How do you form your political opinion?

hanimmal

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
So Keenly brought up a thought that is very near and dear to me in this thread https://www.rollitup.org/politics/219125-i-have-been-noticing-recently.html

And I thought that it brings up an important question. How do we form our political thoughts. Say we hear something that we wonder about hit a google search and read the first article. Or have a favorite set of websites that we read the articles and get a perspective? Read or watch the news channels?


So I thought this would be interesting to see what/how people end up with the ideas they have.

I hope this doesn't turn into a pissing match, but it doesn't have to be a bad thing since it may open up the way you look into things or allow you to add to the way we gather our information.

Just try to have an open mind and remember that we may help others to form better ideas. We all have something to add to any discussion.
 
TreesOfLife

TreesOfLife

Well-Known Member
hanimmal said:
So Keenly brought up a thought that is very near and dear to me in this thread https://www.rollitup.org/politics/219125-i-have-been-noticing-recently.html

And I thought that it brings up an important question. How do we form our political thoughts. Say we hear something that we wonder about hit a google search and read the first article. Or have a favorite set of websites that we read the articles and get a perspective? Read or watch the news channels?


So I thought this would be interesting to see what/how people end up with the ideas they have.

I hope this doesn't turn into a pissing match, but it doesn't have to be a bad thing since it may open up the way you look into things or allow you to add to the way we gather our information.

Just try to have an open mind and remember that we may help others to form better ideas. We all have something to add to any discussion.
Click to expand...
How do you form your opinions?
 
hanimmal

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
So the way I have used to form my ideas have evolved over the years and are still changing to this day. About 2 years or so ago I have realized that I could no longer just listen blindly to the news. It was when I started to study economics. I was watching CNN and listening to the people that were running our country talk about things that I was studying, only to realize they were wrong, and had no clue what they were saying.

Anyway It is not a thread about how it changed it is what I do now.

Basically I usually watch c-span to see the actual debates, but that gets old real fast since they all seem to just be there to get on the news. So I will watch the news channels (mostly fox or conservitive radio atm) to see what is being said. Then I will find the topics being discussed and try to investigate the key words on a google search to find the sites they get this information from, most the talking heads really don't think anymore their writers I swear just google things and write words for them to spout.

After that I read the blogs posted and try to find out what they are saying and where the evidence came from. From there I have learned that cut and pasted comments or paraphrasing is just a way to angle the 'evidence' into their beliefs. But the next step is where I spend most the time. I will go and read the full story of what is being said (through the full comments or transcripts, or bills, or the science being used). After I have all this information I will then formulate which side I think is the best choice.

Then I will come to websites like this and fully formulate my ideas with listening to people with different views. All the while looking up if what they are saying is true. It is a way for me to not stagnate and to not miss information along the way. And hell it is fun.

This is why I end up being on one side here and other side there. But the biggest thing that I have learned this way is that inevitably both sides are usually on the same side of most arguments, but just disagree on what is the best path to get there. And the people that make money off the blogs and news casters may know this, or they may not. But I think that they do since they do it so well.

Anyway that is my method.
 
Dolce Vita

Dolce Vita

Active Member
id hanimmal, i try to look at every issue from a non partisan pov (this is not always possible) then i decide whats right. i cant stand all the kool-aid drinkers on this site.
 
hitch420

hitch420

Well-Known Member
Relentless searching the interent, and keeping a very skeptical mind. You can never really tell wheather the info your reading is fact or just another mind controll game.
I personally try to discredict all the info i read to see which source i trust the most.
 
Dolce Vita

Dolce Vita

Active Member
and what i see the most is that one side of the argument brings up good points that are true and can bed backed up with credible evidence, and the other side completely ignores their points and says there piece
 
hitch420

hitch420

Well-Known Member
like the moon landings lol. The conspiracy has a point, and explanation and all the answers you could ever want. but on the other hand you have nasa, who protest they have rock solid evidence of the moon landings, but then also decide to tape over the original footage. And just ignore real evidence.
 
