I have a question. Why are you here?

I'm serious. Why are you here?

Let me tell you the reason I am here. Though I believe that my own opinions and stances on political issues are correct, I also realize that I can't rely on myself to confirm them. Countless opinions of mine have changed over the years simply as a result of me putting them out into the open and seeing if they hold up against scrutiny. That's why I'm here, to see if any of my opinions or beliefs hold up to scrutiny.

So imagine how surprised I am to come here and learn that the vast majority of posts on this forum are along the lines of "this is what I believe! Here are zero facts to support this belief!" A lot of people are just laying opinions out there and not backing them up with anything. It's no different from when your english teacher told you to write a paper, and you offered your thesis statement, and then your paper just suddenly ended. That's essentially what most of the posts here are about.

I am here for substantive debates on important topics, and those debates are only effective with the exchange of FACTS, not with the exchange of OPINIONS. These substantive debates are SEVERELY lacking on this forum. I came here in hopes that I could have real political discussions, and I'm finding that I'll spend a good 20 minutes writing up a detailed post, only to have it dismissed by one or two sentences along the lines of "you're just listening to what your side of the fence is telling you!" Without any sort of actual insight into the issue itself.

To those of you whose purpose for being here is to change other people's minds, can you demonstrate to me a person whose mind you changed, i.e. show something you wrote, followed by them saying "oh yeah, alright, I guess that's true! I change my mind!" If your purpose for being here is to influence people's minds, and you have 0 examples of this, then, well....why are you here?

If you are here just to put down the opposing side to feel better about yourself and your opinions, then see a therapist to resolve your self-esteem issues. That will be 100x more effective than what you're doing here.

So. Why are you here?

 

I enjoy a good discussion/debate, and I like testing my thoughts on others and testing their opinions against mine.

 

Some of us don't need our opinions affirmed. My opinion is that a number of the Democrats who boycotted the Inauguration because their suspicion that Russia was involved made Trump illegitimate are hypocrites. I don't need anyone to pat me on the back and tell me I'm right because those same hypocrites attended the 1997 Inauguration despite the DNC and the Clinton funding their 1996 campaigns by selling influence to China, Korea and other foreign countries. Here's where they were spanked:

http://articles.latimes.com/2002/sep/21/nation/na-fec21

1996 Fund-Raising Scandals Bring Stiff Penalty
Politics: The FEC levies a record $719,000 in fines against DNC and other groups for arranging illegal contributions from foreign sources.
September 21, 2002|From the Washington Post
WASHINGTON — The Federal Election Commission disclosed Friday that it has imposed a record-setting $719,000 in fines against participants in the 1996 Democratic Party fund-raising scandals involving contributions from China, Korea and other foreign sources.

The FEC documents describe Democratic fund-raisers who set specific prices for foreign nationals to make illegal campaign contributions in return for meetings with then-President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. A Democratic finance vice chair, for example, said organizers would have to contribute a total of $100,000 in return for Gore's appearance at a Buddhist temple in Los Angeles.

Those penalized included the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton-Gore campaign, the Buddhist temple and nearly two dozen people and corporations acting as conduits for illegal contributions. All have agreed to pay, according to the documents.

The total in fines would have been significantly higher except that some of the corporations have folded and others were dummy operations, with no assets, set up as conduits for money from China, Venezuela, Canada and other countries. Foreign individuals and organizations are barred from contributing to federal elections. In some cases, foreigners who would have been subject to fines could not be located and served with papers. In other cases, which sometimes produced minor news coverage, the individuals pleaded guilty in criminal cases and are bankrupt.


Do I need the link? No. Everyone should know the sordid history of Clinton corruption and hypocrisy of Democrats like John Lewis and Maxine Waters.

 

Ok. So that's why you are here? To make sure people know stuff that they might have missed otherwise?

 

I enjoy the discussion, and the interaction of different viewpoints. For example, city-folks reporters are fascinated by burn barrels. We lit these up nightly on the ranch, for years, and never, did a single reporter show up. Here with city folks, these things are big news!


https://twitter.com/washingtonian/status/822564324417949697/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

So, these forums broaden my awareness of other viewpoints.

