Lose the B-word

[Yao]

OK, my fellow politically engaged forum dwellers,
I have a proposition:

Stop beating discussions dead by constantly accusing each other of being 'biased', thus discarding every single argument made.

Political discussions, or every other discussion for that matter, cannot generate any understanding or get people to start thinking about their own motives/prejudices when everything the other says is simply labelled biased. So my proposition to practice this is:

Explain to me, a Dutch student African Anthropology specializing in politics and development, a non-US-citizen, what Bush has done right, what he has done wrong, what Kerry says he will be doing right/different, and what Kerry will be doing (or did) wrong. No private stuff, just the politics. Foreign as well as domestic. And when I say foreign, I don't just mean Iraq; this world has more countries in it.
No B-word allowed. If you use it, your post is hereby declared disqualified. I expect some real essay-postings now :wink:

Enlighten me.

[Balanc3]

Re: Lose the B-word

Well we can tell you what the B word is gonna do. But Kerry himself hasn't got a fucking clue. So that is a hard question to answer without being biased.

[timkell]

Re: Lose the B-word

OK, my fellow politically engaged forum dwellers,
I have a proposition:

Stop beating discussions dead by constantly accusing each other of being 'biased', thus discarding every single argument made.

Political discussions, or every other discussion for that matter, cannot generate any understanding or get people to start thinking about their own motives/prejudices when everything the other says is simply labelled biased. So my proposition to practice this is:

Explain to me, a Dutch student African Anthropology specializing in politics and development, a non-US-citizen, what Bush has done right, what he has done wrong, what Kerry says he will be doing right/different, and what Kerry will be doing (or did) wrong. No private stuff, just the politics. Foreign as well as domestic. And when I say foreign, I don't just mean Iraq; this world has more countries in it.
No B-word allowed. If you use it, your post is hereby declared disqualified. I expect some real essay-postings now :wink:

Enlighten me.

Amen

[Jibgolly]

here's my essay.
i love bush!

[Yao]

Re: Lose the B-word

Holy smackers, Jibgolly just passed the test!

Still....no arguments as of yet...

[skahound]

Re: Lose the B-word

Well we can tell you what the B word is gonna do. But Kerry himself hasn't got a fucking clue. So that is a hard question to answer without being biased.

Is it me or was the original poster referring to "biased" as the B-word? I don't think he meant Bush at all. After all how would you discuss what Bush has done right/wrong if you can't even refer to him by name?

[LobsterClan]

Re: Lose the B-word

I don't really want to post a lengthy essay about why Bush is this country's worst president ever--- rather I'd prefer someone else just spout off the basic facts.

An absolutely essential website for this purpose is located here:

http://www.wage-slave.org/scorecard.html

The Bush Scorecard of Evil shows all the vile, terrible acts the Bush White House has perpetrated-- unfortunately, it hasn't added anything new in about a year, but believe me over 3 years there are so many despicable acts that will keep you busy for awhile.

You'll notice that more than half of these things were barely even covered by our "press", and yet the site conveniently links to the actual press clippings where they appeared. Enjoy.

[asdf_admin]

^^^ lol. you think that is a viable resource? and all the truth and honesty.

i bet you do. you sick fuck.

[LobsterClan]

Re: Lose the B-word

No, I don't think it is. I KNOW it is. I'd like to see you prove a single FACT on there wrong. As I already mentioned, every single piece of information on there is backed up by a link to a reputable news source.

As usual, when you don't like something, you sit there and denounce it, instead of actually doing any research to prove otherwise. Full of sound and thunder, signifying nothing.

[Jenks]

Re: Lose the B-word

Washington Post, NY Times, CNN, CBS...

reputable sources?

[asdf_admin]

i know ... cbs is reputable ... right? =P

come on my friend, those are libeal media stations, of course they will in just cause for the anti-bush machine.

[Yao]

Then when, O, When WILL it be right Asdf? Don't tell me all of the media are liberal-owned except for Fox, I just won't buy it. Every fact is backed by a link; that doesn't nessecarily make it all true Lobster, but it's way better dan stating things without being able to back them up.

Asdf, instead of just discarding what Lobster said or pointed out in his link, maybe you should put some arguments against that. I know you can.

I'm still not able to explain to my Dutch friends what every candidate really stands for, and what the critiques on them are, exept for all the same stories returning all over this forum...

Grtz,

Yao

[asdf_admin]

that is my point my friend. I can find sources to fight both sides of the blade, equally. There are many anti-liberal sites that invoke the same thought and feelings that have been stated by lobster. It does us no justice. Frankly the only really conservative "TV" media is Fox news. The rest is all slanted to left. Some more, some less. That is a very true fact my friend. The only really conservative media medium is "radio". I can only conclude the reason is that people are able to rebut and dissemble the non-truths out there.

That is the thing I dislike about politics. For every counter, there is a counter, and it is a perfect never ending circle. Both sides are equally very dirty, unjust, and manipulate the truth to their own cause. I freely speak this, and believe this. It is not so cut and dry no more, and frankly I am not sure it ever has been.

Perhaps because I am around so much Liberal Hype, it is has made me a little more swinging towards the left, but I assure if the right was as desperate as the left, I would be swinging towards them.

[Yao]

Re: Lose the B-word

Still you strike me as someone always trying to weigh out the arguments, and then forming your own opinion based on the information from both sides. That is admirable, and more people should do that. I always try to do it like that, but it's hard to get the right information or to distill the true stuff from all the rubbish that is thrown towards you.

I consider myself lucky that politics in my country are very much less polarized, and that the media here are very critical of every side. They burn down left-wing, right-wing and centered politicians all the same, heheh. And we had a MILF running for the Greens/Environmentalists...if she were our prime minister, we'd go to hell on domestic politics, but damn, if she was to visit she might just charm him out of going into Iraq! (maybe with a little help from her female assets)

[toasty]

For a thread that is designed to avoid cries of "bias," there sure is a lot of discounting of source material because it is alleged to be biased. IMHO, it is as dangerous to discount something purely on this basis as it is to only get your information from sources that agree with your ideology. A media outlet can be biased as easily by what it chooses not to report as by the way it reports its stories.