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I've observed the truth of them myself, and in myself. I would really love to know where those civic spaces are where people can discuss important ideas and disagree with each other like grownups. At some point (and I guess my observation of it began with Newt Gingrich and crew after the '92 "revolution,") making your opinion felt seemed to become all about being louder, meaner, more of a bully, relying on sarcasm, misstatement of your opponents' position, and ad hominem attacks. I always thought, if you believe in what you're saying, if you think that's where the evidence points, why do you need to lie and be a bully to represent that opinion? At first I saw this - in a public way - as coming only from the Right, but now I'm afraid the Left has done a lot of work attempting to catch up. So everybody screams at one another and nobody listens, and worst of all, people dehumanize each other, because only evil assholes could hold that other position. Maybe the assholery isn't in the position so much as how we bludgeon each other with them. Now I'm pretty far left - I'm not a big fan of capitalism, in fact, but I really don't like the anger and suspicion in me; I don't like the fear and antipathy I feel that makes me avoid a large segment of my fellow citizens.
