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Obsessed with American politics

Posted by timethief • 9/04/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: American Politics, election 08 threads, obsession, sarcasm

User Comments

9/04/08

kellybax

I am an American but I have to agree with you wholeheartedly. It is EVERYWHERE on the net and there seems to be no escape. I will be very happy when this election is over!

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1. 9/04/08
  
  melindaville
  
  I totally agree. I am so sick of this election (and was months ago). November can't come soon enough.
2. 9/04/08
  
  timethief
  
  @kellybax and mtyler77
  It can't be over soon enough for me. What a shame that the election is so close to the celebrations of goodwill and peace like Hanuka, Winter Solstice and Christmas.
  
  It seems unlikely that all the competitive nastiness and fallacious arguments, personal attacks and racism that's currently destroying relationships between Blog Catalog Republicans and Democrats will be healed during that season or indeed any time soon thereafter.
3. 9/04/08
  
  melindaville
  
  You know what? You have convinced me to not participate in any more political discussions on this board. Seriously. You are so right--it is unhealthy and divisive. We should all be more focused in our similarities than in our differences.
9/04/08

melindaville

Best of luck, timethief. I am so sick of this election myself but keep feeling drawn in. It's my early exposure to politics--as the daughter of a former politician, I have a love-hate relationship that borders on an allergic reaction at times.

All I can say is that you are SO lucky to live in Canada.

Also, for the BC administrators. Some forums allow you to "ignore" entire threads. That might be a good feature to investigate on this forum. Then, members can simply delete the threads they don't wish to see. Might solve a lot of problems.

[reply]
1. 9/04/08
  
  timethief
  
  Our Canadian television and radio and newspapers are also full of poisonous American politics. I say "poisonous" because what we are hearing is not rational debate. We are hearing distorted media hype no matter where we go.
2. 9/04/08
  
  melindaville
  
  Wow--that is disheartening to know. It's gotten to the point where I can't stand even listening to NPR. And that's pretty bad because I am fairly addicted in the a.m.
9/04/08

MidwestMom

Sorry, TT

I just noticed that people were using extraordinarily long threads essentially to explain what they were writing about on their blogs. I thought a "Shameless Blog Promotion" thread was worth it to get some of the endless discussion off of the older threads. I also included a link to the politics board.

Sorry to frustrate you (and others). My apologies.

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9/04/08

thefly

Ugh! This discussion board on BC has become the junkyard for half-assed political opinions and its quite annoying. Everyone has an opinion and the fact that its an opinion and not a discussion makes everyone want to be right. The fact that its an opinion with no facts to back it up makes it even more ridiculous. I will say this though, the ones backing McCain and Palin are strecthing the facts moreso and arent backing up their opinions with anything other than slander. Its becoming a war of words with collateral damage. All the cool members are being drawn into these political discussions and anything cool and fun about the discussion boards has been stripped of most its life.

buzz buzz

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1. 9/04/08
  
  timethief
  
  @thefly
  BC has become the junkyard for half-assed political opinions
  
  I agree wholeheartedly with you.
9/04/08

rajakhair

I think I like Obama to be the United State next president.

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1. 9/04/08
  
  timethief
  
  @rajakhair
  That has nothing whatsoever to do with the topic I posted in this thread, so I cordially invite you to post to a thread where your opinion counts. See the list above.
9/04/08

DrowseyMonkey

Oh dear, the public gets what the public wants, ya know? I agree there are a lot of threads about this subject, but I've participated in them so I guess I must enjoy them to some extent...I'm guessing others do as well which is why they're popular.

Also, sometimes the threads get too long and a fresh one isn't such a bad thing, I mean some have 600 comments, those kind of threads are irrelavant after a while 'cause they're so long.

I have found that it's not as bad as it was a few months ago ... but less duplication would be nice.

And when it's in shameless blog promotion, I guess we can't fault people, I mean ... they are promoting their blog which they're allowed to do ... even if the subject matter may not interest someone or may seem repetitive.