TreesOfLife

TreesOfLife

Well-Known Member
hitch420 said:
like the moon landings lol. The conspiracy has a point, and explanation and all the answers you could ever want. but on the other hand you have nasa, who protest they have rock solid evidence of the moon landings, but then also decide to tape over the original footage. And just ignore real evidence.
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Hell it could be true that they went to the moon in I think it was 1925 using anti-gravity.
 
hanimmal

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
like the moon landings lol. The conspiracy has a point, and explanation and all the answers you could ever want. but on the other hand you have nasa, who protest they have rock solid evidence of the moon landings, but then also decide to tape over the original footage. And just ignore real evidence.
Click to expand...
This is funny, I had a public speaking class in 98 and actually had my speech about this being faked. There is some really interesting things about it, but who knows I wasn't alive then and haven't looked at it since then? Maybe it is time to look at it again, but like licking a tootsie pop, the world may never know.


I am surprised that more people that frequent the site have not talked about where they get all their information.
 
cackpircings

cackpircings

Well-Known Member
By following your hart and picking what best fits you and your personality, and having the passion to stand up for what you believe in. In the same since having respect for the person on the other side of the fence from you.
 
ViRedd

ViRedd

New Member
Good thread, hanimmal ...

I started thinking about the liberty issue in the sixth grade. I was lucky enough to have a teacher who taught us about the Founding Fathers and the Constitution in detail. I realized in later years what a radical this teacher was. Well, if one would consider Thomas Jefferson to be a radical, then this teacher was a radical. :lol:

From there, I started to vote when the legal age for voting was 21. I joined the Democrat Party just like my parents, and like my parents, I believed that the Democrats were for the little guy, the common man, if you will. My first presidential vote went to John F. Kennedy.

Then something drastic happened to me. A friend recommended a book for me to read; Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. This book changed my political outlook forever. I changed over to the Republican Party, believing they were for lower taxes (economic liberty) and smaller government (political liberty). Then I continued reading and ran across a book written by Frederic Hayek; The Road to Serfdom.

After that, I realized that both parties were following Keynesian economics. After reading The Road to Serfdom, the only economic system that made sense to me was Austrian economics (Mises, Hayek, Friedman.) I quit the Republicans post haste and joined the Libertarian Party. Since then, if something is on the ballot, I ask myself; "does this measure mean higher taxes and more government, or lower taxes and less government? I always vote against the first, and always vote in favor of the second.

I continued to study our economic system. I discovered the totalitarianism that is our current tax system. I learned about our fiat money system and the Federal Reserve and the economic enslavement this is causing for our future generations.

I've learned about the fascistic Progressive movement that started before the Wilson administration which has continued there-after. We are approaching the final stages now. Witness the government takeover of the education systems, the monetary systems (fiat money), the banks, the auto industries, home mortgages (Fannie & Freddie), and now they are attempting to take over our entire health care system.

At this point, my library contains over 1000 books on the liberty issue ... and I've read every one of them.

I've witnessed the loss of our financial privacy in the name of the Holy Drug War. Money laundering laws are nothing more than a ploy to eventually gain economic control over the individual. Cash will soon be a thing of the past. As soon as cash is gone, we will have nothing left but credit and debit cards. Further technological advancements (almost here) will eliminate the cards by implanting a micro chip into each newborn. Remember, we are already conditioned for this. Every newborn now has to have a Social Security number (tax I.D. number) assigned before leaving the hospital. The parents believe this is normal and think nothing of it. Soon, all personal finances will be done through credits and debits. Your employer will scan your credits into your implanted micro chip on payday, and when you buy something, you will be scanned for the debit. No credits left? Too bad, you don't eat.

Eventually, the government will dictate what we eat, where we live, how we travel and how much we can weigh based upon body mass. They will determine what we ingest, smoke and drink. In fact, they already are. The government will determine how many children we can have ... and who can have them. They will indoctrinate our children through an education system that spans nursery school through college. Even more so than today, our government education system will evolve further into nothing but government indoctrination centers. The citizens (subjects) of the future will honestly believe that children are property of the state.

I don't paint a very positive picture of the future of liberty in this country, I know, but think globally. Citizens of the future will be global citizens. All borders will be erased and we will be diluted into one mass of dependent people with no separate national identity, totally dependent upon our liege lords who run the money system from the top.

