I'm a middle of the road voter. I have generally voted democrat even though I have rarely gotten the candidate that I wanted at the primaries. Socially I'm pretty liberal, economically a bit more pragmatic (except on socialized medicine ).

However I have noticed that as you start going to the left or right the lies and invention start coming thick and thin.

Fox news -Loons
NPR- Loons

Activists from the tea party or the Occupy movement -loons.

centrist politicians from both parties should desert and form a new party that gives most Americans what they want instead of handing power to the radicals and religious fucks.

(September 13, 2012 at 4:03 am)Puddleglum Wrote: centrist politicians from both parties should desert and form a new party that gives most Americans what they want instead of handing power to the radicals and religious fucks.

A lot of Americans want the radicals and religious fucks... there in lies to true problem. The whole world is full of idiots.

Actually most don't. Activists tend to extreme and parties get taken over by the activists. Most Americans don;t get what they want.

(September 13, 2012 at 6:09 am)Puddleglum Wrote: Most Americans don;t get what they want.

I think most people don't know what they want.

but if you try sometimes, you might get what you need.

I'm happy that all are able to contribute their input to the process — including the extremists.

I have never met a person that thought of themselves as extremist, true some realise that not many others hold the same opinions as themselves, but they often put this down to the others not being enlightened as they are. I have also come across many people who have presumed that they carry average opinions as they have not examined their own views.
There is also an aspect to this that many people think the people around them are the normal ones and those further away are the ones at odds with the normal people. Thus we get views like western christians are a bit odd, but they are more or less like we atheists, but as there are belligerent muslims so all muslims are belligerent. Or I am liberal middle of the road, therefore those that agree with me are normal, and those that don't are necessarily extreme, all these ways of thinking depict the person carrying them as lacking in self examination.

(September 14, 2012 at 7:34 am)jonb Wrote: I have never met a person that thought of themselves as extremist, true some realise that not many others hold the same opinions as themselves, but they often put this down to the others not being enlightened as they are. I have also come across many people who have presumed that they carry average opinions as they have not examined their own views.

I think most of those people are the same thing. There's also the fact that most people who are pretty extreme are able to look at someone else and say "I'm not an extremist because they're more extreme than me." My inlaws are fundamentalist Mormons and their beliefs (both religious and political) seem pretty extreme to me, but they can point to the FLDS and say "nope, that's extreme; we're normal." It doesn't help if you live yourself in a safe little bubble where everyone you encounter in day to day life believes the same thing you do (for example, my boyfriend was raised in what I call 'the Mormon bubble'). When you do that, sure, your beliefs might seem mainstream, but they're only mainstream within your bubble. Outside that bubble, with the rest of mainstream society, those beliefs are pretty extreme.

I think it's the other way round. I think the closer you get to the political centre the more lies you encounter.

I know what you mean