Blogging has vastly improved my ability to cogently argue my positions. I can anticipate the counter arguments (watch for the inevitable straw men, for instance) and more easily defend them.

The reaction to Patterico’s post that Obama is a decent guy is one of the reasons I like the internet — because the responses typically are the unvarnished truth of how we really feel about topics. I’m not sure that’s true in “real life.”

I agree that most Americans want a better America, but I think they aren’t challenged enough to discover for themselves what makes that possible, either in the education system, the media, or socially. This is the poison that is Political Correctness. PC is the single greatest threat to civilization in the history of Man, because it censors opposing thought, rather than answering it. Which forms the basis of my contention that many Americans haven’t been exposed to the ideas that would be needed to form diverse views of how to get to a better America.

What we see presented as ‘vigorous debate’ is actually a censoring contest, using numbers, noise, physical intimidation, social pressure or cherrypicked authority to present one agenda as ‘obvious truth’ while simultaneously actively suppressing any and all dissent to such agenda.

The effect of this is to present a football game, on every channel, regardless of what anyone wants to watch. After enough time has passed, football is all anyone knows. Sites like these are an antidote to that line of thought. This is why I fully support the banning of trolls – not people who disagree, but people who come here to play football. There are plenty of football sites, this site is about ideas, not winning at any cost. It may not be the trolls’ fault that they are programmed for football, but their presence prevents moving away from that brainwashed view.

For me, this is why blogging and commenting are important. Like the characters in Logan’s Run, readers venturing outside the stadium might discover a third way of thinking – one that holds disdain for the ‘sides’, and prefers the battle of ideas.

I agree that there are differences, but a lot of people view this as a football game. Look at the reaction to Patterico’s post on Prop 8 and his post that Obama wasn’t the worst human being ever. It was not just that he was mistaken, but that he was dishonest and evil and betraying his team.

I expected that, but the degree of the fury was rather spectacular. People quit reading because of it (or at least said they would.)

Not everyone believes that people who disagree with them are evil and stupid, but some degree of confirmation bias affects almost everyone.

I think most of America wants a better America, but views getting there in different ways.

–JRM

What makes me appreciate this blog and PP’s is the fact that I have sometimes been in agreement with aphrael, and disagreement with nk or Scott Jacobs. The quality of the commenters here (when the trolls are removed) is such that anyone truly wishing to communicate and learn finds it difficult to fall into the lazy assumptions that beget the notion of a ‘side’.