This is what the Progressives have had in mind all the time. They have gained power slowly. First, through the 16th Amendment and the Federal Reserve Act. Then through the takeover of the schools. Then through entitlement programs ... FDR's New Deal. LBJ's Great Society ... and on, and on, and on. Bush continued with the prescription drug plan and his expansion of government. Now we see Obama in hyper-speed ... and this idiot community organizer is actually destroying the U.S. economy right before our eyes. What are we doing about it? Cheering the guy on, that's what. After all, we want "free" medical, right?

For the naysayers who believe that I paint a picture that Americans will reject, consider that we now need government's permission to drive a car, to travel, to get married, to own a dog, to hunt, to fish, to own a gun, to start a business, to enter into a profession. We think nothing of this oversight because we have been conditioned to believe that government has the right to control these things. Based upon that, Americans of the future will fall into lock-step and just go along with the program in the name of protection and convenience.


Nuff said ... but that's how I came to think politically as I do.

Vi
 
hom36rown

hom36rown

Well-Known Member
Wow, you seem to be so sure as to what will happen. I think maybe you've read to much dystopian literature..or maybe not.

Speaking of Atlas shurgged, which by the way is quite possibly the most boring book ever written, did you know Rand denounced libertarianism as a threat to freedom and capitalism?

Anyway for me, I read articles, and blogs, and go to politics forums to see people debate different sides of an issue.
 
ViRedd

ViRedd

New Member
hom36rown said:
Wow, you seem to be so sure as to what will happen. I think maybe you've read to much dystopian literature..or maybe not.

Speaking of Atlas shurgged, which by the way is quite possibly the most boring book ever written, did you know Rand denounced libertarianism as a threat to freedom and capitalism?

Anyway for me, I read articles, and blogs, and go to politics forums to see people debate different sides of an issue.
Click to expand...
Well, hom36, I don't want to doubt you, or even start an argument, but I've read almost everything written by Ayn Rand, including all of her Objectivist Newsletters, and I don't recall her denouncing libertarianism anywhere. Yes, she was a capitalist's capitalist ... but I don't believe that capitalism and libertarianism are opposing ideals.

Vi
 
TreesOfLife

TreesOfLife

Well-Known Member
Our government is a Plutocracy

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plutocracy
Main Entry: plu·toc·ra·cy Pronunciation: \plü-ˈtä-krə-sē\ Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural plu·toc·ra·cies Etymology: Greek ploutokratia, from ploutos wealth; akin to Greek plein to sail, float — more at flow Date: 1652 1 : government by the wealthy 2 : a controlling class of the wealthy
— plu·to·crat \ˈplü-tə-ˌkrat\ noun
— plu·to·crat·ic \ˌplü-tə-ˈkra-tik\ adjective
— plu·to·crat·i·cal·ly \-ti-k(ə-)lē\ adverb
 
I

ilkhan

Well-Known Member
I began wondering how one would take over the world in 7th grade.
By 12th grade I figured out someone beat me to it.
Those pricks must pay for foiling my plan.

I watched the New World Order speach by Bush Sr. in the early 90's.
At the time I didn't know anything about the so called NWO.
But his speach sent shivers down my spine.
The look on his face was like, I don't know like:
"Like a serial killer trying to suduce his next victim."
That image him warmly smiling.
That is the image of evil IMO.

Religion creeps in to my political thought to sometimes.
Babalon, revolations, world government, cashless society.
The bible talks quite alot about it.
I am not a pious person I do believe in God though.
I don't want to be a part of any NWO scheme,
Just in case The bible wasn't lying.

Then I found the first politition I trusted in a long time. (I trusted Reagen but I was like 7)
I trusted Ron Paul. He didn't seem to evade questions.
He wanted Peace,
he wanted to leave me alone,
he wanted states to deside on drug laws.
He wanted to stop barrowing money from the FED,
about every thing he wanted was what I wanted.

He inspired me to read some on Austrian School economics.
I figured out Freedom is more important to me then things.
Freedom is more important then kicking ass overseas.
We used to be the shinning example to the world.
Because of the freedoms we enjoy.
Sence then we have lost something.
I wanted that Back.
 
hom36rown

hom36rown

Well-Known Member
hom36rown

hom36rown

Well-Known Member
I like this quote: "I could deal with a Marxist with a greater chance of reaching some kind of understanding, and with much greater respect."

Of course, Rand was a nut.
 
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