I'm in a political science course right now, so I really shouldn't be surprised by the way people are in the class. Actually, I'm not surprised at all, but I am annoyed.
I live in the Northwest... a pretty liberal-aligned part of the country. I live just outside of Portland... a city with a very strong liberal slant.
I really don't care about statistical leans, actually. Like... sure... I consider myself heavily conservative regarding politics (which is not to say that I consider myself heavily Republican... because I don't... I lean much, much more toward libertarianism), but this isn't a "I'm a conservative, and I hate liberals" post. Not at all. Some of my closest friends are also some of my most consistently liberal friends.
I'm just fine with people having views unlike my own. As long as you actually think things through before coming to a viewpoint, then I have little beef with you on that.
I do have problems with people that are really opinionated and vocal about it. You can think what you want... you can even debate (in a mature fashion) in favor of your viewpoint.
But 99 times out of 100... that's not what I see.
I see stupid people being pushy, all-knowing, self-righteous jerks. They are unwilling to see something from both sides. What's worse, though... is if you disagree... then they paint you as a great evil.
Oh. I can't stand people when they do that.
And yet it's so frequent.
Opinionated people: Do the rest of us who try to be fair/balanced in spite of our personal leans a favor and shut up.
I think it's gonna be a long term.
I so wanna live somewhere where the people have an opinion and simply leave it at that.
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Completely, absolutely agreed.
ReplyDeleteBut... unfortunately... I don't think you're going to find many places in America that leave it at opinion. I guess you can only find the place that you feel most comfortable in, irregardless of which political group people align themselves with.
For myself, I was most comfortable in Seattle. That's strange, because it's supposedly so liberal. But... to be honest... I didn't run into it much pushiness there. It wasn't shoved on people so much. Which is probably why I was comfortable.
Then again, I suppose I didn't really get deep into the whole thing. If I met the right people and went to the right places, I probably would've seen a lot more of it.
I lived in Seattle for a few months (this was upward toward ten years ago, though), and I don't remember it being as bad (in terms of "pushiness") as Portland is.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, it's not the opinion that bugs me... it's the way it's presented/forced/etc..