This diary is an extended response to a few questions posed in a conversation I had with AnonymousArmy
http://www.dailykos.com/...
I remember being captivated by the "pornographic" 24/7 news footage of Shock & Awe in April of 2003. However, I saw right through Bush's stunt on the aircraft carrier a few months later and at that point in time everything started to make sense and this was the first time I consciously recognized my own stupidity and became angry for being taken advantage of. The Iraq War helped along a more gradual shift in my political sentiments, one that actually began the day Al Gore conceded to Bush.
The personal issue that really had the strongest impact on me, however, was religion...
The conservative slant of my middle school years was attributed to my active participation in an evangelical christian church, and while the church itself didn't openly endorse bush, the acquaintainces I made there were typical FOXnews-loyal, NRA-loving, gay-bashing, Limbaugh-worshipping pseudointellectuals.
As I started doing normal teenage things, I started to realize that my religious beliefs (I like to note that these beliefs were semi-imposed by my mother) were not very compatible with my social life. Interst in drugs, sex, and alcohol are shortcomings that are simple to write off, as a whimsical teenager, but once I started to notice my own hateful rhetoric and that of my fellow church buddies, a very real distaste for the hypocrisy of the christian right began to grow deep inside of me. This is what really propelled me in the direction of reason and thought.
As for others my age, all you really need is a basic appreciation for the Daily Show to stay somewhat grounded in reality, and thank god for Stephen Colbert - bringing the game to a whole new level. I don't know any others in my age group who are strung out on politics enough to frequent blogs, but a few of my close friends have a pretty good obsession with news and politics so we always have plenty to grouse and grumble about.
The problem with my generation is that we take too much comfort in the knowledge that information is so easily accessible to us whereas outright indifference is what I see as the plague of the generation immediately before mine.
The reason why there isn't more political activism on college campuses right now is because we aren't connecting the dots, seeing the big picture, relating the news we hear to our everyday lives.
I think if more of us saw the raw democratic power that is made possible in the netroots, we would be the most eager ones to have our voices heard in politics. We are the generation that knows no limits. In this age of instant gratification, the whole world at our fingertips and readily accessible, the word 'no' is unfamiliar to our ears. So the problem is definitely not gettin them to speak their minds more - believe me we have more to say than we are ought to, given our experience - rather, we just need to reel these people in and show them that sites like this are meant for ordinary people and not these far-left tinfoil hat-wearing bleeding heart what-have-you's that they keep HEARING about.
(On a side note - attracting alot more young Kossacks might upset the nice balance we have going here. When I read RedState posters, I see a spitting image of myself during my unglorious years of pubescence. Therefore, I am making the assumption that the average RedState member is considerably younger than the average member here. It's possible that the maturity and civil discourse that we enjoy here might be somewhat diminished by an influx of younger members -- Just a thought)