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What Has Influenced Your Views?

What Has Influenced Your Thinking?

  • Total voters
    58
Dav said:
Oh puh-leeze. You don't think that two people can try to use reason and still come to two completely different conclusions?
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If it's a topic based on facts, one will be right, the other wrong.

Going to and from the moon, every equation has to correct.
Why should a fundamentalist who says God told him 2 + 2 = 5 get an equal seat at the table?

99.9% of the worlds scientists using the finest technology say there is man-made climate change and we'd better change our ways.
Why should the opinion of Billy-bob from Oklahoma who thinks GW is a worldwide conspiracy to make Al Gore rich be given the same measure?

Now I'm all for cordiality and civil debate, but I have become unwilling to accommodate deception, distortion, and disinformation.
 
Joe1991 said:
If it's a topic based on facts, one will be right, the other wrong.

Going to and from the moon, every equation has to correct.
Why should a fundamentalist who says God told him 2 + 2 = 5 get an equal seat at the table?

99.9% of the worlds scientists using the finest technology say there is man-made climate change and we'd better change our ways.
Why should the opinion of Billy-bob from Oklahoma who thinks GW is a worldwide conspiracy to make Al Gore rich be given the same measure?

Now I'm all for cordiality and civil debate, but I have become unwilling to accommodate deception, distortion, and disinformation.
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"Billy-Bob" Gets that measure because disallowing him it would invalidate all scientific progress we have made on it. As you said, if it is a matter of facts then one is riht and one is wrong. But neither authority nor majority make truth- especially when it comes to scientific ideas,
 
Joe1991 said:
While I'm tempted to put "all of the above", it has to be Rational Thought.

Using logic and reason naturally leads one towards being more liberal, so that's where I ended up.

Although, even in my youth when I accepted religion as rational, the teachings of Jesus also pointed me towards liberalism.

Honestly, the only things I can fathom that would lead one to America's current version of conservatism is fear, greed, or a twisted religious dogma.
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Mmmmm, I have applied logic and reason and I am an atheist and a libertarian....

If you start off with different assumptions or a different premise, then logic and reason will lead to different outcomes. Therefore, I am not entirely sure how you can claim that logic and rationalism ultimately leads to American-modern-liberalism (in contrast to classic liberalism) as opposed to any other mode of political thought.....
 
Joe1991 said:
While I'm tempted to put "all of the above", it has to be Rational Thought.

Using logic and reason naturally leads one towards being more liberal, so that's where I ended up.

Although, even in my youth when I accepted religion as rational, the teachings of Jesus also pointed me towards liberalism.

Honestly, the only things I can fathom that would lead one to America's current version of conservatism is fear, greed, or a twisted religious dogma.
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Obviously you haven't used logic and reason when you posted this comment.
 
Rational thought and education to make informed decisions.
 
Interesting that a lot of people say that rational thought has influenced their thinking / views.

I will go out on a limb here and say that "feeling" has influenced my thinking / views. Rational thought does not exist in a vacuum - it is influenced / affected and brought into play with the feelings, as well.

To my mind, there's a strong interplay between the two.
 
Gwendoline said:
Interesting that a lot of people say that rational thought has influenced their thinking / views.

I will go out on a limb here and say that "feeling" has influenced my thinking / views. Rational thought does not exist in a vacuum - it is influenced / affected and brought into play with the feelings, as well.

To my mind, there's a strong interplay between the two.
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I will agree. We all have shaded ideology from our parents, schooling, etc... But one may claim, as I have, that at this point in my life, I live with a completely open mind and utilize rational thought of facts to shape my political and philosophical views and opinions.
 
Gwendoline said:
Interesting that a lot of people say that rational thought has influenced their thinking / views.

I will go out on a limb here and say that "feeling" has influenced my thinking / views. Rational thought does not exist in a vacuum - it is influenced / affected and brought into play with the feelings, as well.

To my mind, there's a strong interplay between the two.
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I don't think that's going out on a limb. I think many people are influenced by their feelings. Most in fact.

That doesn't necessarily mean that there are not others who are influenced by rational thought and reject their emotions when developing their views, though.
 
I spent the first five years of my life in an isolated logging camp 50 miles from much of anything, and with no other kids with which to interact other than my sister. I wasn't at all socialized at an early age, and never did just accept much of anything simply because others did.

I think that probably helped shape my subsequent views more than anything.
 
Gardener said:
I spent the first five years of my life in an isolated logging camp 50 miles from much of anything, and with no other kids with which to interact other than my sister. I wasn't at all socialized at an early age, and never did just accept much of anything simply because others did.

I think that probably helped shape my subsequent views more than anything.
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Yeah, and why you are not very social!:lol:

But seriously, do you not think that you have changed some of your views due to rationalization one way or another?
 
tlmorg02 said:
Yeah, and why you are not very social!:lol:

But seriously, do you not think that you have changed some of your views due to rationalization one way or another?
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Now that you mention it, I suppose I'm not a COMPLETE curmudgeon. :2razz:

I've changed many of my views as I have aged, though, that's for sure! I've also noticed some views tending to shift among the populace in terms of what defines liberal and conservative, and so mine are looking more moderate accordingly.

