Introduction

I first decided to create this blog due to the increasingly rambling nature of my political Google+ posts and, occasionally, my Facebook posts. The original idea was for a Youtube channel, but, well, I'm lazy. Shooting and editing video is way to much like work for me. So here we are in plain old wall of text form.

Deciding on a first topic wasn't particularly hard, at least not in theory. However, when planning out all of the posts, I began to realize that by talking politics nearly exclusively on Google+ and Facebook had shielding me from a lot of the...undesirables. Every time I began working on a post, I felt the need to get sidetracked and explain things for the type of political ignoramus who uses words like 'libtard' and 'repuke'.

I ran into a similar such person right before writing this while reading a story on Yahoo! about Dmitry Medvedev calling for the release of Pussy Riot. For those who don't know, Pussy Riot is a band that was recently imprisoned for a two-year sentence for disrupting a church with anti-Putin speech. Someone commented on the article, "I see communism is alive and well in Russia." Now, I suppose this person might be a troll, but there are a shocking number of people who actually do think that Pussy Riot's unfair treatment is some form of "communism." These are the same people who use the words 'socialism', 'communism', and 'fascism' interchangeably, even though the three words have three different meanings. In the case of communism and fascism, the meanings are not only different, but nearly conflicting.

I ran into another such person a while back on Facebook while commenting on the status update of a mutual acquaintance. The claim was made that the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, exempted congress from its effects. I posted a response linking to the bill on an official .gov website, and citing the page and section that specifically says that congress is NOT exempt from the provisions of the ACA. I was accused of believing, "liberal media lies." Of course, nobody making the claims that I am wrong has ever presented any properly cited evidence to that effect. Rather, they blindly believe whatever FOX news host told them this lie, even when presented with contradictory evidence from the bill itself.

But the right doesn't get to hold the monopoly on my frustrations with talking politics to the greater masses. Just like their counterparts on the opposite end of the spectrum who lack the actual knowledge to discuss a topic beyond calling the other person a 'libtard', there are plenty of people on the left who must result to using words like 'repuke'.

We've reached a point in this country where the majority (at least the vocal majority) of the population is so polarized that the only position they hold on an issue is whatever the opposite of the other guy is. Case in point are the conservatives who invented the individual mandate, first through the Heritage Foundation, and then through Mitt Romney's implementation while governor, turning against the mandate because a democrat decided that he agreed with it. Similarly, liberals who vehemently opposed Bush's signing of the Patriot Act and warfare mentally, now defend Obama for the same.

The refusal to think for oneself makes the discussion of politics with those who don't care to educate themselves and form an opinion based on sound reason and analysis of the facts very difficult. The refusal to understand that our ideologies represent our opinion on a given situation, and that there are multiple ways to solve a problem, make progress in this country by coming to mutually agreeable terms difficult, if not impossible.

The point of this long winded rant is that the posts on this blog will be meant largely for people who realize that Obamacare is not communism. They will be meant for the type of person who can back up their position with reason and, if needed, properly cited references. They will be meant for the type of person who is intelligent enough to realize that their ideology is merely their opinion. That neither the liberals, the conservatives, or the libertarians, are entirely right or entirely wrong. Although some posts may be made with education specifically in mind, I'm not going to sidetrack my posts explaining things that anyone discussing politics should already know.