticed the opinions were either far right or far left - no in between. Nothing rational. Just total worship or total hatred.

I then occasionally went on atheists' channels and noticed a lot of the comments and videos are not even rational. The basic format is "evolution is right - creationists are wrong - the Bible is bull# - I don't have to read it - it just is -" And then all the minions will nod and write comments in how they agree.

The Christian channels are the same as the atheist channels. Neither are really engaging in a good debate. They are just bashing each other as good as they can. I simply am sick of Youtube. You go on certain channels about Russia (i love Russia) or some northern Europe and you read anti-American comments or racist comments. Almost on every damn black channels, there are tons of racist comments. I mean, what lives do these people have! I know I do not have to read the comments but still...

There was a page on ATS asking about Glenn Beck. I gladly showed how disgusted I was with him - I used to be a fan- and was hit with a few people refuting my well-thought out argument with little to nothing but dismissive and sweeping generalizations.

Blogs are the same. ATS tends to be the same on certain pages. You cannot say what you want if the consensus of the page differs from your views. You are not allowed to have a difference of opinions. You are an idiot. An imbecile. Scum. Whatever.

This is the same for politics, religions, and certain conversation topics. You must agree or else you will not be heard. Extremism is a rising problem in America because some, not all, people are delusional and claim to be rational but rational includes being fair, not pretentious and dismissing someone's opinion because you don't agree with it.

I could be wrong. Maybe extremism is what people want and maybe it is right because being loyally stupid is right and makes you cool. Be a drone. Don't ask me to join.

reply to post by DevilJin


Thanks DevilJin... at least i know im not alone. The level of extremists, on all sides, is certainly worrying. It’s almost like a sudden change (well over the last couple of years) of people’s attitudes... What has caused this?

foxhoundone

Maybe you’re right and it is just people feeling the effects of hard times...
I hope you are right and things do pick up

In reference to Mucksters "what has caused this?" query, i think it might have something to do with a president of the united states which is undeniably causing friction in the more discriminating communities, and when you tie this in with the question of illegal immigration which was already doing this before Obama even got into office it's not surprising that some people might be feeling a little edgy.

It might also have something to do with the speech he made to the UN about basically forcing Iran to comply with UN nuclear inspectors or face penalties.

Couple this with an overall affirmation that Obama has yet to make a clear stance on anything other than Obamacare and Iran, which should bring no surprises to many but does anyway, everyone's wondering what is going to happen next.

edit; and of course, the economy has the more affluent members of society getting their panties in a twist.


[edit on 28-9-2009 by virtualwarfighter]