In general, I think I'm a lot less reactive than I was when I was younger, since I see reactionaries as allowing others to shape them. I think it might have to do with the Vietnam war, but when I was a teenager, I was your typical anti-American leftist brat. All my friends were antiAmerican Leftist brats. They all said the same things, they all thought the same things, they put subtle and not so subtle pressure on each other to do the same, and for people who prided themselves on being non conformist, they sure did conform. I guess I was just enough of an individual to notice and to distance myself from it.
 
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Tucker Case said:
That doesn't necessarily mean that there are not others who are influenced by rational thought and reject their emotions when developing their views, though.
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For me, I probably prefer to "acknowledge" rather than reject my "feelings" when developing my views. Doesn't mean that the feelings will take over, just that those feelings help me to garner a bit more understanding about my own views, and why I have those views. I think that the "subjective" is still in operation / play even when we think we're being "totally" rational about things.

Just because we "reject" feeling, doesn't mean that it's not still affecting us / affecting our views about things / on some other level that we may not be aware about.
 
Tucker Case said:
That doesn't necessarily mean that there are not others who are influenced by rational thought and reject their emotions when developing their views, though.
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It is impossible to reject emotions when developing views. Emotions and views are the same things. See my sig quote.
 
Australianlibertarian said:
Mmmmm, I have applied logic and reason and I am an atheist and a libertarian....

If you start off with different assumptions or a different premise, then logic and reason will lead to different outcomes. Therefore, I am not entirely sure how you can claim that logic and rationalism ultimately leads to American-modern-liberalism (in contrast to classic liberalism) as opposed to any other mode of political thought.....
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My post was slightly tongue in cheek because some goober a few posts before mine had basically stated that anyone with liberal views who were against torture were debased, immoral cowards.

That no one took him to task while several questioned me is quite illuminating.
 
Goshin said:
Ultra-partisan-hack troll. In brief, ignore.
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What are you talking about? He stated his opinion that the way he was taught about religion directed him towards liberalism.

He stated that conservatism goes towards greed, which is true. Free Market, which is one of the basis of conservatism, gives itself up to enormous corporations which hold monopolies on everything imaginable.

Same goes for twisted and corrupt. No regulation, ie free market, means corruption, hence stopping regulation from being put in place.

Don't simply ignore something because you don't like it, or disagree with it. Do that too much, and you will look very stupid. ;)
 
Bootsavich said:
"Billy-Bob" Gets that measure because disallowing him it would invalidate all scientific progress we have made on it. As you said, if it is a matter of facts then one is riht and one is wrong. But neither authority nor majority make truth- especially when it comes to scientific ideas,
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You make sense in the last parts of your post, but the first part is nonsense! You're saying the layman idiot is more important in matters of science then the scientist himself? You're saying the idiot is smarter then the genius? What on earth are you doing?????
 
You forgot the study of history modern and ancient.
 
Joe1991 said:
My post was slightly tongue in cheek because some goober a few posts before mine had basically stated that anyone with liberal views who were against torture were debased, immoral cowards.

That no one took him to task while several questioned me is quite illuminating.
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Isn't it ironic that they are the ones yelling "Partisan! Partisan!"? Well, they have one finger pointed at us, and 3 fingers plus an opposable thumb pointing right back at them. ;)
 
akyron said:
Quite a broad brush to paint with I guess.
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The broader the more simple. Instead of lots of fine strokes, just a few big ones. It's my lack of artistic ability :mrgreen:
 
Gwendoline said:
For me, I probably prefer to "acknowledge" rather than reject my "feelings" when developing my views. Doesn't mean that the feelings will take over, just that those feelings help me to garner a bit more understanding about my own views, and why I have those views. I think that the "subjective" is still in operation / play even when we think we're being "totally" rational about things.

Just because we "reject" feeling, doesn't mean that it's not still affecting us / affecting our views about things / on some other level that we may not be aware about.
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Perhaps I should explain further. I'm not really talking about my personal views as much as I'm talking about political views. I develop each differently.

My personal views are undoubtedly going to be influenced to some degree by my emotions. My political views are not really influenced by my emotions.



To give an example of what I mean:

I am an atheist. I would have an extremely strong emotional response if I were to learn that my child's school district was considering setting aside a certain time of the school day for prayer, I would do whatever I could to oppose this and prevent it from occurring.

At the same time, if I lost that fight, and the majority of people in that district decided that there should be this set aside time, I would not seek to remove the rule in an action that ran counter to the majority opinion on it. While I would have sought to change the views of the majority, I would not seek to force my minority views upon the majority. Even though my own feelings on the matter are totally opposite of theirs. I would instead find a way to place my child in a school district that did not share these rules.

I think that the issue here is that my political views and my personal views are not always in line with each other.
 
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