 

Fair question --- I'm here to pick up things to research from here and to correct the record on things I've already researched. There are people who are scared of people who are informed. You can tell who they are. They denigrate Fox News because they don't want others hearing news stories that the Left-Wing media censors. I can't help watching left-wing cable news at Happy Hour, but it makes me want to puke and to think that is the drivel people watch exclusively is disgusting. For instance, The Clinton News Network focused their Inauguration day coverage talking about Russian hacking, the Obama Library, the riots, and how divisive Trump's speech was.

I'll give you an opinion ,,, and if you run across my posts, you will find confirmation over time. The ideology pushed by Progressives who hijacked the Democratic Party hasn't worked anywhere, ever. Thus, they have to bully people whose opinions are not in line with theirs. That's why it's hard to find a Socialist State that doesn't flip to a totalitarian form -- like Communism. Best of luck to you.

 

You spend your Happy Hour doing things that make you puke? I mean, I did too, and I had to go to Alcoholics Anonymous to rid myself of that! Don't know why you'd choose to keep the punishment going.

I think if you talk to more reasonable-minded liberals, the thing that really bothers them about Fox News is their claim of being "fair and balanced". I would completely respect them and their viewpoints if they were finally just upfront about the fact that they are clearly slanted to the right, or at least make it clear that they're referring to their attempts at making the media as a WHOLE be "fair and balanced" by being the ones offering the right-wing perspective to "balance out" all the left-leaning perspectives from CNN and the like. At any rate, Fox News sometimes expresses themselves as politically neutral, and I doubt there's a single rationally-minded person on the planet who genuinely believes that.

 

I am here out of curiousity to see what kind of opinions I might find on this website. This is my first post actually, the title of the thread caught my eye. Not quite sure where to start either, but I will most likely be navigating some threads.

As for you Mitch, I believe that a Socialist State should be authoritarian.

 

Some of us come here and post facts and logical commons sense solutions, hoping that some that dont have those traits might see the value of them.

Sorry to say tho as the old saying goes in many cases ------------- you cant fix stupid.

 

I am here to express my opinion. I was a member on a different board for many years engaging construction conversations. I like to be aware of the current vents and reading people's opinions helps me understand them better. I am a guy who used to read the news paper from cover to cover especially the editorial page since I was about 12 years old in 1972. I like to read. I like to learn.
I am a progressive liberal indipendendent voter. I am extremely offended when I must endure some right wing idealogue use psycological propaganda techniques to demonize progressive voters by using the term liberal as a weapon. I think that ought to be against the rules of the board. I am here for intelligent conversation not to be insulted.
On most right wing boards you will be attacked and banned for simply not being a jerk. That has Been my experience. They will attack your computer attack you personally . They are vicious . So I hope that I will be safe to speak my mind here. I don't care if anyone agrees with me , I don't care if they tell me I am wrong. If I am tell me why.
Sometimes I can be very clever and very funny. I am always polite.

 

I am here to educate the less fortunate on what is correct and what is not correct. What would you like to know?

 

I mostly come here for a wider understanding of how people around the world, see the world.

Obviously that serves putting my own theories and beliefs to the test.

I tend to appreciate informative posts digging beneath the surface more than the daily "post to win internet war" agenda that influence some sections in all fora.
The latter can be informative as well, granted.

Over the years I, as many I think, have grown weary with mainstream media.
A few hours reading on a discussion forum is much more interesting.

To add to this, as europeans we are often tought in school and in our media that USA is the pinnacle of this world.

In that light its interesting to view your internal discussions from far away.

Makes me think, maybe I should sign up to some Russian, Chinese, South american fora for even more world view balance.

H

 

Can you explain why using the term liberal is extremely offensive yet right wing ideologue is not?

