Reply #60: My 2 cents [View All]

[chookie]

There are jerks at DU -- proportional to the percent of jerks in the general population. I dunno -- there is an aggressive, in-your-face style that seems to be fashionable these days everywhere that may be a part of it. Some people don't care about "agreeing to disagree" but instead wish to have unanimous consent to their personal positions. Some are just plain rude. Some just love to agitate and be agitated. And some are deliberately disruptive. Again -- I don't think its worse than in the general population.

I come here to discuss, but mainly to listen. I guess I am interested in exhange of ideas -- not mass persuasion.

I am interested in getting opinions from as wide a variety of people as possible -- even if I don't agree with their positions -- because I want to have a sense of what is happening in a general sense, and what kind of issues are on peoples' minds. It doesn't make sense to decry the notion that DU has drifted to the right (even if that was true) -- when it represents a probably trend in the whole country.

I sure hope that *everyone* continues to post their perceptions and opinions. Even if I do not embrace, or perhaps even reject, an opinion, I am grateful for the education I can receive here as to what that position encompasses. I can find articulate spokespersons from many viewpoints here. Perhaps they feel frustrated at times that they are not making headway and that so many people argue against them, but what they may not be aware of is that they are in fact being heard.

It is rather frustrating, however, that it can be quite challenging to be frank here. There are issues I would love to discuss that I don't dare bring up, because people are going to be bouncing off the walls, claiming that their special interest is being violated -- but then again, that is the risk of participating in an open forum. If we don't have thick enough hide to survive DU -- we SURE don't have what it takes to survive political life in modern America!