Political International Kitchen Sink LJ Poll....

[shadowkat]

Does anyone really read posts on the weekends, besides me? Since I can't read them during the week? And how often do you actually respond to the posts you read? Do you read or do a quick scan? How often do you regret the responses you've made and wish you could retract it like an errant email before it gets read as opposed to merely deleting? To what degree are you immersed in politics? Where do you get your information? What information do you trust as reliable, what don't you trust? And do your question your views or just hunt for information that reinforces it?

I ask too many questions. It's not that I want to know so much as I want to understand. It's why I've taken psychology classes at different points and read the books - the attempt to understand how others think and how I think. Seldom works. Except when I force myself to step outside my own perspective completely.

Anywho...here is a poll, that I'm doubtful will get many responses since I'm posting it at 9:45 pm on a Sat morning and not during the work week - when many people are surfing to deal with boredom/downtime at work. Then again, I may be wrong about that - perhaps there are few out there like myself who do? If so, please take a moment. Also if you can link to it that would be great...more responses the better.

[In hindsight, I should have probably put "All of the Above" as a category for one of those entries...oh well.]




[Poll #1259205]

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

"I don't tend to post in the heat of the moment and I avoid kerfuffles, so I rarely regret posting."

Sigh. Very very wise. I unfortunately do the opposite 50% of the time so often find myself deleting. I'm emotional writer - as in I have written to handle or deal with emotions, and a bit of a venter. This has pros and cons. Sometimes it results in lovely poetic posts, others in embarrassing outbursts that I later regret and pray people excuse.

"anti-intellectualism in America horrifies me"

Me too. Although I'm not sure it is completely anti-intellectual - there are a few intellectuals of a William S. Buckley bent that support McCain, for much the same reason Buckley support Bush Sr and Barry Goldwater. I vehemently disagree with their views partly because I'm a pacisifist and believe that 80% of the time war and violence leads to horrible things - as the last three-four major armed conflicts we've engaged in have proven. But, I can appreciate other pov - even if it makes my blood pressure sky-rocket to hear it.

[wenchsenior.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree intellectualism isn't limited to liberals, for sure. I didn't contexturalize that comment very well. The conservatives I listed in my post are certainly intellectuals. I was bitching about more of a general trend in American citizenry and media and politics, a constant dumbing-down of discussion and entertainment, a pride in simpleness and shallowness, working class parents who hope to see their kids go to school, but then consider college grads to be "elite and out-of-touch". It's not a new trend, either. I keep meaning to read the classic by Richard Hofstadter, "Anti-intellectualism in American Life". I recently read Susan Jacoby's "Age of American Unreason" and found it fascinating.