Proving my Ideology.

Here we go again. When I see a thread about a certain congressman, senator, garbageman, whatever, you see who's posting the thread and you can tell if the subject of the story is a Rep or a Dem BEFORE reading it. It's the opposing ideology, EVERY DAMN TIME. No one and no party is perfect BUT it appears that these threads get dredged up to prove that, "my party can beat up your party." This is tedious and self serving. I give to you the revamped version of REM's Losing my Religion. It didn't take much editting either. I'm sure REM fans will REALLY get this:

Life is bigger
It's bigger than you
And you are not me
The lengths that I will go to
To prove who I choose to be
Oh no I've said too much
I set it up

That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight
Proving my position
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no I've said too much
I haven't said enough
I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you scream
I think I thought I saw you try

Every whisper
Of every waking hour I'm
Proving my position
Trying to keep an eye on you
Like a hurt lost and blinded fool
Oh no I've said too much
I set it up

Consider this
My ideology
Consider this
You’re not as right as me
What if all your fantasies
Come flailing around
Now I've said too much
I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you scream
I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream
That was just a dream

Damn, I love the mandolin.

Can we get with some thinking folks?

If I could give you a WATS I would.

That's beautiful! I love it!

It's something (getting stuck in proving one's position) that unfortunately anyone can fall prey to. Yes, I'm talking about me. It's so alluring and provacative... Hard to resist.

But resist, we must. It makes for the most boring discussions. It embraces ignorance. It feeds hatred and divisiveness. And it adds to the negativity that exists in the world. And did I say those threads are boring?

Thanks intrepid for the reminder to THINK! Thanks for that song. Think I'll go have a listen to REM.

Its quite stupid to try and prove that any group is any less or more then any other. Why it continues to drag people, this community in particular, down is something thats hard to watch. the fight over whos better and resorting to insults is just pointless. I agree that trying to prove an ideology is like trying to prove god exists. You cant do it, and that doesnt mean you shouldnt believe in it. an ideology is just that, an idea or belief. you cant prove one belief is better then the other unless everyone willingly decides its better by their own free will, but thats not proving its better just proving people like it more. Its quite pointless to fight over ideas and opinions in an attempt to see whos is better or the right one.

Originally posted by intrepid
No one and no party is perfect BUT it appears that these threads get dredged up to prove that, "my party can beat up your party." This is tedious and self serving.

I don't suppose it would be too much to ask for a couple links to these specific threads you speak of, would it? If I am going to fine tune my ideology and lose my religion then it would be nice to do it on the basis of specifics and not generalizations. And I swear I'm not trying to be a smart ass, Intrepid.

Originally posted by TrueAmerican

Originally posted by intrepid
No one and no party is perfect BUT it appears that these threads get dredged up to prove that, "my party can beat up your party." This is tedious and self serving.

I don't suppose it would be too much to ask for a couple links to these specific threads you speak of, would it? If I am going to fine tune my ideology and lose my religion then it would be nice to do it on the basis of specifics and not generalizations. And I swear I'm not trying to be a smart ass, Intrepid.

Check out just about any thread in ATSNN or WoT. This thread was about thinking for oneself, not play party politics and trying to outshout the opposing ideology.

Nice thread, intrepid.

I also think there is a lot of "assuming my ideology" going on... That, too, gets tiresome...


[edit on 9-6-2006 by loam]

Originally posted by loam
Nice thread, intrepid.

I also think there is a lot of "assuming my ideology" going on... That, too, gets tiresome...

[edit on 9-6-2006 by loam]

I know what you mean. I've been labelled a Lib in one thread and Con in another. That's OK, keep em guessing.

VERY good one intrepid mate.
I will get something together on that. This thread certainly makes sense. Love it!!

left wing, right wing, one bird.

I cant learn about or discover my neighbourhood when only looking at it from the left side or only from the right side. By looking at it from right, left, front, back, up, down I get the whole picture and learn the truth.

People have called me "lib" and "con" and everything else too. Thats how I realized how stereotypical and silly these labels are. Trying to reduce the uniqueness, versitality and flexibility of an individual to some dumb political label.

IMO this is a dead issue I was able to avoid the topics on AP that I thought were unproductive but now it a waste of time because of the Ron Paul obsession. ATS is often just the same topics repeated unless it is a chance to make the US look bad a topic will disappear pretty quickly.

Funny how no one has ever called me a Liberal....



Except of course maybe a Ron Paul cultist like xpert was saying...

Semper

its stereotype, meaning two-sided rather than multi-perceptual. When I talk on the subject of money and finances people attack me with labels like "con" and "captilalist". When I talk on the subject of war people attack me with labels like "lib" and "socialist".

I bet most people cant even clearly define what these labels are supposed to mean.

And its a global conspiracy too: The conspiracy to keep people focussed on two sides (black and white) so that they miss not only THOUSANDS of other options but also waste time fighting a side rather than getting work done.

reply to post by intrepid


What if you don't believe in either party? I think both sides are crap to be honest, and there's no such thing as an honest politician (yet?).

I agree with the whole left/right divide, its rather annoying having someone tell me what I am when they don't have a clue.

I might as well run around like a commy fascist to make things easier.

Originally posted by intrepid
Here we go again. When I see a thread about a certain congressman, senator, garbageman, whatever, you see who's posting the thread and you can tell if the subject of the story is a Rep or a Dem BEFORE reading it. It's the opposing ideology, EVERY DAMN TIME. No one and no party is perfect BUT it appears that these threads get dredged up to prove that, "my party can beat up your party." This is tedious and self serving.

It's no different than the religious threads. But the annoying thing about these discussions (at least to me, anyway) is that there's really no discussion at all. Everybody knows everybody's position, no new information or ideas are exchanged, and so all adds up to being pretty boring and pointless. You already know what the other person is going to say, so why bother?

And I hate to say it, but the worst of the bunch these days are from the Ron Paul supporters. They're so wound up about the whole thing that disagreeing with them automatically makes you "evil" in some way. It's almost the definition of fanaticism, and therefore as boring as any Sunday School class.

Every once in a while I miss the WATS.

Oh well, star for you...

Oh yes, almost invariably those threads you reference are negative. I can't recall one right off the top of my head that was complementary. Well said, Intrepid.

OK, so it's a metaphorical star...

[edit on 3-12-2007 by seagull]

To expand upon what you guys said here:

What shocks me the most is how predictable people are who call themselves conservatives or liberals. Once they call themselves that, you can predict exactly what their positions will be on certain topics, who they will vote, what they will do, etc. Like robots.

[edit on 3-12-2007 by Skyfloating]

Originally posted by biggie smalls
What if you don't believe in either party? I think both sides are crap to be honest, and there's no such thing as an honest politician (yet?).

That's the key. No ONE party, or ideology, is correct. They may be on some points, another ideology on others. You don't believe in either party? That's GREAT, makes you a thinking person. Issue by issue.

Originally posted by Skyfloating
To expand upon what you guys said here:

What shocks me the most is how predictable people are who call themselves conservatives or liberals. Once they call themselves that, you can predict exactly what their positions will be on certain topics, who they will vote, what they will do, etc. Like robots.

[edit on 3-12-2007 by Skyfloating]

Yup and it's sad really. Like indoctrination.

Shearder took the time to put this to music and I think he did a helluva good job:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Thanks intrepid. Unfortunately i had to keep the voice down hehehe...

But good thread none the less.