[reply]
1. 9/04/08
  
  timethief
  
  @drowseymonkey
  The same small cadre of members are flooding the board with American politics and haranguing one another day after day. Most of what is posted is not rational debate; it's fallacious and circular argument. I'm sick of it!
2. 9/04/08
  
  DrowseyMonkey
  
  Yep, I agree...it's the same few people over & over again ... which is why I often avoid them (but not always). I mean we all know where everyone stands at this point, lol. Nothing new ... move along. But obviously it's enjoyable for those posting so nothing's gonna stop them ... since they're having a good time.
3. 9/04/08
  
  timethief
  
  @drowseymonkey
  Why should they think about any one other than themselves?
  Why should they get off their butts and campaign among the undecided voters where it may be effective?
  
  For frack sake I could prepare a list off the top of my head of all the BC political posters and tell you how they are going to vote in November by the end of the Obama and Clinton campaign. They won't be changing their minds so all they are doing here is pumping up their already inflated egos.
4. 9/04/08
  
  MidwestMom
  
  TT- I understand that you're sick of it. I have been trying to participate in political and non-political threads equally, because they are interesting AND because it moves them up the front page. Maybe a solution would be to pose more non-political questions? Or to only respond to those, ignoring the political ones?
  
  DM -What I can't understand is why the 600-comment threads can still be out there... isn't there a maximum? Most of the current comments aren't even responding to the original question.
5. 9/04/08
  
  DrowseyMonkey
  
  @TT - lol ... well, I'm the first to admit that I think of me first
  
  @MidwestMom - As for a cap on comments, nope ... see that baking soda one it's way up there.
9/04/08

mikeny07

This is history in the making though.

We will either have the first black president or the first female vice-president.

How is that not exciting?

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1. 9/04/08
  
  timethief
  
  @mikeny07
  What part of "ugly American politics" is it that you do not understand and that you think I should find "exciting"?
  
  The only history being made on this forum is the prolonged heated arguing between the same politically entrenched minority of American BC members, who are addicted to repeating themselves over and over ad infinitum.
  
  The historical fallout here in the BC community will be the ill will that the politically obsessed and rationally challenged have created. That's the irony because what we are here supposedly for is to build community and what I see is quite the opposite.
9/04/08

Anok

TT, I'm about ready to come up to your neck of the woods.

even though I can't help myself and stop myself from the debates, I too, am about done - with all of it.

Care to take in an orphaned Anarchist, her husband, and child till we can set up diggs of our own?

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1. 9/04/08
  
  DrowseyMonkey
  
  Anok - our election is about to be called ... so you may wanna hold off on that! lol
  
  Altho ours will be called and over with before yours is finished ... if that's any consolation.
2. 9/04/08
  
  Anok
  
  Yeah, but I don't know anything about it, so it won't be so heart-burn and headache inducing LOL!
  
  Seriously though, from what you've explained, it's a much more relaxed process there, or, I could be wrong
3. 9/04/08
  
  DrowseyMonkey
  
  Well ... just my opinion here, but Americans know how to put on a show ... we kinda suck at that, LOL. And your politicans have to compete with so much in the media that they have to be show men/women. But here the politicans would rather run under the radar ... they're sneaky like that. I get pretty fussed about it, but yeah ... I'm the minority. I did a post about it the other day ... got a lot of my venting out of my system for awhile
4. 9/04/08
  
  Anok
  
  /runs over to read post....
9/04/08

clioandme

I've been trying to only comment on existing threads. This inflation of new threads is ridiculous.

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9/04/08

acousticguitarist

Is it possible to make Yogi Bear president?

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1. 9/04/08
  
  voodooKobra
  
  We already did. Only instead of picnic baskets it was foreign oil.
  
  (Okay, I admit that was both lame and in poor taste.)
2. 9/04/08
  
  Theresa111
  
  Hey, Hey, Hey, Yogi
3. 9/04/08
  
  DrowseyMonkey
  
  lol...I can't believe voodoo knows yogi bear ... and booboo.
4. 9/04/08
  
  clioandme
  
  Maybe we could move the White House to Jellystone?
9/04/08

Theresa111

We had better sit up, pay close attention, encourage others to vote and to be wise in our decisions. For the past seven years, our country fell into deep troubles and together we need to save her. I love my country and now is the time to come to the aid of the USA.

