Quote Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name View Post
The public discourse is terrible because no one bothers to fully listen to others. I sympathize with everything PJ says and likewise same for what GC says in his rebuttal. We all dismiss everyone else for whatever flippant reason we can come up with.

This is why the most popular websites are political circlejerks and why people like ICantSpellDawg say the stupid things they do.

This is because deep in the america psyche, people are idealistic, but they present an outer shell of cynicism in order to protect themselves in some vague notion of being "world-wise". We get angry, but instead of actually demanding more, we expect less from politicians, who then perform less and the cycle continues. This is what seems to be happening since Nixon done gone and single handily destroyed the prestige and respect of the position of POTUS.
I think it goes a little deeper than not listening to others. Of course that does happen, and plenty. But ultimately others don't care. Their ideas are cemented. Having a change of heart, flip flopping, evolving... is viewed as a weakness in politics.

Then of course there is greed. Good old fashioned greed, coupled with gluttony, coupled with laziness. Often masquearded as "feeding my family", "supporting my family" etc.

Want, desires, envy, all that is human nature. But we take it to a whole new level and disguise the turd as a Baby Ruth, and then wonder why no one trusts each other or us.