Poll of the Day > Have you been radicalized?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Politix

I'm an antagonizer, I enjoy hanging out with people I don't like

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X84OOlMO8Os

No good answer for me.
I have a general idea of what's going on and think that most of the major issues are just a distraction.
I don't enjoy hanging out with any type of people.
The people I am acquainted with do not share the same political views as me.

I was pretty radical in the 80's

Yeah, I dont hang out in communities. Im aggressively moderate so there are no longer any communities willing to have me.

Yes.

I have democrat friends, republican friends, anti government friends, and apolitical friends, politics don't matter in a friendship if you don't get preachy about it.

I have mostly conservative friends lol

I actually dont think I have any liberal friends irl

My stance is as long as you're not acting bigoted, we're cool.

I've yet to find a place where everyone agrees with my views. I don't think such a place exists.

PMarth2002 posted...

My stance is as long as you're not acting bigoted, we're cool.

Pretty much this. Theres a lot of different approaches to how things can be run, but hurting/abusing people and being a bigot aint cool.

That's not what defines radicalization, but I once had a high school friend throw a screaming fit at me about gay people once (and I mean literal screaming about how gay people are gross and therefore should all die and such... this was a few years before gay marriage was made legal in the USA) and it made me not so eager to make friends with any more conservatives in general.

No, though I don't discuss politics with others much.

I don't generally discuss politics with my friends, so I honestly have no idea what their views are on most political things. I know there's one that I have fairly similar political views to and one I have fairly different political views to, but I honestly haven't had any in-depth political conversations with either of those two and all of my other friends I'm almost completely clueless as to where their political allegiances lie.

Dude, of course. I'm not a square

Nope. I can think for myself and also I dont base my life around politics.

No but I'm like totally tubular, man.

Nope because I think for myself so therefore I am not. I don't let others dictate my stance on any issues. I study the issues then make up my own mind sans any outside influence.

BUMPED2002 posted...

Nope because I think for myself so therefore I am not. I don't let others dictate my stance on any issues. I study the issues then make up my own mind sans any outside influence.

I guess that explains why you have such an outdated view of gay people.

Michelangelo radicalized me.

Most people live in echo chambers these days.

The internet and social media havent helped.

They flock to the people who hold similar beliefs, and they distance themselves from the people who think differently.

In a way....it's human nature. But I think it's gone a little bonkers at this point.

Thousands of years ago...you would embrace people who held similar RELIGIOUS beliefs...and moral VALUES.

Now it has nothing to do with religion or morality. It's just political buzzwords and what you "support".

It's almost like they are actively looking for a reason to disagree with you over something....before they even get to know you.

They want conflict.

They want an argument.

It's fucking pathetic.

GreenKnight127 posted...

Thousands of years ago...you would embrace people who held similar RELIGIOUS beliefs...and moral VALUES.

That's part of it, but thousands (or even hundreds) of years ago you probably only knew 10-100 people total. You couldn't alienate people because there were only a couple of them and you were likely going to know them for your entire life. With the internet you can piss of a million people so long as your five friends will still have you.

But yes, a primary weakness of today's society is that everyone seems happy to tear down (or at least leave) organizations and institutions that provided community (churches, Mason/Shriner type things, etc) without replacing them. Social media fills the void, but that's worse than nothing.

Did churches/etc have issues? Most certainly: everyone can easily list the things that outrage themselves the most, and they certainly had/have no monopoly on truth. But there was great value there as well. The loss of a shared identity is the biggest problem with western society: we're just a bunch of individuals with no real purpose now. We all end up feeling alienated, and those who have mental issues as well have little holding them back from doing terrible things like school shootings. Communities and religion used to suppress that.

So yeah.

wpot posted...

But yes, a primary weakness of today's society is that everyone seems happy to tear down (or at least leave) organizations and institutions that provided community (churches, Mason/Shriner type things, etc) without replacing them. Social media fills the void, but that's worse than nothing.

People don't want communities anymore.

They want platforms.

They all want to be internet celebrities, getting paid millions for just talking about what they support.

At this point, I am annoyed by both sides of the spectrum and want to be left alone, as there seems to be no hope of repairing U.S. politics.

I was always one of the 3% at Concord's North Bridge. I'll probably go out just like Nathan Hale but not so poetically.