 

SuperfluousNinja - Great Post

I am here for politics. To have insights with foreign discourse on subjects. Not here for ideology. Nationalism, meaningless word fighting. But truths. Be they political or philosophical in nature. Whether this forum can provide this will remain to be seen. I have high expectations from political-forum.com

hmm I don't like the emotes. Smiley Happy Face, with a degree of enthusiasm, laced with ponderous skepticism and a touch of dry martini.

 

Because my father and mother were taking advantage of Applebee's happy hour when they decided...

 

This link ought to demonstrate it.

http://www.politicalforum.com/showthread.php?t=187727&page=5&p=1067020121#post1067020121

I'm here to expose cognitive infiltrators by using the facts derived from the framing documents that people refuse to acknowledge for what ever reason.

Either they are infiltrators, or they are too afraid of the NSA, or they are too stupid to read the law and understand that it REALLY does empower us exactly as is defined here. Maybe they are too afraid of what their neighbor will think if they actually start working with something effective.

http://algoxy.com/law/lawfulpeacefulrevolution.html

Or, they are infected with the MIND PARASITE that will cause human extinction that the Cree called "wetiko" or the Ojibwe called "windingo".

Not one so called constitutional scholar can oppose this strategy by using the law of the framing documents. Its real, and, it is very likely the only real avenue to survival of our species.

America has the influence to change the global direction, from that which it promoted, into sustainability, but with our current infiltrated governments, that ain't going to happen.

 

As a Citizen of a state of the united states for America, do you
understand, agree and accept then DECLARE it is constitutional intent
that the framers of the founding documents intended for us to alter or
abolish government destructive to the ideal of our unalienable rights?

As a Citizen of a state of the united states for America, do you
understand, agree, accept then DECLARE it is constitutional intent
that the ultimate purpose of free speech be to enable the unity
adequate to effectively alter or abolish government destructive to the ideal of our
unalienable rights?

 

Hello ChristopherABrown

I see you share my interest but from a different perspective. Free speech fascinates me. But I am not American. UK National. London.

My interest is technological cultural internet based free speech. The chaos of a world sharing interactive space via online communication. Are there any topics that explore this view? Without the religions connotations.

Thank you.

 

To gawp at the ongoing dissolution and corrosion of the American/Western mind, culture, and society and otherwise have a laugh at the expense of aberrant, joke human beings whose mothers should have swallowed.

 

I dunno...

... beats playin' gin rummy...

... with Granny, Uncle Ferd an' possum...

... possum always wins.

 

For the same reasons you're here. I will admit to not posting links on every post(or hell, even many posts these days. Since I lost access to my online college, I don't really have a wide variety of sources that'll let me stand out anyway. My sources now, are pretty much the same as anyone else's.) Given that that is the case, I will post links when necessary but if it's something that's been widely reported and confirmed, I expect other people to put that same effort forth, you know?

I'm not here to prove I'm right. I'm here to challenge my own assertions, just like you are. I'm here to ascend to greater intellectual and political heights. And though this poster seems to have left on their own free will, I did tell the story once about how Aki turned me from a naive economic protectionist, into an economic expansionist whose okay with spending more money, as long as we get what we're paying for.

 

It gets like that around election time. In a couple of months we'll be debating policy proposals which require more in depth criticism.

Stick with it until 5hen.

 

Hello mrhender

"Makes me think, maybe I should sign up to some Russian, Chinese, South american fora for even more world view balance. "

That is one of the reasons I created an account with Political-Forum.com. To view the american perspective of current political themes that seem very problematic in troubling times.

VK - VKontakte enlightening for the Russian Perspective.

As for Chinese and South American. I have not had that pleasure.

Forums be they political or anything else. Are echo chambers to similar views. There is not one standard but many which is time consuming, also very enlightening.

 

The ultimate purpose of free speech exists regardless of national divisions. It is basically biological.

Consider shaming a sh*t ton of Americans by understanding their founding documents better than they do and providing a proper answer.

 

I'm here because no one in my life (except my son) is capable of discussing politics.

I also like to remind liberals that we have a Constitution and what our Founding Fathers intended.