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1. 9/04/08
  
  clioandme
  
  Hear hear.
9/04/08

othellobloke

One guy I dislike INTENSELY is Justin Webb who's the BBC's North America editor. He blogs endlessly about the U.S Presidential elections, as if that's the only important thing going on in North America. What an idiot!

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9/04/08

MadameX

I think nearly everyone will be glad when the election is over, but it seems that the whole concept of this thread misses a very critical point; the vast majority of people who feel passionately about this election and who discuss it at length aren't doing so because they have any particular interest in the abstract of "American politics". The United States is in a shambles. We have nearly 50 million people without access to medical care. We've been at war for more than five years. People are losing their homes at an unprecedented rate. Mass layoffs and corporate bankruptcies abound. Our Constitutional rights have been significantly damaged over the past seven years. And so on and so on and so on...and because the United States is so ridiculously large, these issues impact other areas of the world as well. We're not talking about football here...we're talking about the future of our country, our families, our friends, ourselves--even, to a degree, our foreign neighbors. Sorry if that seems like much ado about nothing to you, but with so much at stake perhaps you can understand why some people think it's a worthier focus than what color car you drive or how many times you've had sex in an elevator.

[reply]
1. 9/04/08
  
  clioandme
  
  Well put.
  
  (I just wish we didn't get 10 threads per topic.)
2. 9/04/08
  
  timethief
  
  IMO those who earnestly care about the American Presidential election outcome are not likely to be found pounding away on their keyboards posting to the sixteen over-lapping and duplicated threads currently running on the BC General Discussion forum. IMO they are too intelligent to be wasting their time refuting fallacious arguments being posted over and over again by the same individuals to multiple forum threads on the same topic. IMO they are more likely to be involved in efforts that are more likely to bear fruit such as campaigning for their preferred candidates among the undecided voters.
3. 9/04/08
  
  clioandme
  
  Use the report button for the spurious and repetitive threads.
4. 9/04/08
  
  timethief
  
  @markstoneman
  I'm not using the report button. However, I'm considering having the older set in my youth group do a study on the forum behaviors of the minority here at BC who are obsessively initiating and posting to threads on the impending American election.
  
  (1) I'm thinking in terms of an analysis and breakdown of the BC usernames of those, who either initiate more than one thread on the same topic on the BC General Discussion forum, or who post to multiple threads that are, in essence, on the same topic(s).
  
  (2) Another part of the assignment may be to identify all of the fallacious arguments being made, and the 16 second sound bite regurgitations (with links) so we can isolate by BC username, who relies on and repeats irrational, fallacious arguments and unsubstantiated claptrap.
  
  (3) It may also be interesting to have them prepare lists of which BC usernames have indicated by their comments and overt statements how they intend to vote (Republican or Democrat), but are still at it hammering away here on the BC General Discussion forum, rather than preaching to the unconverted voters and working hard to get out the vote in their own communities.
9/04/08

thoughtsofg

Ugh... I hate politics. I hate seeing it, hearing about it, watching people think that they are all cool cause they are some neo-monkey butt something something liberal. Man just eliminate political parties already. Hell, vote Ronald McDonald for president; maybe he'll get something done.

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9/04/08

othellobloke

If there was a partnership of a Brit and Canadian as American President and Vice President, all of America's problems would begin to disappear promptly.

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9/04/08

PetLvr

I'll have to start thinking up some wacky Harper/Dion titles.

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9/04/08

Shiley

I am so with you. Part of the reason why I've been staying away. A little on a blog is fine but every other thread is political here. I wish it was time to vote already.

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9/04/08

TonyB

There really is no need for a thread reporting all threads. If you find a thread offensive or spammy report it and admins will look at it.

We each receive numerous shouts a day from members as well as threads like this reporting other threads. The report button's purpose is so that we can efficiently go through what's reported in one spot.

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