So I was just talking with one of my friends. He's from Spain, and just got back from a visit there. In Spain, he told me, people talk about politics as if were a sport--all the time. He jokingly said that many people there talk much more about the upcoming elections in the US than Americans do.
Of course there is an element of exaggeration in what he is saying, but there is also an element of truth. In my experiences, it is pretty damn difficult to raise the ever-controversial subject of politics--especially among the wrong group of people. Of course, it's always pretty easy to bring up politics among friends who safely echo our opinions, right? But why is it so difficult these days to for people with opposing views to discuss politics?
In the last wandering post I wrote, I talked about my stint as a bartender, where I spent long days and nights slinging drinks. It was a job full of conversation and interactions--but those actions were somewhat limited. The favored subjects of conversation included sports, business, other bars, women, relationship...things like that. But politics were generally off limits, as more than one customer informed me. It just wasn't a subject that went over well, since tempers tended to flare up almost immediately.
This is a pretty interesting--and depressing--state of affairs. But then, my memories and experiences might be a little warped from time. Am I off base? Is it true that we Americans have a difficult time actually discussing politics with people who disagree with us?
If we can't discuss politics, religion, war, and other important issues, then where will they get decided. Sure, we have political blogs, but in my experience those tend to be places of agreement more than discussion--at least some kind of overall political agreement. And when liberals try to engage in conservative blogs--and vice versa--all hell breaks loose. The interactions that I see between the two sides are rarely something that would qualify as a discussion. Usually it all breaks down into political factionalism and, of course, name calling.
I have this continuing habit of trying to discuss politics with people I do not agree with, and most of the time I end up getting the usual epithets tossed at me: I'm just another hippy, liberal, chomskyite, treehuggin, socialist, anti-american...and so on. You name it. None of it bothers me, beyond the fact that it all gets really repetitive and tedious. It's a rare day on some of those sites that anyone concedes even a single point. Very rare.
To be fair, I have encountered a similarly hostile reception on some liberal sites as some conservative sites. Maybe I'm the problem! It's possible, very possible. But what I want to know is why political discussion, from various sides of the spectrum, so easily devolves into off-topic ad hominem madness.
I have no problem with people who get passionate and even angry about politics--in fact I think that's great. What bothers me is when people can no longer talk about their positions, when they resort to tactics that completely deny any actual communication.