Reply #72: I haven't put anyone on my ignore list in months.. [View All]

[flaminbats]

its easy to let paranoia control what we read. I discovered the more I added to my ignore list, the more posters I wanted to add. then I suspected everyone on this growing ignore list only posted bad things about me, and all these terrible people could attack and read whatever I posted..yet I couldn't respond.

finally I cleared out my ignore list completely, and discovered that the world never revolved around me. I was again reading the opinions of those I disagreed with, and realized that most of the time I agreed with those once on my ignore list.

I believe paranoia is the foundation of Republican politics. they don't wish to discuss or debate different issues or find solutions to our problems. they criticize all solutions, those who propose them, and attack all who draw attention to these problems as bleeding hearts or as whiners. we seek to hold those in power accountable, while viewing government as a servant of the taxpayers. Republicans will always condemn healthcare reform, even when a Democrat embraces nothing more than providing private health insurance for every child. such an approach will be attacked as Hillary-care, socialism, or as a back road to rationing healthcare. no matter how hard we try to compromise, even if we support replacing Medicaid with a state run program like SCHIP, they'll come back and attack that as "government controlled healthcare"!

if conservatives would actually listen, like most Democrats do, perhaps ignore lists and even forums like DemocraticUnderground wouldn't be needed. if Republicans cared about solving problems instead of attacking every possible solution as something worse, then maybe liberals and conservatives could debate those issues on the same message board! :wow: