@coldjoint,
coldjoint wrote:I was over at the SOTU thread and noticed you don't have to read a post to find out who is conservative, you just have to look at the minus signs.
Again back to the narrative, why do you have to disagree, and punish, someone with different ideas? Is that the liberal way? Doesn't lend much to tolerance. Is this to be the only acceptable solution to everything?
Not a ******* chance.
I sympathize with you.
The "thumbing down" function is an unfortunate feature of this website. You've probably noticed by now that completely noncontroversial, innocuous posts will be given "thumbs down" simply because of the poster's politics or sometimes because he lacks social skills online. I'm not favoring conservatives over "progressives" or vice versa. (For the record, I'm a moderate who no longer has any hope that much good can come out of politics.) I'm just making my own personal observation (which is shared by at least a few other members, by the way). What's fair is fair. The "thumbing down" feature also provides an opportunity for troublemaking by trolls who might not even have an ideological ax to grind.
Facebook (which is not one of my favorite websites) has a "Like" feature which also identifies each individual by username who clicks on "Like." Likewise, the "thumbs down" feature should not be anonymous. The identity of the one who is "displeased" should be revealed. It might cut down on the spiteful "thumbing down."
I never was a William Buckley fan. Sometimes he'd make me want to shriek. But he was a gentleman and seemed to have a lot of class. I was impressed by the way he debated those with whom he disagreed. He didn't resort to name-calling and the like, but actually exercised some civility. I once read somewhere that after the filming of a
Firing Line program, Buckley and his liberal guest(s) would go out and eat dinner together. He even had liberal friends.
I know there's always been incivility in political controversies, but it seems like within the last twenty years it's gotten a lot worse.